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A review by jpaulthunders77
The Perfect Daughter by D.J. Palmer
2.0
I would like to thank the publisher for giving me an ARC through Netgalley.
The beginning was solid—Grace's adopted daughter Penny gets out of their house one night, taking their car without permission, and when she's found, there's blood all over her body, and she's become the prime suspect of the murder of Rachel Boyd, who turns out to be her birth mother. Soon, it's revealed that Penny actually has a dissociative personality disorder.
The novel takes through a series of police and law procedurals as well as medical explanations on the vague nature of DID. Does it exist or could the person be just faking it and could have an antisocial personality disorder? There's a lot of discussion going on how to prove the existence of different personalities. Where it come from? How to control the switch? Does a particular smell, sound, or image trigger the memory and its subconscious for another alter to appear? Can a person shut it off deliberately? Can another persona be aware that she's an alter? Those sorts of questions. I really like the medical explanations because in a way (as a biology degree holder), I know some information about the complexity of brain functions.
In terms of being a well-crafted story, this is where this book suffered a bit for me. The writing is okay, although I find the alternating chapters between the 3rd person omniscient POV and the 2nd person POV jarring, the story still managed to grip me up until end.
For characters, Grace is the only one interesting for me. She's very determined to prove that Penny is innocent, and that there was someone else on the crime scene that night who actually murdered Rachel. She is a loving mother and I just love her dedication to keep her family intact. Penny (and her alters) are a little flat for me. I didn't care, I feel like all of them were just caricatures. Eve, the protective one so she has to be edgy and bitchy. Chloe, the perfectionist and an art enthusiast who sounds like a child. Ruby, the Harry Potter fan who speaks with pretentious English accent, and of course, Penny, the sweet, kind-hearted, PERFECT daughter. Then Penny's brothers Jack and Ryan who have very little personality on them. I mean, I get it—this book is NOT character driven, in fact it's actually plot-oriented. There's a lot of suspenseful scenes and intriguing clues laid down so I'll give the author some claps for that.
So if you've reached this part of my review, you might be wondering why I gave this book 2 stars. Well, it's actually the big reveal that ruined the whole book for me. I can forgive the lack of character depth and the writing style, BUT I could not accept that BIGGEST reveal.
There are two mysteries on this book. 1.) does Penny really have a DID? and 2.) what happened that night on Rachel's apartment? In my opinion, the reveal on Penny's true condition was okay. Not mind-blowing but acceptable. It's the second reveal that actually grated my nerves. The reveal on what happened on that murder scene was SUPER DISAPPOINTING. If you know me, you know that I don't like it when a reveal has no proper build up. Only after that biggest reveal did some of the information appear, which should had been scattered prior to that scene. That's all I'm gonna say since this is an ARC. No spoilers, obviously.
I could've settled on three stars but that climax scene (the court scene—a little spoiler, yes) left a bitter taste in my mouth that would be hard to sugarcoat by the rest of the 'perfectly fine to mediocre' elements of the book.
PS: I am not telling you not to read this book because I think it might work for you if you like some law procedural, medical explanations, and just a suspenseful book. If you like the DID trope, you might wanna try this. But sorry, it's not for me.
The beginning was solid—Grace's adopted daughter Penny gets out of their house one night, taking their car without permission, and when she's found, there's blood all over her body, and she's become the prime suspect of the murder of Rachel Boyd, who turns out to be her birth mother. Soon, it's revealed that Penny actually has a dissociative personality disorder.
The novel takes through a series of police and law procedurals as well as medical explanations on the vague nature of DID. Does it exist or could the person be just faking it and could have an antisocial personality disorder? There's a lot of discussion going on how to prove the existence of different personalities. Where it come from? How to control the switch? Does a particular smell, sound, or image trigger the memory and its subconscious for another alter to appear? Can a person shut it off deliberately? Can another persona be aware that she's an alter? Those sorts of questions. I really like the medical explanations because in a way (as a biology degree holder), I know some information about the complexity of brain functions.
In terms of being a well-crafted story, this is where this book suffered a bit for me. The writing is okay, although I find the alternating chapters between the 3rd person omniscient POV and the 2nd person POV jarring, the story still managed to grip me up until end.
For characters, Grace is the only one interesting for me. She's very determined to prove that Penny is innocent, and that there was someone else on the crime scene that night who actually murdered Rachel. She is a loving mother and I just love her dedication to keep her family intact. Penny (and her alters) are a little flat for me. I didn't care, I feel like all of them were just caricatures. Eve, the protective one so she has to be edgy and bitchy. Chloe, the perfectionist and an art enthusiast who sounds like a child. Ruby, the Harry Potter fan who speaks with pretentious English accent, and of course, Penny, the sweet, kind-hearted, PERFECT daughter. Then Penny's brothers Jack and Ryan who have very little personality on them. I mean, I get it—this book is NOT character driven, in fact it's actually plot-oriented. There's a lot of suspenseful scenes and intriguing clues laid down so I'll give the author some claps for that.
So if you've reached this part of my review, you might be wondering why I gave this book 2 stars. Well, it's actually the big reveal that ruined the whole book for me. I can forgive the lack of character depth and the writing style, BUT I could not accept that BIGGEST reveal.
There are two mysteries on this book. 1.) does Penny really have a DID? and 2.) what happened that night on Rachel's apartment? In my opinion, the reveal on Penny's true condition was okay. Not mind-blowing but acceptable. It's the second reveal that actually grated my nerves. The reveal on what happened on that murder scene was SUPER DISAPPOINTING. If you know me, you know that I don't like it when a reveal has no proper build up. Only after that biggest reveal did some of the information appear, which should had been scattered prior to that scene. That's all I'm gonna say since this is an ARC. No spoilers, obviously.
I could've settled on three stars but that climax scene (the court scene—a little spoiler, yes) left a bitter taste in my mouth that would be hard to sugarcoat by the rest of the 'perfectly fine to mediocre' elements of the book.
PS: I am not telling you not to read this book because I think it might work for you if you like some law procedural, medical explanations, and just a suspenseful book. If you like the DID trope, you might wanna try this. But sorry, it's not for me.