Review: Family Is Not Always Best
Rating: 3 out of 5
Date: 03 3, 2014
Gwen is a young woman who pushes to meet her actor boyfriend's, Alfie's, family for the Christmas holiday, a time filled with the memory of her own mother dying of a drug overdose--followed by her remaining two relatives dying soon thereafter, leaving her without her own family to help enjoy holiday celebrations.  Alfie reluctantly allows her to accompany him to visit the house where sisters and Rae, a mother who writes about an Alfie that had adventures that never happened in reality, expect him for his once-a-year visit and celebration.  Rae's four daughters, particularly Hattie, and the gardener, Tyler--whose real name is Marek--all seem to live a surreal life where Rae is cushioned from reality, actions aimed toward helping Rae maintain her belief in Alfie's storybook existence.  Even the room Alfie sleeps in remains as a young boy's, a testament to youth and childhood.  As Gwen begins to visit and learn more of the family, though, she begins to suspect that all is not as displayed.  More importantly, it begins to look as if Alfie may not be the person he makes himself out to be.  As she begins to talk with Marek and Hattie, and finding evidence of discrepancies in stories being told, she begins to seek out the strength of a man who has his own secrets.Written by a good wordsmith, the composition is well written with few errors.  The greatest concern is that the backstory is relatively easy to predict by the discerning reader, and without revealing the conclusion, there seems to be an element of discrepant logic in Gwen's thoughts and emotions as the situation resolves.  The predictability of Gwen's choice is somewhat banal, and a more significant author's choice would to have been to expand upon Hattie's confession in the final pages, perhaps creating a more positive reaction that would have left readers smiling.  Still, the author chose the conclusion, and it was satisfactory if not spectacular.