The Murderer's Daughters by Randy Susan Meyers

Wow, this is one that really sticks with you.  I just found it on my bookshelf one day (I'm really not sure where it came from) and finally picked it up and read through it.  And kept reading almost straight through because I was that entranced by it.  It's not that it's a pleasant story; far from it in fact.  But it is an important story, and based on glimpses of real life.

Lulu and Merry don't have the most conventional childhood, but they have parents.  That is until their father in a drunken rage kills their mother and severely injures Merry in the process.  Now parentless, they are sent to an orphanage where survival is a daily thing with the other girls.  They have family, but none that can actually take care of them want them and so until they are fostered by a well to do family, the orphanage is their existence.  Merry still visits her father and has become his link to the world and it weighs heavy on her shoulders.  Lulu prefers to think that he doesn't exist and throws herself into her studies.  As the years go by the events haunt them deeply and have an impact on every decision they make.

Lulu and Merry are both terrific characters.  Although I preferred Lulu and her storyline, both were well developed and you could feel empathy towards them.  And they were very realistic in what domestic violence does to families and how it impacts the children.  The rest of the characters were pretty much side characters.  I can't say they were as fully developed.  But they were all important and as much as you didn't like the father, he was still an integral piece of the story.  And I could feel myself growing angry at the orphanage and the people in it, which means you know the characterization was done well if you feel actual emotion.

It's a sad novel.  Very sad because it is a completely plausible situation to happen in real life.  And things like this happen all the time.  There is violence done everywhere.  But reading how these girls coped (or didn't cope) was somewhat inspiring as they were still trying to make their life and go on.  Meyers has a way for really evoking emotion from the reader and the level of detail was just right (although perhaps not quite palatable for those who can't handle violence and descriptions of violence).  I think the social message is important too.  Domestic violence can be unexpected sometimes and support for the victims is not always there.  So anything that increases awareness helps.

A very thought provoking book and one I would highly recommend.  Lulu and Merry's stories will make you want to cry and change the world.

The Murderer's Daughters
Copyright 2009
310 pages

Tell Me of Brave Women by Laura Riley

Stories about domestic abuse and overcoming obstacles always speak out to me.  You want to know that with all the unfairness in the world that there is a reason for it, that it can be overcome.  Tell Me of Brave Women is all about domestic abuse, and the women who set out to fight it.

Tell Me of Brave Women follows three different women and to an extent, one man.  Samara is a storyteller, who has traveled around the world with her husband, and in her travels, helped to found Secret Sisters.  Secret Sisters is an organization that helps battered women around the globe.  Thelma is a bartender in Appalachia who witnesses a brutal domestic attack and despite not liking "weak women" finds herself drawn to the victim and willing to help.  Evangeline was taken hostage by a crime lord and forced to become his slave in all ways. While she has freedom sometimes she chafes under his rule and the violence with which he lashes out at her. Hassad is an inspector in a country where women are considered less.  He has to follow his superiors orders, even if they are not always honorable.

I can't say that I really liked any of the characters except for Thelma.  They didn't ring as authentic for me.  Samara, while an interesting storyteller, was hard to follow because of the way her timeline and story jumped around.  I could empathize with her to a point, but understanding her motives was difficult at times.  Evangeline was a little better.  She was forced into a situation but still tried to make the best of it and do what she could to help others.  She was the bravest out of all the women by far.  Thelma was a good woman but probably had the simplest storyline of the bunch.  She witnessed something happen, didn't like it, and sought to change it.  Her storyline was much more convincing than all the others and fit with what her actual abilities would have been.  I was glad to see, that although there were some seriously evil men in this book, there were also quite a few that were good and exhibited positive attributes.  Too often books with a women empowerment theme will have every male character as horrible, and that was not the case here.

This book jumped around a lot because of all the different point of views. To add into that, one of the characters, Samara, had a storyline that jumped all over in her history and the present, which added another layer of confusion.  The writing was jumpy as well and not quite as polished as I would have expected.   The voice seemed young and while that was appropriate for Evangeline, it didn't fit the rest of the characters.  There were also some action scenes that I had trouble swallowing as well.  I think condensing and restructuring the book would have really benefited it.  That being said I think the theme of domestic abuse is a pertinent one.  It shows a group of characters willing to do something about what they see as an injustice in the world and to help women who need it wherever they may be.  The "Brave Women" of the story didn't have to do anything outstanding, just being a voice for the unheard is brave.  So on those merits, this book is important.

I like the concept of this book but just couldn't quite get into the execution.  But those who have read about domestic abuse, or gravitate to books that tell a story through different characters will probably be able to sink in quite easily with this book.

**This book was received as a free advanced reviewer's copy**

Tell Me of Brave Women
Copyright 2013
498 pages