The Murderer's Daughters

Sisters Lulu and Merry had an unusual childhood. The day before Lulu's tenth birthday, her parents were arguing and her mother kicked her father out of the house with a strict warning to Lulu to never let her father in again no matter how much he begged.  However, when her father returned, he forced his way into the house and began a struggle with his wife. Lulu ran for help, returning to find that her father had murdered her mother, stabbed her younger sister Merry, and attempted to kill himself as well.

For thirty years, the two sisters tried to live their lives and move on while their father stayed locked up in prison. They had no stability in their lives as they jumped around from living with their grandparents to multiple foster care homes. Other family members refused to take them in for fear of having a connection to their father. The girls spent their lives constantly cast under his shadow.

Lulu spent her life pretending that she had no father, that he was dead to her, while Merry lived with a constant battle of feeling pressured and compelled to help him. Both of them lived in fear that one day their father would be granted parole and be back in their lives without anything to protect them from him. Lulu maintained a strong sense of restraint about her life, controlling everything that she possibly could. Merry, on the other hand, lived much more loosely. She was afraid to get too close to anyone, knowing how quickly people can disappoint you and vanish from your life. She allows herself to be taken care of by other people, never wanting too much responsibility.

The Murderer's Daughters was an interesting look at how different people deal with tragedy. Merry, the younger daughter that was stabbed, continues to feel a familial tie to her father despite his intense betrayal, while Lulu lives in anger and attempts to cut her father out of her life completely. Author Randy Susan Meyers did a great job of focusing on the girls and how they lived a life after dealing with such a catastrophe as children. I liked that the book focused so strongly on the girls and not the father as much, although I do wish there was more about the girls during their teen years when they were just living in the shadow of the event and didn't really have their own identities yet. The book was well written and it was easy to sympathize and root for the two sisters.