3.5 Stars
In 1995, a six-year-old Black girl is found abandoned in the woods and is adopted by the Baek family that finds her. Stella and Patrick bring her into their family which also includes their eight-year-old daughter Isla and Patrick’s Korean mother known by all as Moni. That abandoned girl, Marlow Fin, becomes a supermodel. In 2021, she grants a tell-all interview in which she discusses her life and her role in some tragic events within her family. The nature of these tragedies and a number of family secrets are slowly revealed.
The book has multiple points of view. Isla’s sections, narrated in first person, focus on the past: how life within the family changed with Marlow’s arrival. Marlow’s section, in the present, is in question-and-answer interview form. There are also some third-person chapters from the perspective of a young woman named Wren; she describes events in her life in the 1980s.
There is considerable suspense. It becomes clear that there is an undercurrent of anger and tension within the family. Stella is reticent to accept Marlow and the husband and wife argue regularly, though Moni tries to protect the girls from witnessing these angry exchanges. Then as the girls grow up, jealousy arises between them. Marlow’s beauty tends to upstage Isla, though Marlow seems envious of her sister. And there is definitely a dark side to Marlow: “She was beyond the realm of control.”
The only truly likeable main character is Moni who loves everyone in the family. She is kind and welcoming to everyone. When the girls become friends with Sawyer who moves in next door with his grandmother, Moni welcomes them into the neighbourhood and ends up feeding Sawyer almost daily. Other characters prove to have less than admirable qualities and all have secrets.
There is a vagueness about some events that is problematic. Exactly how certain events happened is never explained. The ending also does not answer all the reader’s questions. This nebulous quality affects the novel’s credibility. I want details so I can believe that what supposedly happened could realistically have occurred. The somewhat open-ended closing may bother some readers.
The plot is carefully constructed to maximize twists. There are layers of family secrets, some of which I guessed though others are worse than I expected. These revelations leave the reader to re-evaluate impressions of characters so a re-reading might be interesting.
This book is recommended to those who enjoy trying to find the truth amongst secrets, lies, and rumours.
Note: I received an eARC from the publisher via NetGalley.
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