Review: The Murderer's Daughters by Randy Susan Meyers

The Murderer's Daughters by Randy Susan Meyers

My rating: 2 of 5 stars

I had such big hopes for this book and ultimately felt a bit disappointed. It's a okay book but it is not a great one. The concept behind the book was really interesting and gave the author a huge amount of content to work with.

What I liked most about this novel is the characters - although not particularly likeable - they were well written, complex and felt real to me. They transformed into people for me rather than just characters on a page. They are honestly what kept me reading.

Much of the actual plot was just okay for me. There were times when I had to force myself to keep reading when I would have rather read something else I had been reading. There were also times when I couldn't put the book down (most of that was in the later sections of the book). It was just uneven for me. That is part of the reason that I'm so conflicted about the novel in its entirety. There were moments that were great, but as a whole, it fell short of great.

I am not sure that I can adequately describe the overall feeling that this novel brought up in me. As someone who worked with in human services for years as a counselor and social worker, I had hoped that this story (given its very nature) would come alive for me. But, it just didn't. It felt, at times, to be over dramatized and over blown. There were aspects of the story that felt contrived in some way. As a result of all of this, I just didn't connect with the story as I'd hoped.

However, it is a good book in terms of helping you understand what it must be like to have one of your parents kill your other parent. To be "The Murderer's Daughters" for the rest of your life. To try and grow up 'normal' when your life is so abnormal as a result of something outside of yourself. The author did a good job of showing the reader what it might feel like to be in that situation.

All in all, this was a okay read, albeit a slow one. It wasn't one of those exciting, can't put it down kind of books. But, it does create compelling characters and situations. I wouldn't generally recommend this one unless the subject matter is particularly interesting to you. Given how many other great books there are out there, I'm not sure I can honestly recommend this one otherwise.

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