Teetering between 4 and 5 stars on this, but I really did love it. The characters are engrossing--you can cry with them and you can laugh at their antics. James Piper is perhaps one of the most terrifying villains I've read lately. I always thought he was about to redeem himself (and he did have some redeeming qualities). I would think--there's no way he did that; there's no way he would do that! But as it turns out, he's just a pathetic lost soul who systematically destroys his wife and his daughters. The women in this story are incredible; they overcome (well, sort-of overcome) cultural barriers, racial stigma, sexual and emotional abuse, and become, in the end a family that is aching to simultaneously know and un-know their story.