BookishDragonfly's Book Journey

This is my second time reading this book. The first time was in 2018. It sounds extremely weird to say but this is one of my top three Karin Slaughter books. That being said, I will never, EVER, lightly recommend this book to anyone.

Karin is a master storyteller. She has a way of conveying emotion that immediately hits you in the diaphragm, claws its way inside, and takes root. She does not shy away from the painful, the hurtful, the horrific. She writes brutality like someone intimately knowledgeable with its touch. She writes trauma like someone who has stared into the face of evil and dared to keep their soul afterwards.

It was harder for me this time to get through this book. There were times where I was silently crying, others where I curled up in my bed, times where I bawled my eyes out, and still more when I felt like the evil portrayed in the book had slithered from the pages to wrap its tentacles around me. I triggered myself a couple of times with this book. It’s a good thing I see my therapist weekly 😆.

All that being said, this was a phenomenal story of family tragedy, fractured bonds, human depravity, and ultimately love in all its many facets. The Carrol family will be one I will never forget. Sam, the dad, broke my heart, but his unwavering dedication to finding his daughter spoke of a deep and abiding unconditional love that Fathers should have for their daughters. Helen, the mom, was a multifaceted woman and I appreciated her deeply. Lydia and Claire were broken in their own ways, reacted to the trauma in their own ways, yet in the end the bond of sisterhood was bent but unbroken.

If you choose to read this book, just know that it is triggering and traumatizing. Yet the human capacity for resilience, forgiveness, and love shines through in the end.