Darling

I selected this book for the Monthly Key Word Reading Challenge. It's a psychological thriller that takes place in Britain just after the Brexit vote. Teenager Lola's father Thomas Waite has taken up with a black woman named Darling White and proposed marriage to her only three months after their initial meeting. Both Thomas and Darling are single parents. Lola and Darling dislike each other big time. Although happy in her new relationship, Darling is burdened by her five year old son Stevie's illness. He has Duchenne Muscular Distrophy, a severe muscle weakness disease, which will cut his life short. Thomas is confused by Darling's behavior. She frequently receives phone calls that she refuses to answer and appears to have a shadowy past. Lola cannot stand her Caribbean cooking and will do anything to destroy the marriage in order to get Darling out of her life.

The chapters alternate between the perspectives of Lola and Darling. I was somewhat confused on and off throughout the story because of the excessive use slang terminology that the author used. Lola's chapters in particular were unreadable. For example, in the beginning of the story there were six consecutive pages that I did not understand at all. Perhaps my British friends will understand all the slang. The book is mainly about Lola and Darling's characters. Once Thomas married Darling he was pretty much out of the picture. This seemed odd. 

This book was advertised as a psychological thriller. A thriller it isn't, although the prologue was exciting. The prologue kept me reading because I wanted to know who was killed and by whom. However, the book was a big miss for me and I am rating it 2 out of 5 stars.