As reported by a former member, Yeshivists are an essentialist ultra-Orthodox sect of Judaism where the families are large, and the roles of girls and women are small. Leah Kaplan more or less drinks the Kool-Aid, yearning for the day she is married and has her own kids, until she starts getting the cold shoulder from her family and family friends. I'm still unclear on how she goes from being her father's favorite to family pariah. Vincent, née Kaplan does seem to have a challenging personality, but it's clear that she comes by her emotional troubles honestly.
She finds herself and her community eventually, but there are lots of misguided sexual relationships along the way, with a drug deal, a married much-older professor, and a rape she refers to only in her afterword. The book is heavy, but can also be funny:
The fabric dug into my butt, filling me with an urge to relieve myself of its wedgie-like pressure, but when I looked in the mirror, I loved its crazy goyishness.
Why do I think that's funny? I guess attributing thongs to goys.
This will be a good read for anyone who has struggled with family, mental illness, addiction, religious oppression, or loneliness.
With no men around, there was no law against nudity, but modesty had insatiable demands.