empressbrooke
Written on Aug 28, 2017
Wavering back and forth between 3 and 4 stars. I landed on 4 because it's extremely well written, and I put aside another book I'm in the middle of because I was dying to know what happened in this one. However, it also left me extraordinarily frustrated and feeling claustrophobic. It's from the point of view of a teenaged boy who has been raised by a (mostly emotionally, but at times physically) abusive dad, and he's still so entrenched in his dad's world that he's only just barely starting to recognize that something is wrong. It's extremely difficult not to begrudge how incredibly uncharitable he acts towards others who have been negatively affected by his dad (who is a right-wing Christian radio talk show host who is on trial for murdering a cop). The author does an excellent job letting the slow reveal of events mirror the main character's very slow awakening that all is not right.