PaperbackJosie (16) and her brother Jack (a couple of years older) lost their mother about a decade ago. The siblings are usually on their own, which suits them just fine. Their father is only around on the weekends, when he takes time to humiliate them, cram the pair's heads with a week's worth of of homeschool "lessons," and generally make the two miserable.
Within the first 20 pages, I was sure that what I *thought* was happening would be revealed soonish -- but the author makes the decision to tease it out until about the last 20 pages, which somehow made it all the more sordid. Yes, of COURSE it's incest.
The book is decently written and, at times, unbearably tense, but the "yuck" factor is overpowering. I actually think it would have been better if Jack were just a control-freak asshole rather than all Flowers-in-the-Atticky without the innocence. I just felt slimy when I finally got to the end.
C
