What's on the Bookshelf: 'The Initiate'

Books often hook me on the first words, but I have to say the last lines of Megg Jensen's "The Initiate" gave me pause.

Although I will leave them for other readers to discover, they serve as true in real life as they do for the two series this short story bridges – The Swarm Trilogy and The Cloud Prophet Trilogy.

In the story, every ten years, ten girls are sacrificed in the hopes that the gods will choose a chosen one, but no one ever survives the trial by fire. Eloh, who does not believe in ...