Truth Be Told |
| Posted: 11 Mar 2011 06:12 PM PST  FamilyWritten by: Micol Ostow Published on: April 2011 Published by: EgmontUSA 384 PagesFormat: ARC Source: Publisher for review. Synopsis (Taken from Goodreads.com) i have always been broken. i could have. died. and maybe it would have been better if i had. It is a day like any other when seventeen-year-old Melinda Jensen hits the road for San Francisco, leaving behind her fractured home life and a constant assault on her self-esteem. Henry is the handsome, charismatic man who comes upon her, collapsed on a park bench, and offers love, a bright new consciousness, and best of all a family. One that will embrace her and offer love. Because family is what Mel has never really had. And this new family, Henry's family, shares everything. They share the chores, their bodies, and their beliefs. And if Mel truly wants to belong, she will share in everything they do. No matter what the family does, or how far they go. Told in episodic verse, family is a fictionalized exploration of cult dynamics, loosely based on the Manson Family murders of 1969. It is an unflinching look at people who are born broken, and the lengths they'll go to to make themselves "whole" again. My Review Family by Micol Ostow was an emotionally packed read. This one is written in verse and discusses a very scary part of our history. The book starts off in the present and bounces back and forth between now and the past, also adding in bits of Mel's (main character) history. The first part was really brutal, it starts off using terms like "covered in blood" and "inescapable noise". These terms set a very scary scene and have you kind of worried and drawn into the story right away. After the first few chapters, it was a little difficult to tell when we were in the past and when we were in the future, mainly because Mel's past was a very scary past as well. Once you get closer to the middle the past and present are muche easier to distinguish. There are quite a few points in this novel that discuss the sexual practices of this "family" which is more of a cult. These parts can get pretty graphic, so I really wouldn't recommend this for younger readers. It's understandable why it was described this way, but I still want to give you this warning. The story progressed smoothly. There were changes slowly building in Henry and you could see them affecting everyone around him. Once it hit the half-way point in the novel, I felt like the story moved easier than in the first half. As far as the poetry goes, I felt as if most of was very emotional and went along with the story. There were a few section that were difficult to understand, but I think the poetry was done well overall.  I am hesitant to give Family a rating because it deals with a very tough subject, but for review's sake, I'm going to give family a 3 lantern rating. I liked this and thought it was a good read. I am glad I read it and will definitely be recommending it to some people. It all depends on what your reading taste is. If you enjoy reading young adult novels with edgy subject than I recommend you pick it up. Purchase Links: or add it on 
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