For Suzette, her love-starved relationship with a distant mother and chronic Crohn’s haunt every attempt to bond with a little girl who barks like a “feral animal” and only speaks as a 17th-century girl named Marie-Anne Dufosset, who was burned at the stake for suspected witchcraft.

She had taken a photo of Suzette while she slept that morning, and she glued it into the center of a collage of photos of dead bodies that she had found on the internet and printed.He may have become the chief of police, but he’s still trying to heal the old wound of having given the testimony that sent his best friend, Vincent King, to prison decades before.

Through the round window, tiny Earth dropped from view, then she was in the darkness with the glimmering stars, zooming away. This book is heady, it pulls you into it, capturing so beautifully love and longing, particularly between women. But gradually, seeing things from Hanna’s perspective, it becomes increasingly clear that Suzette isn’t innocent in the creation of this hateful monster, and neither is her husband. This book may just be an acquired taste, but as an adamant fan of thrillers, mysteries, and horror books, it left me flat on every level.Hanna didn't know that Suzette had resisted bringing her in for another CT scan — 500 times the radiation of a single X-ray — but relented to Alex's wishes.

I bought this book before going to bed one evening despite the negative reviews and thought if nothing else it would at least put me to sleep. I have books that I have finished reading instead of listening too because the story was fantastic, but I could not stand the narrators' voice to get through the first chapter. The blobby people emerged — one with her hand outstretched offering to take her back to Mommy, like that was some sort of reward. Content-wise, it was a tough book to get into because obviously, you are not going to care about this little girl-monster, and the archetypes were so glaring they seem to smack you in the face.This dark, terrifying novel unfolds as a battle of wits between a struggling mother and her psychotic young daughter and its genius is that the reader’s allegiance isn’t allowed to linger too long on either side. She’s also becoming increasingly frightened by Hanna’s little games, while her husband Alex remains blind to the failing family dynamics. Now, two years later, it is time for her to come to terms with marriage, career, family, parenthood, and Kevin’s horrific rampage, in a series of startlingly direct correspondences with her estranged husband, Franklin.