March 1, 2022
ISBN 9781760879662 (ISBN10: 1760879665)
ASIN 1760879665
My Review
This book highlights domestic abuse in all its painfully raw unapologetic horror.
The ending we didn’t want but as a mother you will do anything for your children.
Corrosive control and domestic abuse, unseen to all until he becomes too late.
Ali, Miriam’s younger daughter temperamental daughter made her feel like she walked on eggshells, the need to get close to Ali or to get her open up often felt like Miriam had cracked the glass ceiling, one wrong word to her daughter and she would take it the wrong way and shut down. But this wild stubborn child, no one can tame that is until Nick arrives, a sensible handsome vet who sweeps Ali of her feet in a whirlwind romance and marriage. Followed quickly by two children in short succession.
When Nick took a job in a remote veterinary practice a few hours away from Ali parents. Miriam struggled but kept telling herself she could go and stay and would be able to ring Ali regularly.
Ali who was considered the brightest and academic of her daughters was thinking of doing her PhD but somewhere during the flush of romance that got put on the back burner as she became the vets wife and after the birth of Teddy a dutiful mother.
Miriam and Fiona Ali’s sister were often kept at arms length and not encouraged to visit her new home even when Ali gave birth though Miriam did managed to persuade Nick to allow her to come ad help with Teddy was born .
Nick was always charming and Miriam liked him, when she expressed concern for her daughter lack of contact or not following her dream of her PhD he rallied round and reassured Miriam he would seek help for her. And he did, he booked a psychiatrist and Ali started sessions with them.
Nick stepped up with Miriam lost her husband suddenly, this dutiful son in law was a dream.
When Ali left Nick and turned up at Miriam home with her two children, Miriam was thrown into a world of abuse and control, the man who she had thought good for her daughter was anything but but he was not about to stop, he wanted his children and so the fight for custody commenced.
Listening to Ali s confession of how badly she was treated, begging and grovelling for money for food, how he controlled her entire being.
Losing control over her own body and mind even her identity
The description of Miriam’s life and what it has become, how she feels is so vivid you can almost feel her feelings, her surroundings, her new reality
I wonder how the story would have pan out if Pete had lived. Adding a father and husband’s death into the early chapters felt odd and surprising but than I think he would have been a surplus even though he is referred back to throughout the story.
The chapter about the pets had me chuckling. Jane as managed to write a seriously distressing subject with pops of humour.
About:
Just like the garden, the fuse box, the bills, bin night and blown light bulbs, this was just something else she’d now have to take care of herself.
Recently widowed, Miriam Duffy is a respectable North Shore real estate agent and devoted mother and grandmother. She was thrilled when her younger daughter Ally married her true love, but as time goes by Miriam wonders whether all is well with Ally, as she moves to the country and gradually withdraws, finding excuses every time Miriam offers to visit. Their relationship has always had its ups and downs, and Miriam tries to give her daughter the distance she so clearly wants. But is all as it seems?
When the truth of her daughter’s situation is revealed, Miriam watches in disbelief as Ally and her children find themselves increasingly vulnerable and cut off from the world. As the situation escalates and the law proves incapable of protecting them, Miriam is faced with an unthinkable decision. But she will do anything for the people she loves most in the world. Wouldn’t you?
A stunning, gripping novel that goes to the heart of a mother’s love and asks what any of us might do when faced with a threat to the people we hold most dear.
