This book is so subtly disturbing at the beginning, very slowly developing into something visceral. From the moment Vera returns home and confronts her mother, whom she calls Daphne, there is a distance and darkness between them. Daphne is cold, bitter, nothing like a mother should be (but Vera is used to this). Daphne seems more at home with a stranger (the artist), who is ripping apart her home while she slowly parishes, than with her own daughter. Whenever Vera talks to her, or approaches the dining room she is living in, a darkness seems to consume all light and warmth. Their relationship is clearly strained, and as the book progresses you learn more and more of why that is. This book looks at the stark reality that while home is supposed to be a place of comfort and safety, more often than not it can be the place where all your awful monsters live. Vera loved the support her father offered, but also knew him to be a murderer. This book is about how we often find the people meant to protect us are the first ones to cause us pain. It is a book about trauma, abuse, healing, and finding strength after confronting the very thing that caused all those years of pain. It is also a look at nurture versus nature. Is Vera destined to be like her father, or would her mother showing her kindness and care turn her away from the acts committed by her father? This book looks also at the intricacies of love. That Vera can love her father after everything he did, because he was always good and kind with her. Her father was the person she was closest to and he taught her things she would always remember, he was patient with her, he was her safe haven from the oppressive and disdainful nature of her mother. Vera only ever experienced the sweetness of him. Even when Vera may have witnessed some of his "other" self, she could see it through the eyes of a daughter clouded by believing her father knew what he was doing and was doing things for the good of humanity. It is also about the love she has for a home that was steeped in tragedy; because, even as it was a place that she found safe, it was also a place where someone else found danger and death. This book is very dark, very dreary. You do not know whether to trust Vera, to feel empathy for her. Knowing who her father is, you automatically question her, you begin to wonder if she too has darkness inside her. Unfortunately, though, this means that as soon as her father was charged the house became a house of murder and evil, and all those who inhabit it are considered tainted as well (no matter if they knew what was happening or not). I enjoyed jumping back in time to when Vera lived with her father and Daphne, learning about what came to be. It helped the reader to understand Vera better, to know what she was thinking. It was also interesting learning about the artist and his intent. How he seems to be more vile than Vera, his desire to destroy the home in order to create artistic pieces. His dismantling the house is reminiscent of what her father did, it is a sort of murder. He is slowly killing the only place that Vera has left. He tries to bring her in on his plan, tries to woo her, but he is deceptive. From the beginning he gives off a creep vibe and it only grows as he begins to push into Vera's space, into the places that she once found care and comfort. I really enjoyed this dark book, it pushed into me and held on to me until the last page. I was riveted and could not look away. I highly encourage horror readers to step into this strange little tale of a killer's daughter and the home she loves.
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