Author: Loranne Brown

Yeah! This is book 50 of my Goodreads 50-book Challenge for 2020. I don’t see where you sign up for 2021 but I’ll be in for, and keeping track of, another 50.

This is a sad and dark book, but it is very well written and, although slow to grab my interest, I eventually couldn’t put it down. It wasn’t until I was looking for a photo of the book that I read it is a retelling of a Grimm’s Fairy Tale (no wonder I like Andersen’s better).

Mariah, as a young girl, tries to be the perfect daughter. She has few friends but discovers a talent for playing the piano (mainly because she has a huge crush on her teacher). She is anorexic and self-mutilates. She is abused by her grandfather and in an effort to stop him she shoots off one of her hands. You’d think this would be the saddest part but it gets worse.

She becomes friends with a set of twins, Kat and Doug, and eventually has an affair with Doug. When she marries the love of her life, Sully, all should be good. Their first child is born with a genetic defect that lets everyone know that the child is Doug’s and not Sully’s.

What more could happen? A lot.

Goodreads Rating: * * * * *