Viva Para Contar

Whoa. This book was intense. Dealing with very psychologically disturbed children, Live to Tell doesn't pull any punches. We switch narrators between Detective D. D. Warren, Victoria, the mother of a violent son and Danielle, the only survivor of a family annihilation. That in itself sounds pretty heavy, but then you add in time spent in a children's psychiatric ward you're pretty much wrung dry.

I have very little to complain about Lisa Gardner's writing. I was at the edge of my seat, the pages flew by. I was both enthralled and horrified. But Warren was sooooo dang grumpy in this book! I truly don't remember her being this obnoxious. While the crimes were awful and she had to face them I didn't feel like she was emotionally disturbed by the crimes themselves, but more that she was pissed off that they weren't as clear cut as she thought and she was really horny and not getting any sex.

I counted the number of times she ‘scowled' at someone. It was 13. One thing that drives me nuts in books is repetitive stuff and the scowling was too much repetition for me.

But really, that was it. I loved Danielle, went back and forth with Victoria. Sometimes I felt she was an idiot, that her ex-husband was right and other times I thought she was the hero and in the end I found she was the strongest one of all.

Definitely not a story for everyone. Definitely full of stuff people don't want to think about actually existing in their world, but it was a good read if you're up for it.