Book Review by RebeccaR Western USA

Realistic Life Lessons from Desperate People

I'm glad I read this book, although I wasn't immediately sure I was going to enjoy it. The summary on the back cover says that not even the "sisters are sure exactly what happened," and I think that was some initial confusion for me as well. While it was clear that eldest sister Althea and her husband were arrested, I would have liked more information on the extent of the scam. There are some important issues handled in this book - bulimia, physical abuse, behavior problems in school (stemming from unstable home lives) as well as a variety of relationships. Perhaps most importantly, this book addresses an issue that is pervasive in societies around the world and very much in the news in the United States at the moment: the casting of doubt on females who have been assaulted or abused with the question of why something was not said sooner. The answer is clear in this book and that is that people doubt you anyway or looked the other way when there was a cry for help, hoping that the problem would just go away and that they would not have to get involved. I think this book's plot contains important issues for book club discussions.

(10/07/18)