By Jillian Medoff
DO NOT RECOMMEND
TLDR: Ultimately this book didn’t do enough for me to recommend. I found myself really irritated by the author’s writing style about 2/3 of the way through. This book follows a family through a trial where 1 of the brothers has been accused of rape. There are some interesting twists, but again, not quite enough to snag a “Recommend”.
The Longer Review:
The description of this novel is what grabbed my attention and convinced me to make it my Book of the Month Club selection (which by the way, I highly recommend if you’re interested in a book club/subscription). The first couple of chapters of this book will absolutely get your attention. As mentioned above, one brother (of a sibling group of 3) is accused of rape. I do think this book should come with a trigger warning, because sexual assault and misconduct are central to the plot.
The thing that drove me nuts about the writing style is that the author repeatedly drops a nugget and then takes 3-5 chapters to return to that part of the story. I understand that can be an effective method to keep readers hooked, but something about it just didn’t sit well with me in this case.
Ultimately there were a couple of twists in this story that I found unexpected/interesting, but I after sitting with it for a couple of days I just find that cumulatively I didn’t enjoy this book.
Next up: Betty by Tiffany McDaniel
