Bound By Shame by Julia McColgan

Return to Fort Manor…

Andrea
I’ve always been told to love and fear the Lord. That as long as I repent for my innate sinful nature, live by His teachings and worship Him, He would answer my prayers. But God isn’t listening to me anymore. I don’t think He ever has. Seeing my best friend, Remy, consumed by mental illness and heartbreak this summer despite endlessly begging on my knees for mercy on him has shattered my faith. And in the absence of blind belief, I no longer fear temptation… or eternal damnation.
Seba
Moving to Fort Manor’s richest neighborhood with Mom’s new husband and his son isn’t how I expected to spend the summer before my Senior year. Mom claims it’s fate– that after Dad’s death, God has led us here. If that’s true, He’s led me straight into the serpent’s lair. My stepbrother, Cade Warren, might actually be the devil himself, testing my patience and luring out sides of me I’m not ready to face. My only saving grace in this waking nightmare? The Pastor’s daughter next door. That is, unless Cade gets to her first.

Cade
Even an atheist like me knows the story of Original Sin: The serpent convinces Eve to eat the fruit from the Tree of Knowledge, she gives Adam a bite and what do you know? God gets pissed and casts them from the Garden. Of course, everyone blames the woman– she fell for it– and villainizes the serpent– he tempted her. But what if the serpent just wanted them to see the hypocrisy with their own eyes? To acknowledge the damage inflicted by blind faith? The pain and suffering encouraged by their God on anyone who doesn’t fit into His strict mold? The serpent’s intentions might not have been solely out of malice or selfish entertainment… he could have been trying in his own way to show them that religion is a tool used to control them. Maybe he wanted to set them free.