This is a story about the Butler Family. Althea and her husband Proctor are arrested and it shocks both the town and rocks their family to the core. Althea’s daughters are being looked after by their aunt Lilian and Viola. The aunts are struggling to care for the girls as this trauma brings back many of the issues they faced as girls brought up in the same small town. Lilian is trying to hold everyone together and failing and Viola is avoiding coming back to town to help.
Exquisite writing from several POV, this novel was a heart wrenching story of what happens when the actions of two people impact their family. We see how past family dynamics influence people’s future and how the difficulties of mental illness make those dynamics even harder to maneuver.