The Murderer's Daughters by Randy Susan Meyers

I’ve just finished reading The Murderer’s Daughters by Randy Susan Meyers. By far, most of my reviews are books for a Christian audience. This one is not. Had I known the content of the book prior to reading it, I wouldn’t have agreed to do so. There is nothing wrong with the writing mechanically. However, I did not like this book. At all. I found it to be depressing, predictable, and full of every cliché imaginable for a dysfunctional family. It is void of hope, healing, recovery, or reconciliation. The characters seemed flat, completely one-dimensional. The dialog was stilted and redundant, while the use of profanity was highly excessive, particularly the use of “Jesus” and or “Christ” as profanity. I do realize there is a gritty realism of pain and brokenness portrayed, but it is so without hope, I found it utterly discouraging. Many people will like this book (as evidenced by the vast amount of stellar reviews it has received), but to me, worse than the waste of money to purchase it, is the waste of time required to read it. I truly hate giving poor reviews and wish I didn’t have to do so here, but I simply cannot recommend this book.

This book was provided to me for review by St. Martin’s Press.

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The Murderer’s Daughters

Randy Susan Meyers

With a plot inspired by an incident from her childhood and, later, by her work with batterers, Meyers weaves a compelling story about two sisters on a journey to overcome the collateral damage of family violence. The book’s protagonists, Lulu and Merry Zachariah, are sisters left orphaned after witnessing their father kill their mother. Following their father’s imprisonment, the girls suffer at the hands of uncaring relatives, a tough-as-nails orphanage and, finally, a foster family ill-equipped to nurture them. As they mature and cope with their traumatic past in dramatically differently ways, their imprisoned father remains a specter in their lives, affecting every decision they make.