LEAVING FISHERS

From the author of Don't You Dare Read This, Mrs. Dunphey (1996), a chilling portrait of an insecure teenager gradually relinquishing her autonomy to a religious cult after she moves from a small Ohio town to a large, impersonal Indianapolis suburb. Fishers of Men is headed by charismatic Pastor Jim, and its members—ordinary students at her high school who don't immediately tell her of the group—surround awkward, friendless Dorry with acceptance and affection when she is most lonely and vulnerable. Haddix paints a wholly convincing picture of the slow, insidious stages by which Dorry is ``caught,'' the dynamics of manipulation, obligation, and intimidation that enmesh her so firmly that Fishers becomes the center of her life. Trying desperately to satisfy Pastor Jim's demands for evangelism, Dorry—recalling the efforts of the religious fanatic in Richard Peck's The Last Safe Place on Earth (1995)—attempts to ``convert'' the small children she baby- sits and terrifies them with tales of hellfire and damnation. Their furious mother banishes the teenager from the house; only then does Dorry realize that she has become something monstrous and so extricates herself from Fishers. Tightly written, with well-drawn characters, and demonstrating insight into the psychology of belief and affiliation, this cautionary novel is in no way anti-religious: Dorry has found genuine meaning in worship and prayer, and at the end of the book, continues her spiritual journey, but in her own way. (Fiction. 12+)