Just Jennifer

Mother, Mother by Karen Zailckas (Crown, September 17, 2013)

Josephine Hurst has her life, and her family under control, though not in a good way.  She is home schooling her son Will who is a genius, but has been recently diagnosed with Aspergers and epilepsy, has all but given up on her idle daughter Violet who has been experimenting with Eastern philosophies and ways of life and dabbling in a some herbal, hallucinogenic drugs and is pretending that it is normal that her older daughter Rose has run away from the family to live with her boyfriend, estranging herself from the family.  Josephine has just committed Violet to a psych ward claiming Violet attacked Will; Violet knows she had taken some bad seeds, but also knows there is no way she would ever harm her brother and works hard to regain control so she can leave the hospital.  Her father is no help as he has begun heavily drinking and is possibly involved with another woman.  Salvation appears imminent as Violet begins receiving letters from Rose promising that Violet can come and live with her and her boyfriend in New York.  As Violet begins to investigate Rose’s whereabouts, added by social services who were called in after the attack on Will, she becomes drawn into a web of lies and psychological abuse that she could never imagined.  She knows the perfect family façade that Josephine has created is non-existent, but she has no idea just how twisted her mother is and to what lengths she will go to protect her image of a perfect family.  Deeply disturbing with twists and turns, Mother, Mother will have readers thinking they know the solution, but a final twist proves even more unsettling than imagined.  A disturbing first novel by the author of the dysfunctional memoir Smashed.