Nicholas Sparks (2010) Safe Haven. London, Little Brown. 978-0-7515-4852-5

 

The story is one of a woman having fled an abusive marriage and establishing a new life with a new identity, all the time knowing that her husband might track her down.
 
[Trigger Warning: Domestic Violence]
[Spoiler alert]
 
The story is set in the present, with the main character looking back and reflecting on the abuse she suffered at the hands of her husband and constantly looking over her shoulder for any indication that he might have caught up with her. As she gradually begins to feel safe a relationship develops with a local widower and his young children
 
The story is told from two points of view – that of the main character and that of her increasingly deranged ex-husband – until the inevitable happens and he tracks her down leading to a violent, but ultimately “happy”, ending for the main character and her new life.
 
The book has a number of stereotypes, not least that of the police detective as the husband, and the main character having been brought up in a household where she witnessed violence and abuse. The domestic abuse is extreme, both in the elements of control, the violence and the way in which the abuser tracks down his wife.
 
There is a plot twist at the end where the woman the main character portrays is revealed as the ghost her new partners dead wife, guiding her in their relationship.
 
The book was made into a film – billed as a “romantic drama fantasy thriller” starring Julianne Hough as the main character and David Lyons as the abuser. The reviews were, on the whole, negative, described as "schmaltzy, predictable, and melodramatic”. The plot twist particularly came in for a considerable amount of negative criticism.

Delia Owens (2018) Where the Crawdads Sing. London, Corsair. 978-1-4721-5466-8

 

[Trigger Warning: Domestic Violence and Sexual Violence]
 
The theme of this book is not about domestic abuse, but violence towards the mother and siblings of the main character and later in the book, the protagonist is subjected to sexual violence.
 
[Spoiler alert].
 
The story follows the life of a young girl, Kya, abandoned by both parents and her older siblings in the marshlands of North Carolina. The family is brought low by the father’s violence and alcoholism leading all the family to leave, until he himself disappears, leaving Kya alone to fend for herself.
 
Kya survives and eventually thrives with the help and support of a few particular neighbours, including the man she will eventually marry, who teaches her to read. The “Marsh Girl” does however suffer considerable negative attention and is shunned by many of the local townspeople. She is pursued by the local town “jock” and has an affair he keeps secret while making a more socially acceptable marriage. Meeting her later he wishes to continue the affair and sexually assaults her. When he is later found dead, she is implicated, tried but finally acquitted.
 
With the support of her friend, and later husband, Tate, she becomes a well-regarded naturalist, author and artist. Only after her death does her husband find out that she is also a published poet and did in fact commit the murder for which she was tried.
 
Awards:
·        The New York Times Fiction Best Seller 2019 and 2020
·        Listed as Barnes and Nobles Best Books of 2018
·        Sold more print copies than any other adult fiction or non-fiction title in 2019

 

Brianna Labuskes (2019) Girls of Glass. Seattle, Thomas and Mercer. 978-1-503-90228-2

 

This is a murder mystery written from the point-of-view of the Detective looking to solve the abduction and murder of a six-year old child. Her involvement and detachment in the case is constantly questioned as previously her daughter had been abducted and murdered when she was four years old.

[Trigger Warning: Domestic Violence, Child Abuse, Incest]

[Spoiler alert]

Although the story is told by the detectives (in the third person) involved in investigating the disappearance and subsequent murder of a six-year old girl, the story revolves round a wealthy and powerful but toxic family living in a small town in Florida.

The family is headed up by a charming, narcissistic District Judge, secure in his role with all the right powerful connections. At home he is a sexual abuser to his two daughters, his granddaughter and with clear intent on his daughter/granddaughter as she matures. His wife maintains a perfect, wealthy family façade while exerting iron control over the family at home. The abuse includes financial abuse, physical violence and close control of the movements of all four of the other female members of the household. The two daughters are in varying states of mental and physical collapse, coping with substance abuse and unable to parent their own children.

The book has an excellent plot as a murder mystery with twists and turns keeping you guessing until the final, unexpected, revelation and subsequent actions. However much of the writing is cliched and the characters two-dimensional. The abuse falls into the stereotypes of powerful, untouchable men (another US judge) abusing family members and getting away with it.

Jane Hamilton (1988) The Book of Ruth. London, Black Swan. 978-0-552-99685-8

 

The Book of Ruth is a lovely lyrical book but tells, with increasing tension, a horrific story. Ruth is the narrator of her own story - of being a girl, a young woman, a wife and a mother in a Midwestern small town in the US.

[Trigger Warning: Domestic Violence]
[Spoiler alert]

Ruth starts her story after the events of the novel are complete and she is looking back, deciding where to begin her story. Her childhood was characterised by a controlling and emotionally abusive mother, who prefers her academically talented son, and an abusive father who leaves when the children are young.

Ruth’s development is inhibited by her mother but she finds solace in correspondence with her wealthier and childless aunt who encourages her love of books and stories. After school she joins her mother working in a dry-cleaning store.

Ruth describes meeting her husband-to-be, seen by all around as a loser. They marry but are too poor to afford their own home so stay living with Ruth’s mother. She sees only the good in him and ignores his inability to hold down a job, to contribute in any meaningful way to the household and to behave appropriately. Her pregnancy and the birth of her son brings some joy to the whole household but the tension and the underlying sense of impending violence increase until it explodes into extreme violence and murder.

Ruth’s voice is beautifully held throughout the book – a sing song way of talking and her lack of sophistication. The growing tension is so subtle it creeps under the radar until you are fully aware of it. I thought this was really appropriate in a story of domestic violence, where abuse may start small and unnoticed until it starts to escalate. The book does, however, still hold onto stereotypes of domestic abuse occurring in uneducated families in poverty.

 Awards:

• The Hemingway Foundation/PEN Award for Best First Novel 1989

• Great Lakes College Association New Writer’s Award 1989

• Wisconsin Library Association Banta Book Award 1989

• Oprah’s Book Club selection for November 1996