Susan's comments: I was prepared to dislike this book immensely before I ever picked it up. I loved Alice Sebold's The Lovely Bones which came out a few years ago and was about the abduction and rape of a teenage girl...yes, somehow she made that topic into a great novel. Still, I didn't trust Sebold to make a story about a woman killing her elderly mother into a good read. I should have known better!Helen Knightly has taken care of her mother for years and years--since childhood really--despite verbal abuse and emotional neglect. Helen snaps one day and suffocates her enfeebled mother within the first chapter. The rest of the novel details Helen's attempts to cover up the murder while delving into her past...particularly her troubled relationship with her mother but also her first marriage and her children. Somehow, Sebold used her magic and turned me into a champion for Helen. I stayed up way too late to finish this book. It is an interesting and compelling read.
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