** spoiler alert ** 
 After reading the synopsis of this book I was a bit nervous about reading a psychological thriller especially with there being a young child involved. It's not normally the type of stories I pick up to read. 
 So naturally, I had anticipated a story that would have me nervous and on edge from beginning to end, But that was just not the case. This story was about so much more than a serial killer/rapist stalking a daughter he never knew he had. It was a story about the love and hate dynamic of families and the need to know why we are they way we are. 
 The main character Sara has lived a wonderful life with a very loving adopted family but has always felt that her adoptive father resented her and favored his two (non-adopted) daughters more. This rejection from her father has left her with emotional scars and a difficulty to allow herself to be loved by herself and by others. Sara is a very REAL depiction of a human being with faults, fears, and problems. 
 The emotional similarities between Sara (a caring and loving mother) and her birth father, John (a serial murder/rapist) is an amazing thing to discover throughout the story. Chevy Stevens has essentially humanized a "monster" and left the readers torn between our hate for what he has become and our compassion for what he could have been. His insecurities and father-issues have left him emotionally needy. When he discovers he has a daughter and then a granddaughter he honestly believes that having them in his life will stop his need to kill. That their love for him will FIX him. This is a very heartbreaking thing to know when Sara finally kills him and has no intention of ever loving him. She is the victim, but you can't help but feel like he is as well. I think the final line in the book sums up the story so incredibly beautifully that it gave me chills. 
 "I wanted to tell her those jokes were silly. I wanted to take any part of John that's in her and pull it out. But as I watched her take a big bite out of her pancake, her face still in smiles, I thought about a father who didn't let his little boy tell jokes."