This is one of those books that rotate each chapter between past and present. I have to admit that I enjoyed the past much more. The chapters that dated back were fascinating, almost brutal, and heartbreaking. You're getting a story (first person) from a child to a grown woman's POV of her life. It starts when she's eight-years-old (I think) suffering the worst kind of abuse a little girl can suffer at the hands of her father. The girl loves her family very much, from her siblings, to her deceased mother, to her own children, and even her deceased children. Everyone except her father. Times were different back then, but as time goes on, her life gets worse and worse especially when the government steps in and takes everyone she loves away from her.
In the present day story, a family is living in a house up the street from which the past stories occurred. I found the present day storyline to begin a bit slow. Kinda wordy. But I don't usually read books of this length. I'm guilty of picking up more novellas than I do novels. So that was me. Not the story's fault.
I felt something reading this book. Mostly pity for the main character. I think my heart broke a time or two. So that's good. If a book gives you feels, then the author has done a great job.