Daughters of the Wild by Natalka Burian

I received a copy of this book from the publisher in exchange for an honest review.

Title: Daughters of the Wild 
Author: Natalka Burian 
Release Date: 9.22.20
Publisher: Park Row

Goodreads Summary:

In rural West Virginia, Joanie and her foster siblings live on a farm tending a mysterious plant called the vine. The older girls are responsible for cultivating the vine, performing sacred rituals to make it grow. After Joanie’s arranged marriage goes horribly wrong, leaving her widowed and with a baby, she plots her escape with the help of her foster brother, Cello. But before they can get away, her baby goes missing and Joanie, desperate to find him, turns to the vine, understanding it to be far more powerful than her siblings realize. She begins performing generations-old rituals to summon the vine’s power and goes on a perilous journey into the wild, pushing the boundaries of her strength and sanity to bring her son home. Daughters of the Wild is an utterly absorbing debut that explores the female mind in captivity and the ways in which both nature and women fight domination. Like The Bell Jar set in rural Appalachia, Daughters of the Wild introduces a fierce new heroine and a striking new voice in fiction.

My Review:
From the summaries I read and the comparisons of this book to The Power and The Bell Jar, I assumed this story would be full of magic and female power. Instead, I read a bizarre book about a cult/religion using "foster" kids for farm labor and so much abuse (physical, drug, sexual, emotional). I didn't simply quit the book because it kept my attention and I thought I would surely get some answers to the vaguely alluded to situations. The short answer is "no." I kept waiting for the moral of the story (foster abuse? postpartum depression?) or the metaphor for “Vine of Heaven” (fertility? harvest?). Then the ending is so messy and rushed and I have so many questions! I'm going to group this one in with Catherine House, which also had great potential but ended up being a disappointment.