A Tortured Soul by L.A. Detwiler
The story follows Crystal Connor. Crystal is very unassuming, meek and does exactly what everyone expects of her. When she gets pregnant at a young age her mother and father force her to marry the father and when she moves out they wash their hands of her. Crystal is ready for the challenge of being a wife and mother and is happy to be away for her abusive father and god fearing mother. Crystals world comes shattering down when she loses the baby and her husband becomes very abusive both physically and emotionally towards her. Throughout the book we get a good idea of Crystals past as well as present time. At the beginning of the story Crystal is on the cusp of giving birth, when she delivers her stillborn son her husband goes missing shortly after. Crystal lives daily in the fear that he will come back angrier than he was when he left.
I must say this book had possibly the most difficult opening chapters that ive ever read. I read a lot of dark thrillers, domestic violence in books and im typically not triggered by many things but man oh man that chapter was DARK! Im really glad i persevered as that chapter was such a good insight into Crystals state of mind and her marriage. Crystals husband Richard was the actual worst, he gets off on the control he has over his wife and treats her like she is his personal property. I wasnt overly invested in what had happened to him as i really didnt want him to come back.
The twist was fairly expected as the build up really led the reader to the only possible conclusion. There wasnt many other characters introduced so it wasnt really formatted as a 'whodunnit' and i dont think that was the authors intention (i could be wrong?) what this book did was provide an in depth character driven story with thrilling elements. I felt sorry for Crystal throughout but at the same time i didnt understand her as she had so many chances to escape the abuse and didnt take them, her reasons were discussed but i just didnt get it. I cant speak too much into the ending as i dont want to spoil anything but i was very conflicted in how i felt about it but the author didnt take the easy option of an ending which was great.
The writing is descriptive but in the best way as it really gives you a clear vision of where they live and their life in general. I very much enjoyed Crystals inner monologue. The only parts i didnt enjoy were the night time dream chapters as for me it didnt really add anything to the overall story and the other thing was the constant mention of god and praying, that wasnt really for me but other than that it was good, i got through it so quickly in a day or 2. Reminded me of Karen Slaughter so would be perfect for fans of hers.
3.5/5 stars. Thank you again to L.A. Detwiler for reaching out to me!
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