The premise: an 18 year old girl being arrested for the murder of a man 15 years older than her. Stella comes from a seemingly normal family, her father Adam's a pastor, her mother Ulrika a criminal defense lawyer. Did she do it? What's her connection to this man? The novel was written in 3 parts, each of the family members' perspectives. At first, after reading Adam's, leading in to Stella's I didn't quite understand the point of the story being written this way. It seemed Stella's narrative would be the only one of importance given that she's the one who actually knew what happened. I found myself rolling my eyes from Adam trying to paint a picture of his perfect daughter and in the same breathe revealing rebellious incidents with her. It had me preparing myself for a cut and dry predictable murder mystery. But once I got to Stella's point of view, that fell away pretty quickly. It became evident that this was going to be more complicated than at first it appeared to be. I came to appreciate the back and forth between the past incident and the present court case, the different characters that came to play, the clear cut unraveling, piecing the puzzle together. It was a fast read that kept me engaged throughout. More than it being about surprising the reader, it was about the intricacies of parent child relationships and the bond between best friends. **SPOILER ALERT**
The only thing I really did not like was the way it kind of trivialized rape. The incidents were almost matter of fact and brushed right through. They were a big part of the story and yet brought up as secondary. And I understand the author trying to keep the light on the parent child relationships but something about how it was handled didn't sit right.
The only thing I really did not like was the way it kind of trivialized rape. The incidents were almost matter of fact and brushed right through. They were a big part of the story and yet brought up as secondary. And I understand the author trying to keep the light on the parent child relationships but something about how it was handled didn't sit right.