Dark and Gritty
So, I would love to be like the many people online reviewers that this book is slightly taboo and not worth the time or energy. I can’t however seeing as I blew through this in two days. It feels dark yet pulls you in and a few chapters in you feel like it is Flowers in the Attic for a new generation.
The novel’s protagonist is Lane, a young woman who has returned to the family estate, Roanoke, she fled from as a teen in the middle of nowhere Kansas to help search for her missing “cousin” Allegra. Lane’s grandparents still reign supreme at Roanoke and through chapters that jump around in time and from different viewpoints we quickly learn that this home is not a good place for young girls to grow up. Multiple generations of girls have suffered the effects of living at the estate and the damage is not just the physical but more important the psychological aspect of the family and home dynamic. While the mystery of what happened to Allegra is compelling, what keeps the pages turning are the revelations of the scope of the abuse. For readers who are easily triggered by sexual abuse rest easy that this book does not have that. The author’s focus is more focused on the abuse and the pain that it caused.
