A shocking, horrifying and hard yet rewarding read
I will preface my review and start out with a warning. This book deals with some heavy topics, including alcoholism, sexual assault, domestic violence, and death. This could be upsetting for those reading, so please to be cautious.
This book was horrifying. Amazing. Saddening. And way too real in some ways. 14 year old Laurel is experiencing another night of her mom and stepfather fighting, with her stepfather abusing her mother. But this time he takes it too far, and in the heat of the moment to try and save her mother Laurel shoots him. A fresh start is what Laurel needs, but memories haunt her, and she can only push them so far away.
I think if I could give any book more than 5 stars this book would be one of them. This book was a really hard read for me, I won't lie. I've been in some of these situations before, and this book is so real and so blunt that it was shocking to me. This book was so well written, and it's an honest look at what some women may face even years after the abuse.
I would recommend this book 100 times over. Honest. I was beyond impressed with this read, and I blew through it pretty quick. It's a page turner for sure, and I really just wanted to see how this all ended for Laurel and her family. I find reading a book like this gives me hope, and can likely give others hope that there is a light at the end of the tunnel.
I will end this by just leaving a little note. You do not deserve to be abused, nobody does. There is help out there, and in P.E.I. the gateway to help is by calling 211 and going from there. The Anderson House is also an option if you need to leave a situation quickly but have nowhere to go. You are loved, and you deserve everything in the world. But abuse is not something you deserve or should be tolerated by anybody.