Treat Us Like Dogs and We Will Become Wolves

About this book

A compelling compulsive follow up to The School on Hearts Content Road by a modern-day Dickensian voice (San Diego Union Tribune); a politically passionate portrait of a complicated marginalized leader who refuses to silence his beliefs and who may or may not be all that he seems. Its the height of summer 1999 when local newspaper the Record Sun receives numerous tipoffs from anonymous callers warning of violence weapons stockpiling and rampant child abuse at the nearby homeschool on Hearts Content Road. Hungry for a big break into serious journalism ingnue columnist Ivy Morelli sets out to meet the mysterious leader of the homeschool Gordon St. Ongereferred to by many as The Prophet. Soon Ivy ingratiates herself into the sprawling Settlement a self-sufficient counterculture community that many locals fear to be a wild cult. Despite her initial skepticismnot to mention the Settlements ever-growing group of pregnant teenaged girlsIvy finds herself irresistibly drawn to Gordon. Meanwhile across town Brianna a gifted and disturbed teen with wild orange hair paints her political and personal visions. At the behest of her brothers Brianna joins the community. As her complicated awkward relationship with Gordon unfolds Brianna reveals herself to be a shy yet passionate individual with a strange and troubling sexual past. As the newcomers are drawn deeper into Settlement life Gordons powerful magnetism and strange duality are exposed and those rumors that led to his initial investigation seem at times to be all too possible realities. When the Record Sun finally runs its piece on Gordon the exposure has a startling and unexpected effect on Settlement life and the world beyond it.