An unforgettable psychological thriller reminiscent of Emma Donoghue’s Room and V. C. Andrews’ Flowers in the AtticKatherine and David have the perfect life: they are beautiful, rich, debonair, and gifted. But cracks begin to form beneath the smooth exterior when David suspects that one of their two children is not his. There is no other reason why chubby, petulant Jeanetta does not conform to … Jeanetta does not conform to David’s standards of perfection and order.
Soon, David’s mood swings become more violent and irrational. In an attempt to exercise some control over his world, he sends Jeanetta to the playroom . . . and locks the door. With harrowing precision, Fyfield tells the story of a family’s descent into madness.
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So depressing i wish I’d never read it.
I love every single Francis Fyfield book and this is no different – haunting though.
I was disappointed in this story. There was too much time given to describing Katherines friends and neighbors lives. there wasn’t enough attention or explanation about the childhood trauma Katherine and her sister suffered when they were children. There also wasn’t enough explanation about what made David so obsessed and cold. Then finally there was Jeanetta and why David thought she was such a problem child instead of a normal four year old messy kid. This story left me high and dry wondering if she lived or died from her ordeal. It seems that the whole story dragged on and on until the last chapter and then it was rush, rush, to get it done. I feel this was an uncouth trap to sell the next book if we want to see if jeanetta made it. I don’t appreciate that. I might have been willing to buy more of her work on the basis that she’s a good writer, but this turned me off.
Not what the summary suggests. This is a book about a neighborhood full of snobbish, self-involved people who are impossible to care about, or even understand. I mean that literally. The writing style is rambling and confusing, to a point that it’s hard to follow.
Maybe 10% of this book actually involves what you think it will from the description. The rest is rambling, mostly pointless insights into the lives of those around her. Very little of it pays off in the end, or contributes to the overall story. However, the prologue got off to a good start, and there were just enough interesting elements that had me wanting to at least finish the book, see what happened. The answer is nothing. Nothing satisfactory. After 20-some chapters of mostly nonsense, we get an ending that’s rushed and doesn’t provide any real answers or closure. Left me wondering why I’d just sunk so many hours into this thing.
There are other books that cover the territory this one claims to, and do it better. This one, I’d give it a hard pass, even on sale.
Haunting. This is a hard read. Helps you understand how such a thing might happen. Takes fortitude to keep reading.
Though the writing was of reasonable quality, the premise wasn’t very believable.
This was a fairly long book that I kept reading in the hopes something exciting would happen. The plot could have made a good story but focused more on multiple boring slow side lines. Then there was no clear ending. I do not recommend this book.
I was obsessed with this book! I carried it everywhere with me and read snippets of it whenever I could! I couldn’t wait to find out how it ended. The ending was so unsatisfactory and left so many unanswered questions that I only gave it four stars when it was a five star read throughout. Talk about a cliffhanger! I HOPE there is a sequel! I loved the writing style, and the building of the characters was amazing, I felt as if I personally knew each one of them. Certainly not all of them are likable, of course, but all with very unique personalities. If this story would have just had some closure, I would have given it 5 stars for sure!
Zero stars! Hands down the worst book I have ever read. The editing was non existent. This book wasted so many pages on developing unimportant characters, while not focusing on the main ones. There was no flow from one part of the story to another. I was shocked to discover this author has written numerous books….this one felt like it was written by a first time npublished author. Don’t waste your precious reading time on this one!
It’s vary different
Very slow reading not one I would recommend