This family is so odd...so unusual...that while I read it I understood why Lily's tragedy was a tragedy that happened to everyone. Andrew and Maureen lost their first born daughter Janie to an illness when she was 2 years old. This affected the rest of their lives and their next two children.
They tossed out everything that was Janie's and started over with Lily...and then had Anna to keep Lily company...or so Anna thinks. The parents ultimately stayed together as long as they could until they couldn't anymore.
And even in a normal world...Lily is just a little bit off...a little different...but does that set her up as person capable of killing someone? She ruthlessly kills a banana slug when she is about 5...was this a sign? Something that her parents should have jumped on? She does a cartwheel after her roommate dies...what is this...what kind of sign is this? Or is she just odd...weird...wired differently. But again...does this mean she killed Katy? Katy...the ultimate California girl...beautiful, perfect, likeable.
Then add to this the fact that she is an American in a foreign land...Eduardo...the prosecutor...weird in his own right...with domestic issues of his own...does not get her...does not understand her...and this makes him crazy...even rather obsessed with figuring her out.
And then again let's add to all of this these facts...she spoke to Eduardo without counsel, there is so much incriminating evidence surrounding her, her host family wasn't that crazy about her, her relationship with Sebastien...the foreign boyfriend...
is weird because he is weird. Oh my goodness! What a book!
This is a mighty book and one that poses many questions. I am not sure that I loved it but I was so wrapped up in it I wrote two separate reviews about it and I am still thinking about it. Lily is the girl that I really don't want to be friends with...not for any valid reason but just because being around her would make me feel uncomfortable.
Does she know too much or is she too naive? And there is the entire issue of dead Janie...the sister Lily and Anna never knew but whose presence was there. Always there. Or was it the way losing a child affected the way Maureen and Andrew raised Lily and Anna. Sometimes I felt that they were afraid of Lily. Or afraid for her.
See what I mean about this book? It would be a tremendous book for discussion for any book club.
So...those are my thoughts after reading the last few words. I still don't know how I feel about Lily and what she did or did not do.
Happy Reading!
