Review: A Nearly Normal Family

A Nearly Normal Family by M.T. Edvardsson
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Everyone is this book is completely unreliable and it made me so anxious making this a fantastic novel of suspense.

It's told in three first-person accounts: those of the Father, Daughter, and Mother. It relates to a murder that daughter Stella has been accused of, and the truths and lies as they spiral around the case.

It's gripping and tense, and you spend so much of the book questioning what everyone is saying that it's impossible to unravel the truth on your own.

The emphasis of the story is very much about how far a person will go to protect someone they love. There's a lot that tells you how this 'normal' family has a lot of issues, but at the end of the day they will stand by one another unquestionably.

The first eyes we see through are those of the Father, and man was he frustrating! He's so righteous and convinced the way he sees life is the correct way life should be interpreted. You can tell by reading in between the lines just how much he's fooling himself. I didn't like him one bit but that's a compliment to the writing, because he was such a believable character.

Secondly, we get Stella's account, which finally gives us some of the meat of everything leading up to the murder. We learn all the things she's been hiding while getting to know her character a little better. We're presented with someone who certainly seems capable of murder ... but there is a terrified girl beneath the hardened exterior and getting to know her better casts doubt firmly over everything.

Finally, the Mother tells of the final court proceedings and her own role in the drama while we, the reader, ponders how much is truth, and the real parts everyone played.

I loved how much it kept me on edge and how little I believed what anyone had to say. Everyone's integrity is questioned, and everyone is accused of lying so much that it's difficult to conclude who is actually telling the truth. There is a strong sense of justice being thwarted and it raises some chillingly realistic notions of how many people go unpunished due to flaws in the legal system, while others are punished unjustly.

This is a book that managed to make me think while still keeping the tension tight. It explores all the shades of grey between right and wrong, and will have you questioning your own moral compass and how far you yourself might go for someone you love.

A gripping novel of lies and deceit woven tightly by the hand of familial love. Highly recommend.

With thanks to Macmillan for my ARC

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