Kim Deister
This is a book that will often leave the reader reeling, fully immersed in the intense and eerie space it now takes up in the mind. It is a book that fully embraces the WTF feeling.
The story unfolds as Vera reluctantly returns to her childhood home when her mother, the same woman who threw her out at just 17, falls deathly ill. The weirdness begins the moment that Vera walks through the door. First, her mother is almost unrecognizable yet still as cold and vicious as ever. Second, the resident artist is strangely comfortable in the home and with Daphne (her mother), as if he belongs there and Vera does not. And third, the house itself. Strange things are happening within its walls, things that Vera struggles to understand.
It’s clear from the beginning that the trauma of her past has informed who she is as a person, not surprising as the daughter of a serial killer. The dynamics of the separate relationships between Vera and each of her parents, the relationship between her parents, were truly bizarre and dark, which fully fit the vibe of the story. They almost seemed opposite from what one might expect. Vera’s father was a serial killer; it would be easy to assume that their relationship would be strained, that maybe he’d been a harsh and overbearing father. But that’s not the way it was. And the relationship between Vera and her mother was fraught with emotional trauma from mother to daughter. Her mother was a strange, awful women who was tempestuous at best. Just as interesting was the relationship between Daphne and Vera’s father. As the serial killer, one would assume that he was the domineering one, but he often came across as meek. Hardly what one would expect.
It’s obvious from the start that there is more to the story, but it is revealed in little vignettes, leaving the reader to hang on every word, desperate to know what happened. The pacing is rather slow for much of the book, but in the end, it feels appropriate for the crux of the novel. And even if it is a little slow, the story makes up for it! There are so many twists and turns, so many moments that are deeply disturbing and bizarre. There’s just something about this books that pulls a reader in… and doesn’t let go. It’s unsettling, it’s provocative, it’s chilling. And I loved it!
