A Nearly Normal Family

(This review will be on my blog All the Ups and Downs soon.)
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Legal thrillers usually aren't my thing. In fact, I find them to be more a snooze fest than anything else. However, when I read the synopsis for A Nearly Normal Family by M.T. Edvardsson, I was intrigued. I just want to say that this book blew me away! It was that good!

The plot for A Nearly Normal Family is very intriguing indeed. Eighteen year old Stella becomes involved with an older man named Christopher. She's having the time of her life. When she learns more about her romantic interest, she's having a hard time believing the bad stuff is true. It's not long before Christopher is found murdered, and Stella is the main suspect. Told from the point of view from Stella's show more father, Stella, and Stella's mother, we learn what really happened that night, what led to all of this drama, and what happens afterwards. We also learn how far people will go to protect the ones they love. I found myself not wanting to guess what happened with this book. I wanted everything to be a complete surprise which it was. There are a few twists and turns throughout this novel which I did enjoy. I loved that this book tied up any loose ends by the end of the book, and nothing was left to speculation. I hate having to guess what happened after the main mystery has been solved, so I was thrilled when I had all my answers. I'm a stickler for closure!

The characters were all very well developed and fleshed out enough that they felt real. We are introduced to Adam, Stella's father, first. We see his relationship with his daughter, his wife, and with God since he's a pastor. He relies heavily on his faith to get him through things. He's an upstanding member of the community and very trustworthy. I found Adam to be the most interesting to read about. It was interesting to read about his response to his daughter being accused of murder. Next, we are introduced to Stella's point of view. Stella is accused of murdering her boyfriend, Christopher. She's eighteen and has a devil may care attitude when it comes to everything. Some points throughout the book, I felt she was innocent of the crime, but there were other times she seemed very guilty. I couldn't figure her out. It was interesting to read about what had happened throughout her young life to get to the predicament she was in. Finally, we learn the perspective from Ulrika, Stella's mother. I didn't think I would be able to connect with Ulrika right at first, but I found myself understanding her quickly. Ulrika is a criminal defense attorney, so it was interesting reading about her perspective on everything. I was happy that Ulrika didn't use legal jargon too often. Although we don't get to read things from her perspective, the character of Amina, Stella's best friend, was also intriguing. I loved reading about the girls' friendship throughout the years and how loyal they were to one another.

The pacing was spot on! Every time the story would change perspectives, I thought I'd get bored with the change of character, but I was sucked in right away same as before. I devoured page after page of A Nearly Normal Family. I couldn't wait to find out more and learn about motives and what would happen.

Trigger warnings include profanity, alcohol use, drug use, violence (not very graphic), rape (not very graphic, mentions of sex (not graphic), and murder.

Overall, A Nearly Normal Family is a very intriguing read that pulls you in from the very first page and doesn't let you go even after it ends. I would definitely recommend A Nearly Normal Family by M.T. Edvardsson to those aged 18 who like to get lost in well written thrillers!
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(A special thank you to the publisher for providing me with an ARC paperback of A Nearly Normal Family by M.T. Edvardsson in exchange for an honest and unbiased review.) show less

A psychological thriller, a legal drama, a family drama - this book is everything! It's all about the characters. Told from the point of view of three different unreliable narrators, not only do the characters not know who to trust, but you don't know who to trust either! How far would you go to defend your child? (My mom would totally throw me to the wolves if she thought I was guilty.) The characters each take the reader through one of three phase of the trial from their own point of view with their own struggles and opinions. It starts off a bit slow, but keep going! You'll totally be hooked in the last two thirds!

A Swedish family is shattered by a heinous crime.
Adam is a respected pastor, and Ulrika, his wife, is a defense attorney. Their daughter, Stella, has just turned 18 and is busy planning a trip to Asia. At first glance, the Sandell family is picture-perfect. That facade soon fades when Stella, is arrested for the stabbing murder of 32-year-old Christopher Olsen at a local playground. On the night of the murder, Adam discovers one of Stella's shirts covered in dark stains, that he knows is blood. He will do absolutely anything to keep his daughter out of prison. This evidently includes providing a false alibi. I matter not one iota that his decision contradicts his entire faith and shakes him to his very core.

The story is told in three show more parts. We learn Adam, Stella, and Ulrika's viewpoints, and like most mysteries, they don't match. Adam sees Stella as a troubled child and an out-of-control teenager. Stella tells us that her "acting out" was caused by her deep desire to be in control of her own life. She says her father is overprotective and her mother is cold, all do have some truth.

We also learn that Adam and Ulrika failed to report a sexual assault on Stella by a camp director, three years ago when Stella was 15. This added into creating a p break in the family that never healed. Stella’s whirlwind affair with the wealthy, attractive, Christopher is further complicated by his ex-girlfriend, when she tells Stella he’s abusive. The romance eventually spins out of control, but does that make Stella a killer?

We hear most of Ulrika’s narrative from the courtroom during Stella’s murder trial, which may lead some readers to feel more on Stella's side. In between the courtroom drama, Ulrika gives us details about her marriage, motherhood, and her perceived alienation by what she felt was an impenetrable relationship between Adam and Stella. The murder mystery fell a bit flat, and the resolution is way too "neat", but I have to say that the author does manage to weave a tale of parental guilt as well as sacrifice into this troubled family drama. It really lacked the element of suspense but if giving us a picture of a family in crisis was the authors actual objective...it worked 4-stars worth. show less

I don't know what "normal" is, but I think it's just a concept and never a reality. With this book, Edvardsson takes the image of a perfect family, pries it apart, and shows us all the flaws beneath that are probably more normal than the pretty facade.

The pace is a slow burn that gradually increases in intensity and urgency. While it is, in part, a legal thriller, I'd classify it as more literary suspense. The story is, first and foremost, about the characters, the choices they make, the way their lives intertwine, and that ripple effect of one decision setting the course to disaster.

The content is both current and timeless, relatable, heartbreaking, and yet somehow filled with hope.

This is an exceptionally well written, emotional show more read that I absolutely loved.

*I received a review copy from BookishFirst and Celadon Books.* show less

This book is the definition of a page-turner, a masterpiece of suspense. I loved the way the book is broken into three sections: The Father, The Daughter, The Mother. With each section, we get a distinctly different narrative voice, a little more background information and accompanying secrets, and a new perspective on the murder and how this "nearly normal family" started down a destructive spiral. Are any of them telling the whole truth? Who has all the information? It was fully engrossing, and even when I was caught up in the "current" storyline of the murder investigation, the flashbacks that fleshed out each character were always just as interesting. Each person's past informs how they choose to act during the investigation, and show more the lingering sense that the full story still hasn't been uncovered is wrapped up in an ultimately satisfying conclusion. A disturbing examination of how far people will go to protect a reputation, a friend, a daughter. show less

Stella lives the preacher's-daughter cliché to the full, a teenager who has been in every possible sort of minor trouble, from smoking pot to crashing her parents' car while driving underage. She seems to be overdoing things a little, however, when she gets arrested for murder a week after her eighteenth birthday. But what, exactly, has happened: did she actually kill millionaire playboy (yes, really: they still have those in Lund in the 21st century, it seems) Chris Olsen?

Edvardsson uses the old dodge of dividing the book between three successive narrators, who each tell us a slightly different version of the story, so that we are made to guess that (at least) one of the three must be doing a Roger Ackroyd. It's all very cleverly set show more up, and it has a nice American-style courtroom-drama climax. Stella's father, Adam, is a clergyman; her mother, Ulrika, a lawyer. Both are pushed into uncomfortable dilemmas of professional ethics by their need to protect their daughter. There is a very up-to-date theme of sexual violence and the difficulties women face in bringing male aggression to light, as well, even if Edvardsson doesn't seem to have anything very surprising to say about this.

Where the book seems to fall down a little is in the balance between the three narrators. Stella and Ulrika are both interesting, unpredictable and witty characters; Adam isn't, he's dull and humourless, has difficulties in expressing his feelings, is sent off the rails by his monomania about proving Stella's innocence, and clearly isn't much liked by the author. Which is unfortunate, given that his first-person narration takes up the first 40% of the book and has to do all the spade-work of telling us who these people are and what has happened to them. I suspect a lot of readers will give up before they get to the Stella section.

Obviously it's also risky trying to transfer the courtroom-drama device to the Swedish civil-law system, where all the drama is supposed to happen long before the case ever gets to court. Even without being familiar with Swedish procedure, it is fairly obvious that Edvardsson must be cheating a little here, but he just about gets away with it...

Not a riveting masterpiece, but a perfectly competent page-turner with some very good bits in it. show less

Interesting tale. I also appreciated the look into another country's legal system. It was good to see the story from so many angles. Good believable twists. I look forward to more from this author!