The Family
"The Family’ is easy enough to read.."
Synopsis:
ONCE YOU'RE IN, THEY'LL NEVER LET YOU LEAVE.
At Oak Leaf Farm you will find a haven…. Welcome to The Family. Laura is grieving after the sudden death of her husband. Struggling to cope emotionally and financially, Laura is grateful when a local community, Oak Leaf Organics, offer her and her 17-year-old daughter Tilly a home.
But as Laura and Tilly settle into life with their new 'family', sinister things begin to happen. When one of the community dies in suspicious circumstances Laura wants to leave but Tilly, enthralled by the charismatic leader, Alex, refuses to go.
Desperately searching for a way to save her daughter, Laura uncovers a horrifying secret but Alex and his family aren't the only ones with something to hide. Just as Laura has been digging into their past, they've been digging into hers and she discovers the terrifying reason they invited her and Tilly in, and why they'll never let
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Review:
The plot of 'The Family' in theory seemed to work. A mother and daughter being taken in by a group of people that the locals think of as a cult. There is suspicion around the death of Laura's husband, and plenty of secrets within the family. The book is written so that the reader is unsure as to who can be trusted and there are plenty of red herrings and clues to mislead. But in practice somehow it didn't work as well. The story took a while to get going and lots of the book felt to me superfluous. Also none of the characters were particularly likeable which left me caring little as to what happened to them. After the slow start the pace did pick up, but all the action seemed to take place in the last quarter of the book. 'The Family' is easy enough to read but I found at times the events were too convenient, making them unbelievable. The last part did make up in some part for the first part but it just didn't have the energy to make me want to keep reading and find out what was going on. Promising, but needed to deliver more than what was on offer.