Beth H. (suburbanalien) reviewed on 7/13/2010 + 63 more book reviews

If you ever thought YOUR family was messed up ... if you ever thought your mom nagged too much, your dad was overbearing, your uncle was paranoid and your brother had a bad temper ... no matter what you think of your family, you've got nothing on this one. Of the four principle characters in the book, one is dead, two are serving at least 120 years in jail each, and one is writing this book. Name a crime, any crime, it's here. The older son escaped the grip of ever-escalating violent and degenerate criminal behavior because as he was growing up, the family was not wealthy yet, so he was exposed to other families with more normal lives and he was able to distinguish between normal childhood behavior and the craziness his mother was getting him to do. The younger son was not so lucky, as he was imprisoned in the home during the times of the worst of the criminal activities and the parents has more influence on him than his older brother (who escaped the family, or at least distanced himself as much as possible when possible). Plus the younger one was not allowed to form any attachment with anyone outside the immediate family, as his parents were continuously changing addresses to flee the latest arrest warrant, hiring and firing vagrants and illegals as domestic help, obsessing over surveillance and security of whatever their latest hideout was, changing names to avoid prosecution, telling paranoid tales of people out to kill them, anything to keep the younger one in constant stress and fear and utterly dependant on them for every need. As you are reading this book, you have to keep reminding yourself that the one who wrote it turned out okay, because you will really feel for, and fear for, the fates of the children in this book. And I thought I knew some crazy families. It won't matter who you are or what your mom has done, it won't compare to this mom.

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