Mother, Mother by Koren Zailckas

Meet the Hurst Family. 

Meet Violet Hurst -16 years old, beautiful and brilliant. So why is she being accused of being a danger to herself and others?

Meet her brother Will Hurst – the smartest and sweetest twelve-year old boy around. But does he really need all that medication he is being told to take?

Meet oldest sister Rose – the one who got away. She disappeared one night in her final year of school, never to be heard from again.

I read a hell of a lot of chick lit which I love but every so often I love to have a fresh change and after reading so many Christmas themed chick lit I decided to change genre entirely and opted for a psychological thriller which really is out of my usual comfort zone.

Mother, Mother tells the story of the Hurst family. A very dysfunctional family to say the least, eldest daughter Rose has been missing since her last year of school, middle daughter Violet is admitted to a psychiatric hospital and little Will is home schooled because he has Asperger’s and epilepsy. The story all revolves around one nights events in which Will gets badly injured, Violet is accused but she cannot remember what events took place on that night but their mother Josephine will not have Violet near precious Will again as she says that Violet attacked him and so is a danger to the family.

As Violet tries desperately to remember what happened that night she doesn’t know who to believe or who to trust.

This book really freaked me out! This really isn’t one to read before bedtime. This book gave me the same kind of chilling feeling as Before You Go To Sleep which I read last year but times that by 3 or 4! This is one that seriously plays with your mind, rather than physical abuse (although there is a small amount of physical abuse too) it is all about mental torture.

The chapters alternate between Will and Violets points of views so we get to see a balanced view of the situation and we get to know the character well this way. I had my guard up about Josephine from the first mention of her and she really made my skin crawl.

The suspense that is created through this book is fantastic and it made this a really compelling read I literally picked this book up at every opportunity just to find out what was happening next. There were a couple of parts in the book that I found predictable but there were equally a couple of unexpected twists and turns that I didn’t see coming.

This would have been a five star read as I was hooked but I did find the ending didn’t seem to flow like the rest of the book, it seemed to come to a flat end, this could be because the rest of the book was so great that it had me on edge that I had high expectations for the ending but none the less it is still a great four star read that I will be recommending and also a book that will be on my mind for some time, this will not be an easy one to forget!

A chilling and compelling read.