This was sad but also heart-warming 🥹

Energy: Shrewd. Resilient. Contemplative. 

Scene: 🇦🇺 Fictional town of Port Agatha, near Melbourne, Australia

Perspective: We follow three sisters bonded through their foster care experience and estranged from their foster mother. Their stories are told through the past (growing up) and as adults returning to town after bones are found on the property. We also get the perspective of an unknown character speaking to their therapist about childhood trauma. 

 

🐩 Tail Wags: The sisters. The accurate depictions of toxic traits and personality disorders. Easy listening audio narration. 

 

This book is sad, check content warnings! But the sad moments are balanced by the sisters’ resilience and their strong bonds. The depiction of narcissistic abuse, and how hard it is to report is so spot-on. 

 

This is more of a story about the sisters and an examination of their life and the trauma of foster care, with mysterious occurrences and a touch of true crime suspense. I wouldn’t classify it as a thriller.  

 

I liked the audio - the accents and narrator’s voices made the characters come to life in my mind.

 

That ending! Well done, I didn’t see that coming

 

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🤓 Reader Role: Listener and Empath. There in the room with the characters, feeling what they’re feeling as scenes unfold or are recalled. 

🗺️ World-Building: Easy to picture the scenes and pick up on the energy in the room, almost cinematic. 

🔥 Fuel: Why are the foster kids being treated this way? Will they report the abuse? Will they be believed? Who is the unknown person we overhear in their therapy sessions? What is the identity of the body found under the house? Was it accident or murder? How will things turn out for the girls, now women, as they go head-to-head with Ms Fairchild? 

📖 Cred: Realism with chunks of hyper-realistic. 

-Music box. Whinnying horses. Flashlights under bed covers. Whispers. Giggles. Car tires on gravel. 

-Psychological suspense with a touch of sapphic romance.

-Reflective stories about trauma and sisterhood.

 

Content Heads-Up: Parental/caregiver neglect, abandonment. Loss of caregiver. Loss of parent. Addiction, substance abuse. Foster care. Child abuse/torture (verbal, emotional, physical). Narcissistic abuse. Narcissism. Extortion. Trauma bonds. Sexual content (brief, consenting). Pedophilia (mention; brief). Kidnapping. Child murder. Suicide attempt. 

Rep: Bisexual. Heterosexual. Lesbian. Cisgender. Brown and pale-skinned Australians.

 

📚 Format: Library Audio