Love, Mom

This was such a perplexing read for me: the central idea is really fun for a thriller, but the execution is awful. I had the twist figured out long, long before it came. People use awkwardly sanitized language. So many uses of “freaking,” and her dad, drunk and bitter, says her mom was “shagging” someone else—this book all takes place in the US, in the present day. But this book has murder, SA, drug use, sex (references, not acts), so it’s not like the language is sanitized to make it PG.

The premise is a bit silly as many thrillers are, but the way it unfolds is even more cartoonish. The pacing gets weird, there’s essentially no climax, and then much of the mystery is just resolved in epilogues.The way the author treats EJ, I was certain he’d turn out to be bad – my theory was that he was the child given up for adoption – but no, it’s just an excessively cheesy love story side plot. And dad going to prison for life? Did I hear that right? Nah. Silly.

A fun story, somewhat disorientingly written.

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