A great page turner!

Ridiculous, absurd, predictible.
Also, please do a better research before writing a book about mental health issues.

Dionne (The Marsh King's Daughter) returns to Michigan's famed Upper Peninsula in this psychological thriller with a child psychopath at its center.

It is not clear whether psychopaths are born or created, and this is explored here as a young daughter exhibits antisocial and murderous behavior at a very young age and her highly educated scientist parents are flummoxed as to what to do about it.

After a neighbor's toddler dies (was it an accident?), the family, at the mother Jenny's request, relocates to the UP to live at their family lodge and give Dianna a chance to grow up away from people and in harmony with nature. Both parents are biological scientists so this seems perfect. Jenny is wise enough to enlist the help of a therapist for Dianna, and her husband is smart enough to agree. They have a good marriage that will be strained by another child's death. When they have Rachel nine years after Dianna, Jenny with horror sees her baby nearly die. And then there is the baby that was not allowed to be born. Yet they go on ... with a variety of sordid incidents along the way.

At age 11, Rachel is committed to a mental health hospital after observing the deaths of her parents that are written off as a murder/suicide. When a reporter inadvertently informs her that she was not the one who killed her parents, she abruptly walks out of the hospital and heads back to the lodge to learn the truth. Her memories are blocked, but she understands animals and they tell her the truth will be unveiled in due time.

So the suspense is low-grade, but constant and this works well for this novel. The unique character of a child psychopath is unique and is eerily too real. Once Rachel sets off to the lodge, however, the plot is just loaded with one improbability after another. Ironically, her ability to understand animals is rather believable. Unfortunately, there are logistical improbabilities such as two women moving a 500+ pound dead bear a good distance. Those investigating the murder/suicide must have been really lousy detectives. As for Rachel herself, considering she was a child when sequestered away from society, she is way too comfortable and efficient just a day out of the hospital.

There is a lot of foreshadowing, but it is not subtle. There is not so much a twist at the end, but an unexpected change in one character's makeup. Finally, the very very end is almost sweet which just isn't necessary. Rachel is one person who should be messed up and in therapy for decades to come.

All that said, if you can gloss over the improbabilities, it's a good escapist read with an interesting premise set in one of the most beautiful places in the world.

Leider zieht sich die Geschichte lange hin und das Ende ist sehr vorhersehbar. Trotzdem wurde es dann spannend und konnte mich voll packen, auch die Umgebung ist wirklich eindrücklich beschrieben, ich hatte immer ein klares Bild vor Augen.

Allerdings ist der spannende Teil für mich zu kurz gekommen und daher bekommt das Buch von mir nur 3 Sterne.

This one had me on the edge of my seat with anxiety! I was so hooked right away. It was a one day reading marathon because I just had to know what happened next. I was not disappointed. 5 stars of course for this twisty turny book that threatened to keep me up all night. I loved that I could also picture the area this was set in, having visited several times myself!

Lots of twists and turns. The ending felt a bit rushed but overall I loved it