The Favorite Child by Cathryn Grant
Genre: Domestic thriller, Family drama, Suspense
Read: 22nd August 2022
Published: 14th August 2022
★★★★ 4 stars
DESCRIPTION:
Annie’s sister has gone missing. Why doesn’t anyone care?
Annie feels like she's at a good place in her life. Happily married, expecting her first child, enjoying a vacation with her extended family at their beautiful coastal home.
But then her sister, Sunday, suddenly goes missing.
Annie is immediately concerned, but the rest of the family assure her that everything's fine, this is the kind of thing Sunday does, she'll be back…
But Annie knows in her heart that something is very wrong. And she won't rest until she sees her sister safe and well.
As Annie digs for the truth, she realizes that some of her family are not what they seem. And as she draws closer to uncovering their horrifying secret, Annie finally understands that she and her unborn child are in terrible danger…
MY THOUGHTS:
The holiday from hell and a monstrous family...
I know the name Cathryn Grant and have seen her books on Amazon, and I think I may have even purchased one at some stage, but this is the first time I have actually read one of her books. THE FAVORITE CHILD begins as a slow build not entirely uninteresting and a whole lot of psycho going on. My favourite kind...especially in domestic thrillers. But this family is a whole different kettle of fish...and a rather smelly lot, I might add, with things definitely with an odour of fishiness.
Annie is five months pregnant and has returned to the family home on the Californian coast with her husband Michael for the family's annual summer holiday get-together. Almost from the first moment they arrive things are amiss...and they very quickly go downhill from there. Her younger sister Sunday, the favourite child of her parents, has seemingly packed her bags and disappeared overnight. And no one, but Annie, seems to be overly concerned. As they sit around the breakfast table, Annie tries to raise her concerns but no one takes her seriously, citing Sunday's tantrums for not getting her own way and flouncing off in a huff and her pregnancy hormones. But Annie is worried for her sister. Why, she's not entirely sure. But something doesn't feel right.
The further Annie digs, the more she is convinced that Sunday didn't just up and leave. And the more her family accuse her of being hysterical and that it is not good for "Baby Girl". In an act of desperation, Annie calls Sunday's ex-husband Liam and relays her concerns to him. He has always been wary of the family and their cult-like behaviour and sibling bullying which he found damaging to Sunday. Annie is even more convinced that something is wrong when Liam reveals Sunday had called him just a few days about, upset about something, though he didn't know what. Why would she call her ex-husband when she could confide in her family?
Added to her concerns are the disturbing dreams and visions she only seems to have whenever she returns to her family home. They are both vivid and vague in equal measures and so confusing she struggles to understand what they mean. So what is her subconscious trying to tell her?
Told in the first person through Annie's narrative, peppered with the odd past chapters from each of the siblings', THE FAVORITE CHILD is an intriguing and multilayered family drama of domestic suspense with deep-seated secrets at its very core. From the very beginning it is clear that there is something very wrong in the Ledger household. They appear to be the perfect family with a successful entrepreneurial business based on the "family principles" that has been drummed into the children from an early age. The father sees himself as something of an expert on the matter and how to keep a marriage alive, children from going off the rails and a family together. The whole things screamed "cult" to me...particularly when threatened, the family then gather close and rebuff the adversary. It is creepy. And quite honestly, the family are creepy. They are highly dysfunctional with questioning behaviour and an abnormal belief system that appeared on the surface to be admirable, but below the surface was anything but.
One of the most irritating aspects throughout the story was the fact that the family saw Annie's baby as their's and constantly referred to it as "Baby Girl" in a very proprietorial way. But the even more irritating aspect was their constant touching or rubbing Annie's pregnant belly whilst talking about "Baby Girl" as if the child was theirs and Annie was just the incubator bearing the extension of their family. It made me cringe.
The further the story developed and the more Annie uncovered, I was just screaming at her to pack her bags and leave! Her hubby Michael was more than eager to do just that but Annie refused to do so until she found out what really happened to Sunday. Her family were truly a bunch of fruit loops. Completely bonkers. The lot of them. Added to that is the constant gaslighting, Annie didn't know what or who to believe. But there was something so addictive about the storyline that kept you drawn in and I was just itching to find out what happened.
Despite the confusing narrative, whether or not Annie was reliable or not, I managed to piece together what I thought happened through the bits that were drip-fed to us between the lines. I guessed a couple of the reveals but wasn't sure how the entire mystery played out. The ending was satisfactory and, quite honestly, something of a relief. There was a nice little twist at the end that gave readers a sense of closure as it does for Annie.
THE FAVORITE CHILD is a dark and sometimes disturbing domestic suspense thriller that was as intriguing as it was addictive. I was impressed with my first read by this author that I will continue to look out for others penned by her in the future...and add those to my ever-growing TBR pile.
Overall, a superbly twisted quick read with a decent plot twist and an even more disturbing family.
I would like to thank #CathrynGrant, #Netgalley, #InkubatorBooks and #ZoolooTours for an ARC of #TheFavoriteChild in exchange for an honest review.
MEET THE AUTHOR:
Cathryn's fiction has appeared in Alfred Hitchcock and Ellery Queen Mystery Magazines, The Shroud Quarterly Journal, and been anthologized in The Best of Every Day Fiction and You, Me & A Bit of We. Her short story, “I Was Young Once”, received an honorable mention in the 2007 Zoetrope All-story Short Fiction contest.
Her psychological suspense fiction reveals the motives and desires that lead to suburban crime. She’s the author of two psychological thrillers, seven suburban noir novels, the Alexandra Mallory psychological suspense series, the Haunted Ship Trilogy, the Madison Keith Ghost Story series, and a variety of short fiction.
When she’s not writing, Cathryn reads fiction, eavesdrops, and tries to play golf without hitting her ball into the sand or the water. She lives on the Central California coast with her husband and two cats.
Social Media links:
Thank you as always for sharing your review x
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