M.T. Edvardsson’s A Nearly Normal Family is a gripping legal thriller that forces the reader to consider: How far would you go to protect the ones you love? In this twisted narrative of love and murder, a horrific crime makes a seemingly normal family question everything they thought they knew about their life–and one another.Eighteen-year-old Stella Sandell stands accused of the brutal murder … accused of the brutal murder of a man almost fifteen years her senior. She is an ordinary teenager from an upstanding local family. What reason could she have to know a shady businessman, let alone to kill him?
Stella’s father, a pastor, and mother, a criminal defense attorney, find their moral compasses tested as they defend their daughter, while struggling to understand why she is a suspect. Told in an unusual three-part structure, A Nearly Normal Family asks the questions: How well do you know your own children? How far would you go to protect them?
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M. T. Edvardsson has written a deceptive and riveting novel. A NEARLY NORMAL FAMILY will make you question everything you know about those closest to you.
Exceptional thriller. Intelligent and riveting. One murder. Three family members telling their story. Who do you believe? Loved it.
Told from three different points of view (dad, daughter, mother), the story about whether an 18 year old girl committed murder, will have you hooked from page one. This book has a similar vibe to “Girl on a Train” so if you like that genre, try this one.
I loved the way this book was written. Told in three parts, it had wonderful characters and a surprising twist.
I was going to quit reading it cuz it was about a priest and a lawyer and their daughter and I thought it was going to be all religious and it was a great book very good book!
This book was amazing. It was a thriller, a mystery and so much more. The book is told in the point of view of a family; the father, who is a pastor, the mother who is a lawyer and their daughter Stella, who has just had her eighteenth birthday.
This book takes place in Sweden and tells the story of this nearly normal family, which is really not normal. The book is also told in flashbacks of when they were all younger and what has led them to this point.
This plot is packed with twists and turns and will have you guessing until the end, and I have to say the end did surprise me! The build up of angst is very present in all of the characters and their interactions with each other, as well as their community.
I gave this book 5 stars because it was so good and I enjoyed it very much.
Thanks to NetGalley for an ARC of A Nearly Normal Family. I enjoyed this novel about a court case set in Sweden. It followed the trial of Stella, who was accused of murder. The novel is told in 3 voices, Stella, and her mother, and her father. It examines Stella’s explosive behavior and her tight and enduring friendship with her friend, Amina. It also examines what lengths you would go to in order to protect the ones you love.
The story is tense, and you are constantly wondering what will happen next. It is a surprise to hear what people will do, whether or not they will compromise their moral standards, and what they will do to discover or conceal the truth. I thought the book was interesting, and was intrigued by the difference between the US and Swedish courts.
#ANearlyNormalFamily #MTEdvardsson #NetGalley
Really interesting family drama-suspense. Told in three POVs. Had me guessing as to what really happened up until the last page.
I really enjoyed this book. It starts slow and keeps building until I couldn’t put it down. I like how it is told in three parts and three different insights. It is a great read!
Thank you Celadon Books and M.T. Edvardsson for the ARC to read and review.
A NEARLY NORMAL FAMILY is a canny, intensely suspenseful legal thriller. A 18-year-old teenager is accused of murdering a 32-year-old man, provoking a crisis for every person close to her and challenging the commandments of the law as they confront the bonds of love and family life.
Anyone that enjoys a psychological legal thriller should get their hands on A Nearly Normal Family!
Set in Sweden, readers learn about Stella (a teenager accused of stabbing thirty-two-year-old Christopher Olsen), her father Adam (a pastor) and her mother Ulrika (a criminal defense attorney). With each family member telling the story from their perspective, this book is divided into three parts with short chapters that make it digestible and fast-paced.
M. T. Edvardsson has painted an impressive picture in this title, offering a glimpse into Sweden’s legal system and the not-so-perfect lives that many “ordinary” families tend to conceal. This story truly had me questioning how far I would go to protect the ones I love, making it worth the 400-page journey.
Thank you to Bookish First and Celadon Books for an advanced reader copy in exchange for an honest review.
A Nearly Normal Family is a definite page turner! We see the family dynamics and the strong friendship between Stella and Amina, her friend since preschool. Told from Adam’s(the father), Stella’s(the daughter and accused), and Ulrika’s(mother) POV, it shows us each person’s thoughts and actions from just before the murder, through the trial. You don’t find out what actually happened until the epilogue. I highly recommend this book to psychological thriller fans! Thank you to Celadon Books for my ARC.
A Nearly Normal Family is the first book I’ve read by this author. The book is written in an unusual format. It’s divided into three parts as each member of the family tells their story…Daughter, Father, Mother. The daughter is accused of of murdering an older man. Is she guilty? Is she innocent? Is she the upstanding daughter her parents think she is? Will her parents do what they can to protect her? Definitely a page turner. highly recommend!
After a man is murdered, Adam and Ulrika’s 18 year old daughter, Stella, is the main suspect and arrested.
“We were a perfectly normal family, and then everything changed. It takes a long time to build a life, but only an instant for it to crumble.” – Adam
Stella has always been a rather difficult child, but could she really have committed such a heinous crime? I really liked how the story was told from 3 different perspectives—father, daughter, and mother—with more and more details revealed as the story progressed. It really did make me wonder, if my child were in a similar situation, how far would I go, and how many lies would I tell, to protect him/her?
Even though the book is 400 pages long, the short chapters made it a quick read. I kept telling myself, I’ll read just one more, one more, until I’d gobbled it all up! If you love thrillers, especially those involving a murder, then check this one out.
Location: Lund, Sweden
I received an advance copy of this book. All opinions are my own.
Wow, this was the most suspenseful legal thriller I’ve ever read! Talk about a rollercoaster ride! I think this was one of the easiest books to get hooked on from the very first paragraph. My daughter is starting law school in the fall. I’m going to make her read it. It’s so suspenseful and psychologically thrilling too. The family is easy to fall in love with and relate to, even with them being dysfunctional. The mother is a lawyer. Of course, she would want to help her daughter Stella. She also knows the ins and outs of the legal system and how things aren’t looking so good for her daughter. I was a little upset with the parents for letting the daughter be out all hours of the night at her age. But I got the impression with the story that it’s in another country with a different culture than the US. The I noticed the author is from Sweden. I love reading books set in other countries. This is great. We get a sense of the different rules and laws in that country in regards to our own. Anyway, a Murder takes place where Stella has mounting evidence against her and no alibi. She has a great best friend who will go the extra mile for her. The mother is honest and always wants to do the right thing. Same with the Dad. But as we read, we find out there are secrets in the lives of the parents and also the friend. How far would your friend or parents go far you? What are they willing to sacrifice and give up? You will be shocked at the outcome to this. I think I’ll get the audiobook next because I know this will be one to listen to and read again.
18 year old Stella has been arrested and is accused of brutally killing her 32 year old lover Chris. Her father is a pastor and has regrets for not protecting his daughter in the past and her mother is a lawyer and has similar regrets regarding Stella. The story is told three parts by Adam, Stella’s father, then Stella and finally her mother. Each person providing key information regarding the murder and history leading up to the event. It was an enjoyable audiobook!
Stella, a troubled only-child teenager, is arrested for murder. How far will her pastor father and defense-attorney mother go to save her? And is she worth saving? This is like a Swedish Defending Jacob with sparer prose and three equally compelling points of view.
This was a nearly perfect domestic suspense novel. MT Edvardsson gave just about equal treatment to the mundane mysteries of family dynamics as he did to the other mystery at the heart of this novel. And because it’s translated from Swedish, absolute kudos to the translator who had to have understood not only the content, but the mood and nuances the author wanted to convey.
Told in the POVs of Adam, father of an eighteen-year-old daughter (Stella) charged with murder, the eighteen-year-old herself and finally, her mother, Ulricka, we gradually learn not only what happened on the night of the murder, but about the complicated nature of this small family, and the ways in which they manage to know each other deeply, and yet in some ways, not know each other at all.
The mystery at the heart of the book though always intriguing also, I think, served as a device for Edvardsson to explore the nature of families, and the exploration was well worth the ride. The stand-out character was the fascinating Stella, who at 18 is as complicated and exasperating as young women her age often are. Over the course of the book and the shifting perspectives, one wonders whether Stella is victim or perpetrator, innocent or sociopath, calculating or impulsive. And by the end, while there is a conclusion, the answers to some of those questions and conflicts are far from conclusive.
I strongly recommend this one, not just for the great writing and excellent story, but for the treatment and commentary of things like parenthood, sexuality, individuality and the nature of justice. And I loved the insight into the Swedish justice system. Always great to be educated as you’re entertained.
Great read, was slow at first then it picked up.
Adam believes they are nearly a normal family. What does that entail? No family is normal or even close to normal.
Stella has her problems and anger is her release. The mom she’s in a whole other world and hasn’t a clue what’s going on.
We say we’d do anything for our kids, would you really though? Would you go as far as Adam and Ulrika? They surely deserve parents of the year.
Stella has a great support system and really doesn’t see it until the end. Crazy how three point of views all come together and tell a story, and I wasn’t sure who did what until I was starting Ulrika’s POV.
At the end of the book there are discussion questions. One is What do you consider a normal family?
Firstly, I would love to thank Tandem Collective, Pan Macmillian and M.T. Edvardsson for letting me join the Readalong of A Nearly Normal Family and gifting me a copy of the book. This was my very first read along and I can’t really express how much I enjoyed it. To be able to talk to other readers while all reading the same book was a brilliant new experience for me.
I cannot express any faults with this book because I truly couldn’t find any. I was very intrigued when I read the blurb and even more so when I began reading it. The structure of this book is one of its greatest merits. There are three parts and each part is from a different perspective: The father (Adam), The daughter (Stella), and The mother (Ulrika). Each of the three characters are unique in themselves and each part adds so much mystery and questioning to the story. I couldn’t have told you with 100% certainty who the killer was. The fact that we only find out who it was in the very last line is completely mind-blowing when I truly think about it. It might seem hard to wait to the very last line to know exactly what happened but it was the best ending I’ve read in a very long time. I enjoyed the theme that ran throughout the book: How far are you willing to go for the ones you love? Almost all the characters in this book went above and beyond for the people that they love and it really makes you think about how you would react in this terrible situation.
This book highlights a lot of topics that need to be highlighted. It shows how hard being a parent is and what it truly means by ‘growing up too fast’. Each character had many flaws but also great qualities about them. They all were so very real and its hard to remember that this is just a book. The writing is brilliant, the characters are well rounded, the plot is a work of a genius and the twists that arise throughout are mind-blowing. To say that I actually cheered when I read the last line just shows how much I have loved this book.
I cannot truly express everything I want to about this book but I do encourage everyone to give this book a read because it is so worth your time.