Perfect Family

This originally appeared at The Irresponsible Reader.
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Let me just get this out of the way, if this doesn't make you think of an episode (I won't say which) of Star Trek: The Next Generation you're not paying attention. Bettison's take on it is more satisfactory, however.

Bettison has given us a nice little piece of Magical Realism – Sadie and her husband, Kevin, have a cute little boy named Marcus, and a devoted golden retriever, Sammy. All in all, it's a perfect family, a part of the perfect life that Sadie's always wanted.

And then Marcus starts doing things that are beyond belief. As the reader learns about what Marcus' abilities are and start to wonder where those abilities come from (as Kevin and Sadie are). But we also start to learn that their family isn't quite as ideal as they might seem – but perhaps even more perfect, than Sadie realizes (that makes sense to me, and will probably make sense to anyone who's read this).

There are parts of this book – when Marcus first displays his abilities, for example – that are disturbing, there's some real dark times, too. In other hands, this could've been a very different kind of book – not that hopeful or anything, but borderline-horror. But that's not what Bettison gave us – there's life and love amidst the darkness.

On the one hand, I wanted more detail, more explanation, more exploration of Marcus' abilities, but I'm pretty sure that if I got what I wanted, the story wouldn't work as well as it did.

Give this one a read, you'll be pleased.

Disclaimer: I received a copy of this from the author in exchange for an honest review.