My April Book of the Month selection was Like A Sister by Kellye Garrett (the other options were The Good Left Undone by Adriana Trigiani, Kaikeyi by Vaishnavi Patel, Bittersweet: How Sorrow and Longing Make Us Whole by Susan Cain, and True Biz by Sara Novic). Once again, none of the selections really jumped out at me so I defaulted to the thriller and I ended up liking it more than I thought I would. Lena Scott is a graduate student at Columbia who could not be more different from her reality star half-sister Desiree Pierce. She has been estranged from her sister for the past two years because of her addictions and self-destructive behavior so, when Desiree's body is found at a playground near Lena's house in the Bronx, she feels tremendous guilt because she believes that Desiree was attempting to see her when she died. The police have ruled Desiree's death as an accidental overdose due to the heroin in her system but Lena knows that she would never shoot heroin because of her fear of needles. She is obsessed with finding out what really happened to her sister and begins trying to reconstruct her final days. Lena reaches out to her former reality show co-star, her new best friend, her on-again off-again boyfriend, and an old family friend who recently reentered her life. She must also reestablish contact with her father, the man who abandoned her and her mother when she was a child to start a new life with Desiree and her mother. All of these encounters lead to some uncomfortable truths about her sister and her family and they also put her life in danger. There are lots of twists and turns which kept me engaged with the murder mystery aspect of the narrative but I think I enjoyed the commentary on race, class, social media, and celebrity even more. Lena is an entertaining first-person narrator and I really appreciated her perspective on what it is like for a young Black woman to navigate life in today's society, particularly interactions with the police. Much of this novel is set in the world of hip-hop music (Lena and Desiree's father is a wealthy and influential music producer) and, while I did miss more than a few references, I found it to be fascinating. I especially enjoyed all of the scenes that take place backstage at various concerts because I have always wanted to know what really goes on before a performer takes the stage. I was also really intrigued by how social media is used to solve the mystery, especially posts on Instagram. It is a bit frightening how much someone can learn about you from your posts! I don't think I would have picked this novel if left to my own devices (one of the reasons why I like BOTM) but I really enjoyed it and would definitely recommend it to fans of thrillers.
Tuesday, April 12, 2022
Like A Sister
Wednesday, March 16, 2022
The Cartographers
Tuesday, February 8, 2022
The Golden Couple
My February Book of the Month selection was The Golden Couple by Greer Hendricks and Sarah Pekkanen (the other options were Don't Cry for Me by Daniel Black, A River Enchanted by Rebecca Ross, Vladimir by Julia May Jonas, and Peach Blossom Spring by Melissa Fu). I discovered these authors during the lockdown and eagerly devoured all of their books (often in one sitting) so I was very excited to read their latest! Avery Chambers is an unorthodox therapist who guarantees that she can treat people in only ten sessions. She requires absolute honesty and investigates every aspect of her clients' lives in order to uncover the root of their problems. Matthew and Marissa Bishop seem like the perfect couple but Marissa turns to Avery because she has a secret that could threaten the happiness of her marriage. However, as Avery investigates the Bishops, she discovers that they are both hiding much more than they are willing to disclose during their sessions and it soon becomes clear that Avery herself is keeping secrets. The narrative alternates between the POVs of Marissa and Avery and I found both characters to be incredibly compelling even if they are flawed. I particularly enjoyed the idea of a therapist who has gone rogue because so much of what Avery does can be construed as unethical and it makes for a provocative narrative. All of the secondary characters are also very intriguing and I never knew from one minute to the next who to believe or trust as more and more information is slowly revealed. This kept me reading well into the night in order to unravel all of the mysteries (and there are so many of them along with quite a few red herrings). Hendricks and Pekkanen are known for their dramatic plot twists but I found the big reveal in this story to be somewhat underwhelming because I predicted it early on (I thought it was fairly unoriginal and obvious). The resolution is rushed and, in my opinion, it is all a bit too neat considering the high stakes involved. I liked this novel well enough but I definitely think that The Anonymous Girl, The Wife Between Us, and You Are Not Alone by these authors are better and would recommend them over this.
Wednesday, January 12, 2022
Reckless Girls
I enjoyed the Book of the Month so much I decided to renew my subscription again this year. My January selection was Reckless Girls by Rachel Hawkins (the other options were Black Cake by Charmaine Wilkerson, Love & Other Disasters by Anita Kelly, Fiona and Jane by Jean Chen Ho, and The Magnolia Palace by Fiona Davis). I enjoyed The Wife Upstairs (a contemporary retelling of Jane Eyre) by Hawkins so I was really looking forward to this selection. Lux McAllister was at loose ends and working as a waitress in San Diego after dropping out of college to care for her dying mother when she met a wealthy and charming playboy named Nico Johannsen. He planned on sailing around the world on his boat, the Susannah, and she impulsively followed him to Hawaii to join him on his voyage. However, things don't work out as planned and she is now stuck working as a housekeeper at a resort hotel while he makes desultory attempts to repair his damaged boat. Their luck seems to change when they meet two college students named Brittany and Amma who want to hire Nico to take them to Meroe Island, a mysterious and deserted atoll in the middle of the Pacific Ocean with a grisly past. The $50,000 they are offering will repair the boat and allow them to resume their journey so Nico accepts and Lux, who is dying for an adventure, comes along. When they arrive at the island, they are dismayed to see a catamaran anchored in the harbor belonging to a wealthy Australian couple named Jake and Eliza. They all eventually become friends, especially after the four of them partake of the food and wine offered by Jake on his luxurious boat, and they enjoy their time in paradise. Soon they are joined by a mysterious stranger and the tension mounts as the island becomes less and less hospitable and secrets about each of them are revealed. The narrative alternates between Before, when each character's backstory and motivations are slowly revealed, and After, when the events on the island take place. There are also articles and interviews pertaining to the history of Meroe Island interspersed throughout which add to the foreboding atmosphere and sense of unease. Most of the characters are unsympathetic, including the main narrator Lux, but they are compelling and I was definitely invested in finding out what happens to them. Some elements of the plot do require the suspension of disbelief but I enjoyed it for all of the twists and turns and I appreciated the commentary on class and gender. I would definitely recommend this to fans of thrillers with the proviso that there is quite a bit of profanity (which, in my opinion, is used for shock value rather than character development).
Monday, December 13, 2021
A Flicker in the Dark
Thursday, November 11, 2021
The Collective
My Book of the Month selection for November was The Collective by Alison Gaylin (the other options were A Little Hope by Ethan Joella, The Keeper of Night by Kylie Lee Baker, The Family by Naomi Krupitsky, and How to Marry Keanu Reeves in 90 Days by K.M. Jackson). To be perfectly honest, I was not very interested in any of these options and I even contemplated skipping November but I really wanted an add-on so I just defaulted to the thriller. I had very low expectations but, once I started reading it, I couldn't put it down! Camille Gardner lost her fifteen-year-old daughter Emily five years ago when the latter attended a fraternity party where she was drugged, raped, and left in the woods to die of exposure. The young man responsible, Harris Blanchard, was acquitted after his expensive lawyers assassinated Emily's character during the trial. Camille has been unable to move on from her daughter's death because she believes that her killer has gotten away with murder. She causes a scene at an awards ceremony for Blanchard which goes viral on social media and is then asked to join a private support group on Facebook for mothers who have lost children but have not received justice. Spurred on by the other members of this group, she begins sharing her disturbing fantasies about punishing Blanchard herself and this leads to an invitation to join another group on the dark web. This group is a collective of women who work together completing individual tasks assigned by the administrator to mete out the justice they were denied. She carries out an innocuous assignment because she believes that it is all just an elaborate role play to bring consolation to the group members but, when she realizes that it is all too real, she is strangely exhilarated until she is in so deep that she fears for her own safety. This novel is incredibly suspenseful with very high stakes and I loved all of the twists and turns, especially the final one which blew me away because I did not see it coming (even though I should have because the clues are there). I really liked Camille as an unreliable narrator because both her rage and her fear are palpable and I found her to be very sympathetic, particularly when she questions all of her parenting decisions and how they may have played a role in what happened to her daughter. I also enjoyed the discussion about vigilante justice and Camille's reaction to what happens to Blanchard is quite interesting. This is a riveting and thought-provoking read which I was not expecting to like as much as I did. I highly recommend it (and I will definitely be checking out more from this author).
Monday, October 11, 2021
The Lincoln Highway
My Book of the Month selection for October was The Lincoln Highway by Amor Towles (the other options were The Perishing by Natasha Deon, The Ex Hex by Erin Sterling, Harlem Shuffle by Colson Whitehead, and Everything We Didn't Say by Nicole Baart) and I absolutely loved it (almost as much as I loved his previous novel A Gentleman in Moscow which is high praise, indeed). In 1954 Emmett Watson, age 18, has been released a few months early, in consideration of his father's death, from a work camp in Kansas where he has served 15 months for involuntary manslaughter. He is driven home to Nebraska by the kindly warden who tells him that he has paid his debt to society and should try to live a productive life. He learns that his father's farm has been foreclosed by the bank and decides that it would be best if he and his eight-year-old brother Billy make a fresh start in a new state. After much research he decides that Texas would be a good option because the population is growing and he can use his carpentry skills to buy rundown houses and renovate them in order to sell them for profit. However, his brother Billy, inspired by his copy of Professor Abacus Abernathe's Compendium of Heroes, Adventurers, and Other Intrepid Travelers, wants to go on an adventure to find their mother, who abandoned the family several years earlier. He suspects that she is in California based on postcards sent to the boys from stops on her journey. However, the brothers are surprised when they discover that two other inmates, Duchess and Wallace "Woolly" Wolcott Martin, went AWOL from the work camp and stowed away in the trunk of the warden's car. They have a plan to go to New York to claim $150,000.00 left in a safe by Woolly's wealthy grandfather and offer to split the money with Emmett in exchange for a ride. The four of them ultimately embark on an odyssey of sorts on the Lincoln Highway, the first transcontinental highway in the U.S., in Emmett's baby blue Studebaker and they have a series of adventures, and misadventures, as they attempt to settle old scores and make a future for themselves. The narrative spans ten days and is told from multiple perspectives, including a myriad of secondary characters encountered in numerous settings, each with a distinctive voice. All four protagonists are incredibly compelling, especially the wide-eyed Billy, and the storytelling, reminiscent of Steinbeck and Twain, drew me in completely. I really enjoyed the exploration of intention in determining culpability. The three young men take actions that seem justified given what they have experienced in their lives but, when those actions have unintended consequences, should they be held accountable? The prose is beautiful and I savored every single word! After falling in love with A Gentleman in Moscow during the lockdown, I had very high expectations for The Lincoln Highway and it definitely did not disappoint. I highly recommend this thought-provoking tale of friendship, self-discovery, and adventure.
Friday, September 10, 2021
Rock Paper Scissors
My Book of the Month selection for September was Rock Paper Scissors by Alice Feeney (the other options were The Sweetest Remedy by Jane Igharo, Beautiful Country by Qian Julie Wang, The Love Hypothesis by Ali Hazelwood, and The Neighbor's Secret by L. Alison Heller). I did not especially care for Sometimes I Lie, the only book I have read by this author, but I chose this one because it sounded really intriguing and I have been in the mood for thrillers lately. I couldn't put it down and, this time around, Feeney got me with several twists even though I was expecting one. Amelia and Adam Wright are having trouble in their marriage because they both feel that they don't know who the other is anymore. Amelia wins a weekend stay in the Scottish Highlands in a raffle at work and, in a last ditch attempt to save their marriage, she insists that they go and Adam begrudgingly agrees. However, it soon becomes apparent that they are each keeping secrets from each other and that they both have ulterior motives for agreeing to the weekend. After a difficult journey through a snowstorm they discover that their destination is an isolated chapel, with an ominous past, that has been converted into a living space. It appears to have been neglected for years. They attempt to settle in and make the best of the situation but soon there are strange goings-on that add to the already palpable tension between the two of them. As the storm intensifies, they are left without power and without cellular service but, even more frightening, a local inhabitant named Robin takes a disturbing interest in the couple and it seems that not everyone will survive this weekend. The narrative alternates between the perspectives of Amelia, Adam, and Robin, who are all very unsympathetic and unreliable, and interspersed between these are letters written to Adam by his wife on their anniversary (which he has never been allowed to read until this weekend) chronicling the deterioration of their relationship. The setting is incredibly atmospheric which creates a sense of impending peril on every page (there is even a hint of the paranormal thrown into the mix) and this kept me reading into the early hours. There are multiple layers (with several supporting characters) to the story and I was ever vigilant in trying to predict the twist that I was sure was coming. I had several theories but, when it inevitably came, I was absolutely blown away. I had to go back and read several sections again to pick up on any clues but they are there! Then, just when I thought the characters had reached the perfect resolution, there is another twist that made me question everything I thought I knew about them. I actually laughed out loud because the ending is so sinister. I may need to read more from this author (and I may need to read Sometimes I Lie again) because this is absolutely brilliant. I highly recommend it!
Note: While I was reading I kept thinking that this would make a fantastic movie. Apparently, the rights have been acquired by Netflix.
Wednesday, August 18, 2021
Not a Happy Family
My Book of the Month selection for August was Not a Happy Family by Shari Lapena (the other options were Damnation Spring by Ash Davidson, The Inheritance of Orquidea Divina by Zoraida Cordova, The Heart Principle by Helen Hoang, and Once There Were Wolves by Charlotte McConaghy). I discovered Lapena during the lockdown when reading was my biggest source of entertainment and she quickly became one of my favorite authors! I devoured every one of her books in one sitting so I was thrilled when her latest was an option this month! I eagerly anticipated getting my blue box delivered to my door and, just like the others, I read it in a single day! Fred and Sheila Mercer are a wealthy couple living in a secluded and affluent neighborhood in the Hudson Valley. They invite their three adult children and their partners, Catherine and her husband Ted, Dan and his wife Lisa, and Jenna and her latest fling Jake, to dinner on Easter Sunday. Fred has been a cruel and vindictive father and Sheila has been a passive and disinterested mother so tensions are running high even before the dinner. Fred uses the occasion to profess his disappointment in each of them and to make a bombshell announcement. Two days later Fred and Sheila are discovered dead, the victims of an especially brutal homicide. At first, the police believe it is a robbery that turned violent but they soon come to suspect all three of the siblings. Each of them have a strong motive and, more importantly, none of them have an alibi for the time of the murders. Shocking secrets are revealed, circumstantial evidence is found to connect all three of them to the crime, and desperate siblings eventually turn on each other but which one of them killed their parents? The chapters are short and alternate between the POVs of multiple characters who are unsympathetic and unreliable so it is incredibly suspenseful. I could not put this book down because new revelations, that continually changed who I suspected, appear in almost every chapter and I had to keep reading. Lapena kept me guessing until the very end, which doesn't happen often, and the resolution is incredibly satisfying! The final sentence made me cheer out loud! As a huge fan of Lapena I think this might be her best yet and I definitely recommend it (as well as all of her other books) to fans of murder mysteries.
Saturday, July 10, 2021
We Are the Brennans
My Book of the Month selection for July was We Are the Brennans by Tracey Lange (the other options were Sisters in Arms by Kaia Alderson, Razorblade Tears by S. A. Cosby, The People We Keep by Allison Larkin, and 56 Days by Catherine Ryan Howard) and I really loved it. In fact, I stayed up reading into the early morning hours several times because I was so riveted by the story. Sunday Brennan wakes up in a Los Angeles hospital room with severe injuries from a car accident after a night of drinking. She eventually decides to return home to New York to be with her close-knit Irish-Catholic family to recover and deal with her legal situation. However, it turns out that she abandoned her father Mickey, her brothers Denny, Jackie, and Shane, and her fiance Kale (who has since married someone else) and fled to California five years ago without explanation after a traumatic incident and has never spoken to them about it. She tries to reconnect with her loved ones but she is not the only one who has been keeping secrets and the repercussions of her secret threaten to destroy the happiness and security of all of the Brennans. The family members love each other fiercely and they think that sparing each other from any unpleasantness is an act of kindness but it is driving them apart. Ultimately, they must learn to trust each other to get through their problems together. This family is incredibly dysfunctional and each character makes terrible decisions but I still found them all to be very sympathetic. The family dynamic feels authentic because it is informed by Lange's own experiences growing up with a large Irish-Catholic family and the interactions between the family members are both humorous and heart-breaking (and incredibly relatable). I was the most invested in the relationship between Sunday, Kale, and his wife Vivienne because it is so awkward, especially when Sunday and Kale realize they still have feelings for each other, and it is tragic because they could be together if they had only communicated with each other. The narrative alternates between multiple perspectives and Lange uses the device of ending a chapter with a conversation that is picked up in the next chapter by a different POV which is incredibly effective at drawing in the reader because I literally couldn't put this book down! It seems like a new secret is revealed in every chapter, several of which really surprised me, and I really appreciated the fact that every problem isn't magically solved in the end but the resolution still feels incredibly hopeful. If you love a good generational saga as much as I do, I highly recommend We Are the Brennans.
Tuesday, June 8, 2021
The Maidens
My Book of the Month selection for June was The Maidens by Alex Michaelides (the other options were Instructions for Dancing by Nicola Yoon, Skye Falling by Mia McKenzie, Half Sick of Shadows by Laura Sebastian, and Mailbu Rising by Taylor Jenkins Reid). I haven't read The Silent Patient, the acclaimed debut novel by Michaelides, but I was, nevertheless, very eager to read this selection because I love atmospheric psychological thrillers and I was intrigued by the allusions to Greek mythology. Unfortunately, I was incredibly disappointed. Mariana is a psychotherapist with a small practice living in London. She is still reeling from the death of her husband Sebastian who drowned while the two of them were vacationing on the island of Naxos over a year ago. She receives a troubling call from her niece Zoe, a student at Cambridge University, with the news that her friend Tara has been brutally murdered. Because Zoe is so distraught, she travels to Cambridge to comfort her and becomes involved in the investigation when someone whom she believes is innocent is arrested. She suspects Edward Fosca, a charismatic professor of Greek tragedy, when she learns that Tara belonged to a select group of students under his tutelage, known as the Maidens, who worship the Greek goddesses Demeter and Persephone and perform rituals involving death and rebirth. She becomes obsessed with proving Fosca's guilt but there are plenty of suspects when her own life is threatened. I found Mariana to be a really frustrating protagonist because she makes such bad decisions, especially considering the fact that she is a therapist, and her insertion into the murder mystery is incredibly contrived. All of the other characters, especially the eventual murderer, are very thinly developed and their motivations are unclear which makes the big plot twist seem to come from nowhere. The aforementioned allusions to Greek mythology, as well as the allusions to The Duchess of Malfi and the poetry of Tennyson, are interesting but prove to be nothing more than bits of misdirection once the mystery is solved. A major theme of the novel is the effect that childhood trauma can have on future criminal behavior but it is not explored in any meaningful way because there is no resolution for the specific character involved which I found very exasperating. It is atmospheric and foreboding but, with all of the hype surrounding this novel, I expected so much more.
Note: I wish I had selected Half Sick of Shadows instead (it was my second choice).
Thursday, May 20, 2021
Ariadne
My Book of the Month selection for May was Ariadne by Jennifer Saint (the other options were Things We Lost to the Water by Eric Nguyen, How Lucky by Will Leitch, The Last Thing He Told Me by Laura Dave, and Imposter Syndrome by Kathy Wang). I was so excited to read this novel because, with the name Phaedra, I have always been fascinated by Greek mythology in general and King Minos' daughters in particular and I simply couldn't resist a story about Ariadne, Phaedra, Theseus, and the Minotaur! Princess Ariadne of Crete is subject to the tyrannical whims of her father King Minos and she witnesses firsthand how her mother Pasiphae is capriciously punished by the gods for the king's hubris. She is determined to live her life on her own terms rather than as a pawn of men or the gods so, when Prince Theseus of Athens comes to Crete as one of the tributes to be fed to the Minotaur in the Labyrinth below the palace, Ariadne makes the dangerous decision to betray her father and help him as a way to avoid an arranged marriage. However, this decision has unforeseen consequences for both her and for her sister Phaedra. Even though Ariadne falls under the spell of the god Dionysus after being betrayed by Theseus and is powerless to stop her sister Phaedra from being torn between Theseus and his son Hippolytus, she ultimately finds the courage to demand a future for herself and the women and children under her care. I love strong female characters and I really enjoyed the retelling of this familiar Greek myth from a feminist perspective, especially the exploration of motherhood, and I enjoyed learning aspects of the story that I didn't already know. Ariadne's character arc is incredibly powerful because, even though she is fallible, she finds a sort of redemption and her story is very compelling. Saint's prose is beautiful and poetic and, at times, it mimics the oral storytelling tradition of the original Greek myths as characters recount the exploits of Zeus, Hera, Perseus, Medusa, Heracles, Hades, Poseidon, Daedalus, and Icarus. As previously mentioned, I have a particular fascination with the story of Phaedra (for obvious reasons) and have read many accounts but, even though this is ostensibly Ariadne's story, I really heard Phaedra's voice come to to life for the first time and I absolutely loved that! This novel was everything I hoped it would be and I highly recommend it!
Sunday, April 11, 2021
The Hunting Wives
My Book of the Month selection for April was The Hunting Wives by May Cobb (the other options were What Comes After by Joanne Tompkins, Arsenic and Adobo by Mia P. Manansala, Libertie by Kaitlyn Greenidge, and People We Meet on Vacation by Emily Henry) and this murder mystery involving bored housewives behaving badly is wildly entertaining! Sophie O'Neill has left behind a dysfunctional childhood and a high profile job as a magazine editor in Chicago to live a quiet life in the small town of Mapleton, Texas with her husband Graham and young son Jack. She fills her days with running the trails near her home, gardening, and writing a lifestyle blog but she quickly finds herself bored with the slower pace. She connects with an old high school friend who introduces her to a popular group of wealthy society women. She obsessively stalks them on social media and longs to join them in their exploits so she is thrilled when she is invited to one of their weekly skeet shooting parties. They call themselves the Hunting Wives and Sophie soon learns that these evenings also involve copious amounts of alcohol and excursions to nightclubs to hunt for a different sort of prey. Sophie eventually becomes enamored with Margot, the leader of the group, and engages in some questionable behavior which threatens her relationship with Graham. When a young woman is found murdered where the group practices their skeet shooting, Sophie begins to suspect that the group is involved somehow. This is a quick and easy read full of scandal and gossip that I enjoyed much more than I thought I would. The first person narration follows Sophie as she makes one bad decision after another, some of which will make you want to scream with frustration when you are not howling with laughter. Almost all of the characters are incredibly unsympathetic but they were compelling enough to keep me reading at every opportunity because I had to know what happens to them and I found the twist at the end to be very original and satisfying (I figured it out right before it was revealed). This is not usually the kind of book that I would pick if left to my own devices (it is quite salacious and over the top) but it is a lot of fun. I recommend it to anyone looking for a bit of escapism.
Monday, March 15, 2021
The Lost Apothecary
My Book of the Month selection for March was The Lost Apothecary by Sarah Penner (the other options were The Final Revival of Opal & Nev by Dawnie Walton, What's Mine and Yours by Naima Coster, Too Good to be True by Carola Lovering, and In a Book Club Far Away by Tif Marcelo). This novel combines elements of historical fiction, mystery, and fantasy and I absolutely loved it. In the present day, Caroline Parcewell is in London by herself, on what should have been a ten year anniversary trip, after finding out that her husband has been unfaithful. Feeling lonely and at loose ends, she spontaneously joins a tour group of mudlarkers on the banks of the Thames River in search of relics from the past brought in by the tide. She finds an old vial with a marking of a bear on it and this reawakens a long dormant passion for historical research as she unravels the mystery of its origin. In 1791, Nella Clavinger is the proprietor of an apothecary who, motivated by her own tragedy, secretly dispenses poison to desperate women who have been wronged or betrayed by the men in their lives. She meets the twelve-year-old Eliza Fanning when the latter requests a poison on behalf her mistress for her to use on her husband. Their interactions inadvertently expose Nella's activities and put both of their lives in danger. The narrative alternates between the two timelines as Caroline uncovers events in the present as they happen to Nella in the past and I found this device to be very compelling. I was surprised by the fact that I enjoyed Caroline's story just as much as Nella's (even though I particularly loved all of the period details that transported me to 18th century London) because I am such a fan of historical fiction. Their experiences mirror each other in that they are both victims of duplicitous men and they struggle to take action according to the social norms and attitudes of the time but I loved that Caroline is inspired by the process of investigating Nella's life and that it informs the resolution to her situation. I was fascinated by the concoction of the poisons (the epilogue with recipes for the more innocuous potions is a lot of fun and I would actually like to try some) and I was very intrigued by the introduction of magic into the narrative. I read this novel in just two sittings because I was so invested in both of the main characters and I highly recommend it, especially to fans of historical fiction or fantasy!
Friday, February 19, 2021
Girl A
My Book of the Month selection for February was Girl A by Abigail Dean (the other options were The Kindest Lie by Nancy Johnson, Infinite Country by Patricia Engel, The Four Winds by Kristin Hannah, and Honey Girl by Morgan Rogers). I read it in one day because I found it so compelling! Alexandra "Lex" Gracie escapes from what the press dub the "House of Horrors," where she and her six siblings were held prisoner and abused by their religiously fanatical parents for years, when she is fifteen. As the oldest daughter, she is given the designation "Girl A" in the press and, after extensive medical and psychological treatment, she is eventually adopted, as are the rest of her siblings. Her father commits suicide when the truth is discovered but her mother is given a lengthy prison sentence. Fifteen years later Lex is now a successful attorney in New York when she learns that her mother has died in prison and has made her the executor of her will. This necessitates a return to England in order to dispose of her childhood home and it also necessitates contacting her siblings, who have all coped with their trauma in different ways, to get their approval. This causes all of her memories of the abuse to resurface. The narrative is told from Lex's point of view and alternates between the past, when the siblings are going though the abuse, and the present, when they are dealing with the effects of it. It is a fascinating exploration of what happens during a high-profile case as well as what happens after the media attention dies down. I found the discussions about the people who profited from the tragedy, such as the psychologists who lobbied to work with the siblings to bring attention (and new clients) to their practices, the family who adopted a sibling as a way to further their own cause celebre, and a relative who did nothing to help the siblings but wrote a tell-all book about the family, to be incredibly interesting and thought-provoking. I was also very intrigued by the sibling dynamic in this novel because it was not what I was expecting. Just because a group of people go through a traumatic incident together doesn't mean that they will all view it in the same light (Delilah is an especially fascinating character). Finally, it was very eye-opening to read that, while the public wants to believe in a happily-ever-after scenario for the victims once they have been rescued from their abusers, it is only the beginning of a lifetime of healing from the trauma with no easy solutions. This is a difficult novel to get through but I honestly couldn't put it down (I suspected a major plot twist with one of the siblings but, when it was revealed, it was not at all what I imagined). I highly recommend it!