Her Last Secret is about this seriously dysfunctional family and what happened that resulted in all of them seriously injured (and even one dead). The book starts with the police arriving at the house and basically jumps back and forth in time. Fulfilling Tolstoy's words that all unhappy families are unhappy in their own way:
- Dominique (Dom), the mother, just found out her husband had an affair and that has triggered her sleepwalking
- Benjamin (Ben), is in some kind of mysterious financial trouble that I will not elaborate on because it'll become a spoiler.
- Ruby, the eldest, is being bullied and feeling like no one understands her.
- Mouse (Amber), the younger daughter, is arguable the most innocent character in all this and most of her chapters are about her trying to make sense of the world
- Kendra, the mistress, wants Ben to leave Dom for her but nothing is working so far. Which means she has to take more and more drastic measures.
To be honest, I came very close to giving up on this book because all the characters (apart from Dom) were annoying. Yes, even Mouse, who is annoying in the way small kids who know nothing can be. Plus all the problems could be solved if everyone just communicated honestly and openly and that was frustrating.
But the dysfunctional dynamics eventually pulled me in and I ended up reading the second half of the book in one go because I wanted to find out what happened. It definitely gave me moments of frustration because I was like "JUST TALK WITHOUT YOUR PRIDE IN THE WAY" at all the characters but I couldn't put the book down.
If you're in the mood to read about a train wreck of a family then this is definitely the book for you. Most of the characters are unlikable to me, and while that normally means I don't finish the book, I found myself unable to put it down.
Disclaimer: I got a free copy of this book from the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for a free and honest review.
I sometimes find these type of books hard to put down too. I just have to know how everything will play out. I like the phrase you used: "JUST TALK WITHOUT YOUR PRIDE IN THE WAY". I can think of a number of characters I've encountered over the years that applies to!
ReplyDeleteThe Last Secret does sound like something I might like. I will have to look for it. Thanks for sharing, Eustacia!
Well, I suppose a lot of rom-com would not exist if people just talked honestly :p Hope you manage to get your hands on a copy!
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