A chilling look at what lurks in the dark corners of an eleven-year-old boy’s twisted heart … calculated insults and contempt. Never whines about his older brother’s relentless bullying. Never moans about his father’s overt collusion and neglect.
Pushed too far, Michael retaliates. He pulls off his brother’s murder without a hitch. Requiring more excitement, he orchestrates his mother’s descent into hell with the same cool detachment. Success is giddy.
What’s next?
Keeping his mother in his crosshairs sounds like fun …
***
Read all of the books in The MisFit series:
The Early Years
The Lost Days
The In-Between Years
The Reckless Year
The Dispensable Wife
The Broken-Hearted Many
The Whole Truth
more
The Early Years #1 – My first book by this author and it’s a kick. Michael makes Brooke Shield’s and Bettye Davis’ look like normal, bible study children. The story is well written but with some vulgar language and deviant sex scenes. The story moves at a fast pace and the reader is intrigued with what unfolds. I wouldn’t want to read more books like this, but I will finish the five books of this series. Interesting prologue. Minor editing needed. 4*
The Lost Days #2 – The pain and gain and loss that come from the actions performed in The Early Years come to head in this book. Michael for all his intelligence is still a little boy that didn’t cover all the bases in his plans. His mother wasn’t at her best, either. The story is well written and intriguing. The characters continue to grow and the plot twists with surprises not expected. Interesting prologue. Minor editing needed. 4*
The In-Between Years #3 – Another interesting and intriguing story. The characters are steady growing and still with interesting dialog. The plot manages to keep the reader interested until the last page. Interesting prologue. Minor editing needed. 4*
The Reckless Year #4 – The intrigue and interest still abounds in this story. The reader has to wonder about Michael’s love interest, but it’s not his IQ that’s running the show here. The characters continue to develop; their dialog is realistic; and the plot while not the best of the books, is keeps the reader involved in the story. Interesting prologue. Editing needed. 4*
The Dispensable Wife #5 – I had a few days between the first four books and this one. I didn’t care to much for the beginning of the book, several chapters of wasted words and repetition. The reader is now seeing his and her sides of the story and it takes a while for the book to become interesting. I didn’t care for the last two or three chapters; I didn’t find them interesting or flowing. Interesting prologue. Minor editing needed.
Update for The Dispensable Wife #5: As of February, 2018, I’ve had the chance to proof Broken-Hearted Many #6. While I was disappointed originally with Wife, because it changed the main characters from the first four books, I found Wife and Many were about the wife and children and their future without Michael and the secrets they carry inside themselves. So I’m changing my previous review to acknowledge that Wife is better with the addition of reading Many. I still think a better transition in Wife would not have been as shocking/distracting/confusing/pick your word to find Michael and Dimitri tossed in the background. They were the reason I was reading the series. Wife and Many fit together as #1 – #4 fit together; I just had to get used to Michael as a minor character in these books. I found Wife on AXP and volunteered to review it, since I already owned the other four books. Since then I’ve purchased Wife. 4*
Broken-Hearted Many #6 – This book puts The Dispensable Wife into a different light. It begins two years after the death of Michael. The family has begun a new life and have to work on the problems and effects from the past. Well written, dark but intriguing, this book holds the reader’s attention. It makes up for the disappointment of Wife, while actually enhancing Wife. The reader just needs to ignore the way this “offshoot” of the series began. The characters have developed somewhat and their dialog is realistic. There’s hope, even among the despair faced by the family. New friends appear, as well as old enemies, as the well thought out plot immerses the reader in the pages. This book was difficult to put down. 5*
The Whole Truth #7 – Dark ride ahead! The final book of the Misfit Series and boy, is it filled with all kinds of happenings, twists and turns. The ending is painful with the sacrifice one of the main characters made to save another and a good decision was made in the end, too. The characters are still interesting and the author’s vivid descriptions leaves no doubt about their thoughts, actions and fears. There are secrets that will surprise some readers, but also some humor, and peace is found along with a touch of a spiritual being. It was hard to put the book down and it was worth reading. I’ve enjoyed all seven books, even though I had a little problem with book #5 until I read #6. 5*
The Boy Nobody Loved – The prequel, which I read after I read the first five books of the Misfit series. It’s a good choice to read first since it lays the foundation of Michael’s beginning years and what he lived through. The story is well written and intriguing. The characters are developing and their dialog is realistic.
Misfit: The Boy Nobody Loved.
In fact, two boys.
Is it nature or nurture that determines who and what a child becomes? Aliina mothers her two sons very differently. Alexi she is fond of, encourages to bully other children, and eventually takes as a lover.
Michael, her six years’ younger son Aliina describes as the product of her rape by her husband. Her near obsession that the child is a monster very much pushes him to be.
His foster brother Dmitri is a year older, and Michael’s physical protector. Saara, their nanny, seems to be the only source of affection for the boys, except for the extreme attachment they have for each other. An attachment which twists the boys love map and protective instincts into menace and danger for others.
Who is the true Monster? The mother who bullies and berates one child, while seducing the other, first with gifts, then worse?
Or is it the child, with no adult to love him after Nanny Saara’s death? Knowing only at best indifference, at worst starvation and beatings, regular humiliation?
Michael, when he had appropriate adult love, affection and attention was well behaved, according to his Nanny, and even to strangers on a train.
Post partum mania and psychoses explains part of his mothers’ ill treatment of him. PSTD. From her assault by her husband resulting in the child’s birth is a part as well.
But the most evil Monster in this story so far is the Mother, a spoiled, childish woman weakly taking and giving whatever she wants from both her sons.
The tragedies of her sons lives, at this point at least, lies on her head. What can become of boys born and raised to violence, left to more damage?
I initially received one or more books in this twisted series in advance copies from the author. Wanting to know more, I have received additional free and purchased titles.
Any reviews and feedback are voluntary, as I wait to discover what twisted love and hate does to these boys.