Karen Bloom is a Tiger Mother. This is a title she not only accepts, but revels in. Her youngest daughter Bronte’s day is crammed full of activities; piano lessons, harp lessons, dancing lessons and tutoring. Her older son Ewan is her “failure” as he did not succeed in getting enrolled in a prestigious private school and now spends most of his time smoking in his room with his friend Dale. Her quiet, well-behaved step-daughter Verity is enrolled in the school but is currently going through counselling and is being drug-tested at school. Why? Because she violently attacked and tried to strangle Karen. Her husband and Verity’s father has become a borderline alcoholic who has extra-marital affairs. Not at all ironic given that their relationship began as an affair.
Bronte goes missing one day while out with Verity and from here we start to see Karen’s true colours. Rather than immediate concern for her daughter’s whereabouts she turns on the police investigating and turns on Verity for losing her sister. Then, all of a sudden, Bronte arrives home completely unharmed but unwilling to tell anyone where she had been. This is the start of several twists and turns within this story.
To be honest, I was a little disappointed in this book. As a fan of psychological thrillers, I expected something more disturbing and, well, psychological. There seemed to be a focus of having lots of twists to the story rather than the actual story itself. The character’s didn’t seem to be very developed and I would love to have learned more about Ewan’s friend Dale and how/why he came to be nearly part of the family, he could have been a very interesting character. That said, if you’re stuck for something to read, this is grand but it’s not what it could have been
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