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Showing posts with label dysfunctional families. Show all posts
Showing posts with label dysfunctional families. Show all posts

Tuesday, May 15, 2018

Mother Mother by Koren Zailckas

Violet Hurst's family is a vortex of toxicity. Nearly everyone is a narcissist, liar, or addict, an abuser an enabler, or some combination.

After a drug-fueled night that Violet has trouble remembering, she is sent to a mental health clinic. Her mother, Josephine, insists that she has tried to hurt her brother, Will.


Though she can't remember the incident, Violet thinks she has been framed. She does not believe she would intentionally hurt Will.

What happened that night is slowly unfolded through the eyes of two of the novel's characters, William and Violet. 

Rose, who ran away from home before the incident, has her own emotional problems. Though readers never get her point of view, she blames her mother for pressuring her to have an abortion--a decision that has left her emotionally scarred. 

Trapped in lock down, Violet has a hard time discerning what is happening at home. She tries to contact Rose because she thinks her sister is on her side.  

Violet's yearns to be emancipated from her psychopathic mother, Josephine. This wish becomes even stronger when she learns the depth of her mother's deceit.

This is a novel by talented writer who writes with confidence and dark humor. While its a great read, it may not be a great Mother's Day present. 

Monday, September 7, 2015

We Are All Completely Beside Ourselves by Karen Joy Fowler



In Karen Joy Fowler's We Are Completely Beside Ourselves, the narrator begins in media res.

Rosemary is a well-educated, unreliable narrator. She tells readers she is in mourning because her sister disappeared seventeen years ago and her brother disappeared ten years ago.

In no way is We Are Completely Beside Ourselves a typical missing person story. There's a lot more at play. Rosemary's brother is a domestic terrorist and Rosemary's sister is a chimpanzee for starters. Her father is a psychologist who is keen on treating his children like the psychological subjects he is studying.

Tragic and compelling, this novel explores many tantalizing subjects such as the fallibility of memory, the notion of humanity, and the debilitating effect of family secrets.

For another book about a family's misadventures in animal experimentation, try We Love You, Charlie Freeman by Kaitlyn Greenidge.  




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