I did a search for this author and book on this forum but couldn't find anything, so apologies if this has already been posted. I'm surprised it hasn't got more attention here.
This book was published last month in England - I heard about it on the radio where it said that the author is an ex-Jehovah's Witness.
I haven't been able to confirm this anywhere else except to say that the author grew up in a fundamentalist religion.
On reading the book, while not explicitly stated, it's quite clear that the main character is a Witness.
I highly recommend it - it's a novel about a child who creates a world in her room made out of various objects. She starts to believe that things that happen in the fake world have effects in the real world.
Familliar Witness doctines & practices are tightly tied in with the story, it's not just incidental that the child is a witness.
I think many of you would love the book - it's beautifully written. I identified with the main character a great deal and found reading the book to be quite cathartic. I don't think I've ever identified so personally with a character. Since witnesses are not mentioned directly it doesn't feel like an 'expose' or a memoir of an upbringing in the religion. It gave me the sense of seeing the phrases and doctrines from an outsider's perspective, which makes them seem very, very weird. Early on the child is talking about how happy 'the brothers' were after they built their 'kingdom hall' and it just sounds bizarre, like something from Dan Brown!