The Family
Five years ago, Leah’s daughter, Nyla, vanished. Now, she’s back. A dream come true for Leah, until she looks closer. Nyla is different. Something is profoundly wrong, a silent scream etched into her unsettling appearance and guarded eyes. Where has she been? And what unspeakable secrets is she hiding?
For eighteen-year-old Nyla, leaving her “overbearing” mother for her charismatic father, Paul, promised liberation. She found it in a remote Appalachian farmhouse, a self-sustaining collective where “the family” shared everything. It was the simple, perfect life she’d always craved, far from the judgments of society.
But Paul’s paradise soon twisted into a prison. His ever-expanding list of rules became absolute law, enforced with chilling punishments. The communal dream morphed into a nightmare, an inescapable web of control.
Nyla escaped once. But the true horror lies in what she endured to get away. And what “the family” will do to reclaim what they believe is theirs.
- Leah - Nyla’s mother, 55
- Walker - Leah’s partner, 55
- Nyla - Leah’s daughter
- Paul -Leah’s father, resident of the farm
- Ava - Karly’s granddaughter, resident of the farm
- June - Owner and resident of the farm
- Sarah - June’s daughter, Nyla’s half sister
- Randolph - Beatrice’s husband, resident of the farm
- Beatrice - Randolph’s wife, resident of the farm
- Mark - Resident of the farm
- Karly - Ava’s grandmother, resident of the farm
- Carrie - Resident of the farm
- Little Carrie - Carrie’s daughter, resident of the farm
- Danae - Nyla and Mark’s child
- Evie - Nyla and Mark’s child
- Clementine - Resident of the farm
- Nyla, now twenty-three years old, shows up at her grandmother’s cabin in Georgia, where Leah and Walker are now living, looking emaciated, and Leah welcomes her with open arms.
- Five years earlier: Nyla arrives in Tennessee to live with Paul at an isolated farm.
- Paul lives off the grid in a self-sustaining group with twelve other people.
- Four years earlier: Karly suffers a stroke, and Nyla becomes her caregiver.
- June plants poisonous plants in her garden because she enjoys the challenge of growing them.
- Nyla sees Paul smother Karly to death with a pillow.
- Nyla sees Paul kissing Ava and tells June.
- The next morning June is gone.
- Three years earlier: Paul and Ava start having sex when Ava is only seventeen.
- Randolph turns all his affection toward Carrie and away from Beatrice.
- Paul removes all the doors in the house except for the one on the punishment room.
- Carrie gets pregnant with Randolph’s child.
- Someone poisons Carrie and she dies.
- Nyla thinks Beatrice did it because she was jealous of Carrie.
- Ava is pregnant with Paul’s child.
- Paul asks Nyla to be little Carrie’s new mother.
- Randolph leaves the farm and Beatrice follows him.
- Three years earlier: Ava asks Nyla to get pregnant so they can go through it together, so Nyla has sex with Mark and becomes pregnant.
- Ava gives birth to a stillborn baby.
- Paul forces her to get pregnant again right away.
- Nyla gives birth to a baby she names Danae.
- Two years earlier: Paul returns from town with a sixteen-year-old named Clementine, who is pregnant with his child.
- Clementine gives birth to a baby boy and becomes pregnant again immediately.
- Clementine realizes that Nyla always drinks tea after having sex with Mark and that it must contain something keeping her from getting pregnant again, so she tells Paul.
- Paul tells her to destroy her poison plants and puts her in isolation until she becomes pregnant again.
- Nyla destroys the poison garden but secretly keeps some belladonna.
- Present: Nyla tells Leah about living at the farm, the rules they had to follow, and how Paul became increasingly controlling.
- Leah sees a blue truck on the road and Nyla says she thinks it belongs to someone from the farm looking for her.
- One year earlier: Nyla gives birth to Evie.
- Seven days earlier: Nyla serves Paul, Clementine and Mark tea poisoned with belladonna.
- Nyla, Ava, and the children try to flee, but Paul’s truck won’t start, so Nyla gives Ava the address to her grandmother’s cabin and runs for help.
- Nyla can’t find help and runs back to the farm to find Mark and Clementine dead and Paul, Ava and the children missing.
- Present: Ava shows up at Leah’s house with the children.
- Ava explains that she was able to get away with the children in the blue truck and drove up and down the street until she was sure it was safe to approach the house.
- Three years later: Leah and Walker build a house on their property for Ava and Nyla to live in with their children.
- Leah finds someone to adopt Clementine’s children.
- Paul is never found.
- Epilogue: Ten years later: Police receive an anonymous tip and discover the bodies of eight people who died after drinking belladonna-laced wine at a Kentucky cult led by Paul.
This book grips you from the very first chapter and refuses to let go. S.E. Green delivers a fast-paced, emotional punch of a story as Nyla goes to live with her father, Paul, only to find herself trapped in his cult as his behavior becomes increasingly erratic and sinister. The short chapters build the momentum, making it hard to find a natural stopping point. I flew through this book in a single afternoon because the mounting tension kept me glued to the page. While the characters do not have particularly distinct personalities, it completely works for a shorter, action-driven narrative and did not bother me at all. The writing is descriptive enough to paint a clear picture without wasting a single word on extra fluff, and the epilogue delivered a deeply satisfying and appropriate resolution that tied the entire story together seamlessly.
If you like cult thrillers, emotional suspense, and satisfying endings, then you will enjoy this book.
- Karly - Dead - Smothered by Paul
- Mark - Dead - Poisoned with belladonna by Nyla
- Clementine - Dead - Poisoned with belladonna by Nyla
- Paul - Dead - Drank poison as part of a suicide pact with his cult members
- Ava - Alive - Happy to be free of Paul’s control
- Nyla - Alive - Happy to be free of Paul’s control
- Carrie - Dead - Poisoned by Beatrice
- Murder
- Grooming
- Gun violence
- Infant death
- Pregnancy
- Violence
- Abortion
- Suicide
ISBN: 9798378435548
Publication Date: February 21, 2023
Note: Details are for the original edition. Other formats, editions, and audiobook versions may be available.
