Bestselling author Pfeffer (Life as We Knew It) delves into the impulses behind destructive behavior and the vagaries of families both chosen and biological with understanding and care. Never once does she demonize or whitewash these tricky subjects.
While Willa's life isn't perfect, it's pretty close: her mother and stepfather are the perfect couple, her stepsisters are models of achievement, and she's no slouch herself at school. When things get overwhelming, all it takes is a little cut--not more than once a week--to make her feel better. But Willa is not the only one with secrets, and her inner turmoil is suddenly mirrored by a terrible turn of events. The life she knows is overthrown when she hears that her biological father, whom she and her mother left when she was a baby, has killed his latest wife and children and may be headed for them next.
When he, in turn, is killed in front of their home by the police, Willa makes a choice that surprises even her. Rather than try to get back to "normal," she's compelled to find out more about her estranged father and her own roots. Could her cutting have something to do with this violent man? What would possess someone to try to wipe out his own family? Not only does she uncover the skeletons in her biological family's closet, but the cracks in the perfect facade of her blended family become clear as well. --Jenn Northington, events manager at WORD bookstore