The Family

by Louise Jensen

[zooloo1983]

Gah, I am not sure what words I can use to review this book! This is the first book I have read of Louise’s but it is no way going to be my last…mainly because I have most of them on my Kindle but more importantly I love love love her writing and I need more!

The Family is filled with so much intrigue and tension it had me devouring the book in two sittings, two because I had to be sociable! My god this was fantastic, I was enamoured by Alex, the “leader” of Oak Leaf Farm, I was sucked in just like Laura and Tilly. This should have been a fresh start they both needed after losing Garvan, husband and dad and dealing with the all the family drama, as it says on the blurb things really do not appear to be what they seem!

Most authors can pull the rug out from under me, however, Louise not only pulled the rug, but she also pulled the carpet, floorboards and kept going until I was in the cellar with a hard thud! I had no idea where I was being taken until I got there and I did not expect what I got! I was so sucked in with the way of life on the farm, the community that although I suspected something was off-kilter I didn’t want to believe it. Yes, I know you are basically told in the blurb something isn’t right, but I wanted it to be wrong! So wrong!

I really don’t want to spoil any part of the book for you but I do have to say it is a belter. The chapters are told by Laura, Tilly and Alex, all have their own secrets, some will do more damage than others. Even the reader is not exposed to what the secrets are until they are revealed adding to the shock for us the reader. Some of these secrets really did break my heart and I may have shed a small tear at one point, some shocked and some chilled me to the bone. I was devoted to The Family in the same way that Laura and Tilly were devoted to Alex, it played on my mind when I did not have the book in my hand, I had a need to get back to the farm, the “family”, my chosen family for the duration of the book. The ambiguity in this story also chilled me, I felt no relief and I found I was looking over my shoulder, you know just in case as you never quite know who is watching you.

One thing this book did remind me of was the tv show The Affair, but I am talking about the essence, one thing that drew me to the show was how well they filmed it. In one scene Noah, the dad is with his family in a restaurant and he spies Alison, to him she is a goddess and full of life and confidence. Yet, when you see it from her point of view, she sees herself as all dowdy and worthless and broken. Here, Louise adopted this type of point of view, in Laura’s chapter she felt Tilly was being cold and uncaring and angry. When you are in Tilly’s head, she is angry but at herself for the way she behaved, always feeling like her mum was condescending her, both being unreliable to us, yet adding to the realistic element of the book because it is true. We all see things one way when in fact sometimes it is the complete opposite but it is how we interpret it. Here, in The Family, this misinterpretation causes a lot of friction and causes pain and anger where it just did not need to be, if only we all spoke to each other, but come on where would the fun be in that!

My final thought…..that ending. Jeez, Louise! Woweeeeeeeeeeee, I am still thinking about it now. I am still thinking about the book. This is what Louise has done, maybe it was always her plan to create her own little cult. I am like a lamb to the slaughter off to read her other books now it is now demanded, as her hashtag says #WelcometoTheFamily…..