When Janette answers the door to a potential customer looking to board his dog, she never imagines he has nefarious plans.
But minutes later he’s dead and in her cellar.
Weeks later she realises she’s pregnant.
And so she becomes Mother and the baby Child, and a hidden life begins.
But all secrets come out eventually . . .
Review
I’m still trying to process my feelings about The Family at No. 12. It was such a rollercoaster of a read. For one, it shocked me. To be honest, while it was enough to make me want to read the book, I found the cover and blurb to be somewhat generic. I knew I was enjoy the story but it would be similar to others I’d read. I was shocked. It’s worth preparing yourself for this one because it is a really dark book. The darkness continues throughout and when I thought the story was levelling out, something happened that shocked me all over again.
Admittedly, this up and down wasn’t great all of the time. Sometimes it felt like the genre was changing from a drama to a thriller and the flow of the writing style didn’t match very well. This was also the case with the plot. Some elements kept me turning the pages and wan thing more, while others felt out of place and a little too unrealistic. This also extended to the characters.
The characters in this book are very interesting and because the time period spans a couple of decades, we do get some great character development. At the same time, it felt like this development moved away from who the characters where. Of course, people change over time, there were just borderline realistic parts that took away from the book
Sounds interesting? You can pick up a copy of The Family at No. 12 here.
I was sent a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.
Joyful Antidotes 