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This is a book that starts of relatively gently all things considered, but before long it all ramps up, and events become a lot darker, a bit sinister and although you may like me have some theories, as to what is going on, I would suggest you won't be able to predict the exact nature of how everything occurs and all the consequences.
Happy Family by Tracy Barone | Goodreads
We don't get much information on Anuj and Deepak, but they are still an important element of this family dynamic. Anuj has always been considered the easy-going, "chill" child in the family, but he struggles with internal pressures of his own and goes to school at a distance to become his own person. Deepak may be an excellent psychiatrist, but has he failed to see the mental health challenges within his own family? We also get a chapter from Zach, Suhani's husband, regarding his love for her and frustration with the barrier she implements between them within the marriage. I thought all three chapters were a great addition, but would have enjoyed seeing even more perspective from the men in this story. The Mertons, a wealthy couple from upstate New York, are brutally murdered in their palatial home after hosting a contentious family Easter dinner. but this novel opened my eyes wider into other factors about adoption - mixed marriages - mixed countries -and the different ways we are shaped within a family ....understanding more of why we are the way we are.But Beth has a secret. A deep dark secret which haunts her still. In her thoughts and in her nightmares. And Beth believes it is only a matter of time before her past catches up to her and her secret shame is revealed for all to see. There are a few others who had a stake in the early demise of the Mertons, giving us plenty of suspects to choose from, and what was really unique was that almost ALL of them were women!
The Happy Family by Jackie Kabler | Goodreads
This book was a slow burner. It’s been a while since I’ve DNF’d a book because I am usually pleasantly surprised in the end. That was for sure the case here. Watching Beth’s life come tumbling down, I felt really sorry for her. As I have seen with many characters in similar stories, Beth turns to excessive amounts of alcohol, in the attempt to numb the pain of what is happening. However, this just leads to distorted memories and that Beth no longer trusts what she believes. It’s a terrible cycle and I was desperate for Beth to find the answers to why she thought someone is watching her.The Merton family puts the word FUN in the word "dysfunctional"; making this "whodunnit" mystery challenging to solve. Barone is a tremendously talented writer, and I found myself so wrapped up in the plot of the book that I honestly didn't realize how good she was until I read a paragraph near the end of the book which made me gasp. I re-read that and then started noticing Barone's almost-poetic style in some places. Cheri is a fascinating, flawed character; this is her book, and some of the other characters paled in comparison to her. (Cheri's mother almost never transcended a stereotypical Italian immigrant, clinging fast to her old-school ways and customs despite being in the U.S. for many years.)
The Happy Family by Jackie Kabler | Waterstones
Cheri Matzner's life is in a bit of turmoil. She and her filmmaker husband are barely speaking yet she's trying to have a baby, her job as a professor of comparative religions is in jeopardy (but all she really wants is a spot on a crew slated to head to Iraq to catalog and translate antiquities), and she's trying to keep her overbearing, functionally alcoholic mother from throwing her a 40th birthday party. Through Cheri, the reader learns of her life through her first forty years. Everything she does thwarts Cici's plans. She is a complex character as she comes of age. From hippie to the NYPD to an expert in an arcane field, she is fiercely independent even after she marries. There is no padding, no faffy repetition and no added words to make it longer and the adrenaline and almost fainting with palps whilst there is kept to a minimum and it whizzes on getting more and more exciting as it goes I’m not a huge consumer of psychological crime novels or thrillers but I do turn to them whenever I need to give the brain a break after reading a string of powerful or immersive books. But they still have to deliver something more than just the entertainment value of thrills and suspense. A protagonist with a complex personality is a must. A strong evocation of a specific location or time period is important. Ideally I want both to be matched with an interesting issue or a theme. The character development is spot on. It reminded me of a Tarryn Fisher novel in this regards, and the slow burn.
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Over the story, we gradually find out about Beth’s past, informing us of why she is so paranoid in the present. To be honest, I was not that surprised by the revelations, having guessed, to a degree, what had happened. With this in mind, I thought the story just took far longer than necessary. Elements of the story were too obvious for my liking and I felt frustrated by Beth’s acceptance of everything around her. It slowed the pace of the plot and I found there were many moments where I thought the narrative was tedious and predictable. This was reinforced by the fact that I had sadly guessed how the story would conclude and I thought it took too many chapters to get to this point. Sehr gut haben mir auch die Verknüpfungen mit zeitgeschichtlichen Ereignissen gefallen, die die inneren Strapazen der Familie quasi weltpolitisch widerspiegeln (Kubakrise in den früheren Kapiteln, drohender Irakkrieg in den späteren). They have three children. All of them were at Easter dinner. Two of them were with their spouses. One was with a random “boyfriend”. The former nanny and current cleaning lady was there too. One guest couldn’t make it. Congratulations for being nominated as one of the best thrillers for Goodreads Choice Awards! This book was definitely one of the best reads of the year! The must-have family handbook - accessible, equipping and game-changing' – Anna Mathur, author of Mind Over Mother
Happy Family: the instant Sunday Times bestseller, from Not a Happy Family: the instant Sunday Times bestseller, from
My favorite character was of course Suhani. She’s the epitome of who I want to be. Up until recently I had actually not read or seen a lot of Indian women going into the field of medicine because they actually wanted to rather than their parents just telling them they should. Anyways, I felt like Suhani was a reflection of myself and her relationship with Natasha, her sister, definitely had some similarities to my sister and I’s relationship. Besides the wonderful cast of characters, I thought the writing style was easy to read without being juvenile which is an aspect that I was looking for in a South Asian adult fiction book. I found that many SA adult fiction books had characters or contained writing that came across as juvenile which is just difficult for me to relate to because of how I was raised and the independence I’ve had from an early age. To be honest, in a way this reminded me of a romance novel. In a romance novel part of the joy comes from watching people not only get into a relationship but solve whatever barriers they run into along the way. At the end you know they are happy together. In a lot of books about family, you see the dynamic and then the dynamic either doesn't change, or it changes only in small ways. But in this book, you get to not only see what the dynamic is, you get to be there as the family works on taking significant steps to resolve it. You get to *go through family therapy* with them. It can be a wild kind of wish fulfillment read, getting to see all the both loving and harmful things everyone does, having them confront what they've done wrong, appreciate what they've done right, and move forward together. I am trying to think of the last time I read a novel that did that and... I am coming up blank. In Chapter 3 she shares her dread that “something that happened a long, long time ago, something I thought I’d managed to bury forever, might not be buried at all.” Another hint comes in Chapter 4: “The thing I’ve tried to bury so deep it can never escape. Now I’m starting to think I’m not being paranoid after all. I’m coming convinced that finally, after all these years, someone’s coming for me.” First of all, it starts out with this omnipresent narrative, not your typical third person that focuses on one character at a time. It reads like you are inside one person's head, then another person's who is in the next room or another floor of a house, and that's all within the same paragraph. It's very confusing. While Beth did some horrible things as a teen, you connect with her because of what she’s going through. It was uncomfortable to have these emotions because of the outcomes of her emotions, but it does make you think about why people act out. Everyone has their own personal battles. This book makes you examine those.With her life crumbling around her, Beth looks in danger of losing everything and everyone close to her until someone totally unexpected comes to her rescue – a fabulous twist I admittedly guessed early on. But it was still a brilliant twist. So who is Beth's saviour? No family thrives in a bubble — your extended relatives, friends, neighbors, and other networks are crucial to your happiness. "Other families expose kids to new ideas and lifestyles and give them a broader view of their roles in their own family as well as in their community," Haltzman says. The not-so-happy-family here are the Mertons. Fred was a total jerk to everyone, but mostly to his children. Sheila, his wife, is a cold and distant mother, and failed to protect the children from their father. Es könnte so schön und einfach sein, ist es aber were clipped into my SPD's. ( SPD's are designed for clipless bicycle pedals)....Its kinda an oxymoron.... POINT IS..... I was strapped in ( seat belt fastened..haha), taking a ride into this complex world that author, Tracy Barone created. Great workout!!!!
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