The Murder's Daughters

The Murderer's Daughters by Randy Susan Meyers is a haunting tale by a first time author.  After convincing Lulu to let him in the house, Lulu and Merry's father murders their mother, stabs Merry and tries to kill himself the day before Lulu's 11th birthday.  Lulu had run to get help and had escaped the attacks but blames herself for everything that happened.  Merry and her father survive but the repercussions of this horrific act haunt the girls throughout their lives.  Known as the murderers daughters, no one in the family wants to take care of them so they are shuffled from an orphanage to a foster home.  Lulu tries to escape her past burying herself in school and work while still trying to take care of her sister. Merry believes her father needs family and finds herself as his only link to the outside trapped between his neediness and her sisters denial that he exists.  

This book is powerful.  I finished it in two days.  I couldn't put it down.  It really examines how you can't outrun your past, that denying it doesn't make it go away.  It isn't until the girls are confronted with another trauma that they are forced to face their past leading them to heal their future.

I am still in awe of this book, it touched so many emotions that I think it will sit with me for a long time.  Anyone who has been touched by a dysfunctional family or domestic violence may find themselves within these pages.  I look forward to what more Randy Susan Meyers has in store for us.

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