I chose this as one of my June Book of the Month picks. I was really looking forward to it. Unfortunately, it was just okay for me.

Possible Trigger Warnings:

rape, emotional and physical abuse, murder

The book is separated into three parts, each being from the POV of a different member of the titular 'family'. The first part is the father's (Adam's) version of events. I found his narrative voice to be a little clunky at first. There are a lot of sentence fragments and short, choppy sentences in this part. At first, I thought that perhaps the fact that this is a translated work might have something to do with my inability to connect to the writing style, but when it switches to the daughter's and finally the mother's POVs, I realized that the way the author wrote the father's POV was a specific choice, and I'm not sure exactly how I feel about that, because it did take me awhile to get into his part of the story.
That being said, by the time we were thrust into Stella's (the daughter's) POV, I was immersed in Adam's story. I didn't like him at all. He was a hypocrite and a liar, but I was compelled and wanted to know how everything was going to unfold. Then, the story switches into Stella's POV, and I felt like I was starting all over again. It was honestly a little jarring. They do have distinct voices, but the shift in writing style did throw me a bit. Stella is also not someone I can say I 'liked', but I found myself caring about what happened to her. Also, this is where you start to experience the extent of the unreliability of these narrators. I was already suspicious of Adam because every time he was relating something that could possibly make him look bad her would minimize it and try to shift the focus/blame on someone else. But then in Stella's POV, there are two scenes specifically where her version of what happened is in direct opposition to Adam's version. Then in Ulrika's (the mother's) POV there is another scene where her version is the exact opposite of Adam's.
Ulrika is probably the least developed of the three POVs, hers taking place almost entirely during Stella's trial. This is the section where everything unfolds and we learn what actually happened the night of the murder. She was, along with her husband and daughter, a miserable character, but she was also uninteresting to me, so I found myself growing weary with this book as it was wrapping up in the last 75 or so pages, which is the exact opposite of what a 'thriller' should do, at least in my mind.
I wasn't as taken with the ending as many other people seem to be. I see it described as a thriller, but I would contend that it is more of a character-study of a dysfunctional family with a mystery element. I found the sections with discrepancies among the three narrators far more interesting than the actual murder mystery plot. I was promised a 'last page shocker' that never came. It all unfolded a little too neatly, with no real shocking twists or turns. There are reveals, but they aren't all that surprising.

BTW, Adam is the worst. He is the worst kind of religious person -- one who likes to bring up scripture when it suits his purposes, but when he is sinful himself he justifies it by saying that 'his' god is forgiving, so his lies are no biggie. It's really gross.

Another BTW, Adam and Ulrika are shitty parents. Sorry, not sorry. They are the quintessential 'Not My Kid' parents. If you don't know what I mean by that, I'll explain. Every time something happens with their daughter, their first reaction is to deny or minimize, i.e. 'not my kid'. Even after admitting that she pretty much rules the roost at home with her temper tantrums any time she doesn't get her own way, any time someone else brings up a concern about Stella, they make excuses or flat-out deny.

All that said, these characters being unreliable narrators and overall just crappy humans isn't the reason this isn't rated higher. I just wasn't on the edge of my seat like I wanted to be. I still think this book is really interesting looking at it as a psychological domestic drama, but I think the marketing is a little off on this one.

One more thing! There are a couple of moments in this book where Stella refers to herself in ways that just didn't sit right with me. One specific moment was where she referred to herself as 'a little Aspie' because she is intrigued by real-life serial killers. I'm not sure what Asperger's has to do with liking true-crime stories. It felt like when someone calls themselves OCD because they like their homes to be tidy. There is another reference to autism that I can't recall off the top of my head, but it also felt unnecessary.