This is a book about family relationships ... or maybe I should say dysfunctional family relationships. It deals with incest, abuse, homosexuality, racial prejudice, and trauma and its out-workings all in one book. Those are a lot of heavy subjects to put into one volume. I started out really liking the book and thankful that the author was able to write about dark, heavy subjects without crossing the line into lewdness and more information than we need to know. But the book got worse as it went on. Not only did Ms. MacDonald make the book much longer than it needed to be, but the family got weirder and weirder. I will say that Ms. MacDonald is an excellent writer and she kept me turning the pages until near the end when I started skimming because I really wanted to finish the book and it just seemed to go on and on. I never lost the plot by skipping pages! So, I didn't hate the book, but it's not one I would tell others they just really need to read.