M.T. Edvardsson’sA Nearly Normal Familyis 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 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?
My Review:
Rating: 5/5 stars.
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.
Amy x
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