The novel has a 3-part structure.
Adam narrates the longest, first section; he focuses on the past,
describing their family life and Stella’s childhood and personality. Then, we are given Stella’s perspective from
prison. Finally, Ulrika narrates the
last portion which focuses on the actual trial.
Of course, there is overlap as each part provides a new perspective on
events.
None of the three is convincing or likeable. For a church pastor, Adam is very naïve. He claims to be able to detect when someone
is lying yet that proves not to be true.
He is overly protective of Stella, insisting on counselling when Stella
tries drugs, yet when she suffers a real trauma, he does not ensure that she
has the help she needs. He seems to have
anger management issues and is constantly forcefully grabbing people by the arm. Ulrika is a workaholic who has difficulty
communicating with her daughter but serves as a confidant for Stella’s best
friend Amina. She is supposedly a very good
criminal defense attorney but she forgets about cell phone records? Stella has impulse control issues and is a thrill
seeker who is easily bored.
There is not a great deal of suspense.
Because there is considerable repetition in the three parts, suspense is
diminished. There is the mystery of who killed
Chris Olsen but there are rather obvious clues:
“The only thing that would be worse [than being in prison] is if Amina
had to be locked up.”
The novel wants the reader to ask a couple of questions: How well do you know your own children? How
far would you go to protect them? The
author suggests that parents often know little about their offspring and when it
comes to one’s family, “People are prepared to put aside everything in the way
of ethics and morals to protect their families.
The most rigid of principles can be easily pulverized when it comes to
defending your own child. Lies, guilt,
and secrets. What family isn’t built on
such grounds?”
This is what I consider a mediocre book. The blurb suggests it will be interesting,
but the book itself proves to be much less so.
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