A before and after narration of a mother who lost her only daughter for more than a year and is still hoping to receive news, any news at all about her missing daughter. To be honest, I found the first half of the book compelling to read. My suspicions were raised against several characters in the story who seemed a possible culprit because like I’ve already established, anyone in a mystery/crime/thriller novel could be a suspect.
But as the story moves forward, each character is proven innocent albeit creating a different kind of family problem for the mother,Jenny and she discovers that each member of her family is nothing like she thought they’d be. Of course, she is largely to blame because of her naivety and her belief that theirs is perfect family and that she has been very lucky. It kind of exhausted me to be honest because I was singlemindedly focused on the main conflict, the missing girl, and I guess the skeletons spilling out of their closets overwhelmed me.
Halfway through, the narrative has become long winded and the plot has started to go downhill and I needed all my patience just to get through the end. In the end, when the truth is already revealed, it wasn’t even satisfying. I mean why?! I don’t think it’s justified at all. Sure, the family isn’t perfect. Jenny and Ted are not the best parents I don’t think they deserve that from their child. Oops, sorry. I’ll stop here now in case I’ll say more and completely spoil other readers of the ending. I’ll just shrug my shoulders in a “whatever” gesture because that’s just exactly the reaction that ending deserves.
Generally though, it’s still worth a read, just that you need to be really patient if you want to get through the novel.
