IN SHORT: This Psychological Thriller Book is well-written but disturbing.

REVIEW

Married couple Christopher and Hannah are a surgeon and nurse at the same hospital. They are, by all accounts, caring, good people living enviable lives. But they have been unable to have a child, and it’s become a painful subject for them.

Then a little girl is brought in to their hospital. She had been found wandering alone, and she is malnourished and had clearly been abused for a long time. Christopher performs surgery on her and, as he visits her, forms an attachment with the cute 6-year-old. Janie, in turn, responds well to him. Christopher persuades Hannah to become foster parents to her, because they’ve already connected.

While the couple know that they will have to be prepared for a lot of issues with the girl who has gone through so much, they have no idea just how damaged she is. Janie acts out in horrific ways and is particularly cold to and manipulative with Hannah. As time goes on, the intense pressure creates cracks in Christopher and Hannah’s relationship and leads to danger they never expected.

The Perfect Child focuses on one very psychologically damaged girl, and while some of what happens toward the end is probably supposed to be a big surprise or twist, I knew from early on just what would happen. It was still quite disturbing to see it all play out. So much just goes from horrific to even worse along all kinds of lines. So many people are hurt. I much preferred Berry’s more recent Book The Secrets of Us. It’s still very much a thriller about serious cracks in someone’s psyche, but it’s not nearly as disturbing (for me, at least). But if you don’t mind reading about a child doing and experiencing horrible things, you’ll likely appreciate this psychological thriller book.

RATING

Rated: Moderate. Profanity includes fewer than 10 instances of mild language and a dozen uses of the name of Deity in vain. A married couple have sex, but there are no details. Violence includes two murders and an attempted killing. There are a number of references to child abuse, with some details about how badly neglected the young girl in the story had been, as well as abused. The story hinges on what had happened to her. Just enough details are provided that the reader understands what a horrific situation the child had been in, but it’s not drawn out. In a way the book is really rated mild, but since it focuses so much on abuse and has some disturbing plot lines, it’s a moderate.

The post The Perfect Child appeared first on Rated Reads.