Behind Closed Doors

by Susan R. Sloan

At 18, smalltown Vermonter Valerie O'Connor marries gorgeous, macho airplane mechanic Jack Marsh and moves with him to Seattle, then California, where she pursues her dream of raising a large family and he pursues other women. As disappointment turns to anger and need to rage, Jack turns to drink. Valerie bears the brunt of his outbursts—though her children do not escape unscathed— but she fails to act until Jack's fury focuses on his grandson.

Genres: Fiction, Thriller, Suspense, Family, Contemporary

560 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published January 1, 2004

Reviews

[Kelly · Rating 1 out of 5]

I'm having a hard time enjoying this one. The characters are underdeveloped and I feel no connection to them whatsoever. Valerie is unbelievably, annoyingly naive. She's had 7 pregnancies in 6 years (resulting in 5 children and 2 miscarriages), despite the fact that her husband uses condoms b/c he doesn't want to have children. Lol. The storyline just feels very one-dimensional with no depth of emotion to speak of. It's all just words on a page to me about a woman I would like to strangle myself, if her husband weren't already doing so. The best comparison I can make of this author is to Danielle Steele (who I've also tried and failed to like).

I normally dislike starting books without finishing them, but I think I might move on to something else. Maybe I'll just flip through the rest of the book to see if anything interesting happens.

[Lisa · Rating 4 out of 5]

It took a while to get into this book, but I'm glad I stuck with it.
While others have complained about character development, I think it was written this way to show the abuse and how it can can shape and form the lives of the whole family. The choices and the paths each of the kids took and how their lives ended up. It wasn't a chick lit fluffy story that gets all wrapped up in a bow. Nor was it an emotional journey detailing and resolving every little thing that happened in Valarie's life.
I don't think this book is for everyone, but I enjoyed it.

[Donna George · Rating 5 out of 5]

I read this book a long while ago and loved it.. Reminded me of my dysfunctional family. Wish she was still writing books

[Angela Cunnington · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good read, couldn’t put it down

[Michelle · Rating 2 out of 5]

This was my first time reading a book by Susan R. Sloan, and will probably be my last.

My favorite part of reading is the character development, where the character becomes someone you care about so you feel drawn back to the book to see whats going to happen, but 'Behind Closed Doors' didn't do that for me. Yes, I was interested in seeing where everyone's lives went but I could have easily just put the book down, and not have returned.

In their 60+ years of marriage Valerie and Jack had five children and three out of the five left the Marsh home to escape their abusive father. However, once they left the house you didn't read about them again, until almost the last pages of the book. Sloan did however develop the character of Ricky--the youngest son of Valerie and Jack. But I guess the question is why just him? Yes, he had a difficult childhood, which lead him to be rebellious in his adolescence, but for me I would have liked to have seen that much effort put into the other children as well. Instead Sloan ties their story lines off in a few short sentences closer to end of the novel, which was disappointing.

So what did I enjoy about 'Behind Closed Doors?' Not much I guess, I did enjoy how Sloan started the book out at present day, and then went back to the Fifties when Jack and Valerie meet and followed them from there. But other than that this book left more to be desired.

[Abby · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was an exciting novel... I don't know if its just me and my naïveté but I don't understand why someone would stay in an abusive relationship, despite religious beliefs- perhaps it was the way in the 50s, but it's not what I'd do now, or hope would be what my friends would do. I wanted to know more about what happened to her children as they left home. Interesting to see through the generations of the one family and how lives played out.

[Cynthia · Rating 4 out of 5]

A really good read about a women, abuse, and her family over three generations.

[Zev · Rating 2 out of 5]

Two stars. How nice that it wasn't a one-star like the previous five in a row I've written. SPOILERS. Trigger warnings: domestic violence, drug dealing, child death, child abuse, child neglect, child abandonment, pregnancy complications, homophobia, misogyny, racism, others.

This is a long book. For the first half of the book, I thought it was a stylistic choice that worked. Pages-long narrative passages from different characters' POVs are the bulk of the book. Mostly it's Valerie talking about how much she loves her kids and yearns for a cozy life, but didn't get that. She wanted nine kids, the amount she grew up with, but stopped at five due to an emergency hysterectomy. Five kids alone is a lot. Nine is--(shakes head). Jack, her husband, never wanted any kids. He didn't communicate this to her before they married. He asked her father's permission to marry her when they'd only known each other six weeks. Weeks! Valerie was eighteen and Jack was twenty-five. So they were around the ages my parents were when they got married after dating a year: my mom was nineteen and my dad was twenty-four, and by this point they had two babies. Valerie's dad almost, almost forbade his daughter's marriage. For whatever horribly irresponsible reason, he let them go ahead. My parents' families were each horrified, and my mom's family stopped talking to them both. The circumstances and generations between my parents' marriage (1989) and the two fictional characters (1950s) couldn't have been more different, but I compared them both.

Valerie, at eighteen, is super naive and doesn't know enough about sex to communicate her emotions and needs to Jack. He couldn't care less. It's stated by them both that they barely know each other, yet they married anyway. They constantly misinterpret each other's actions and can't communicate at -all-. It was well-written, but emotionally awful to read. It was a great backdrop to how it affected their behavior. It was filler done right, which is so tricky. This, I thought for the first half of the book. Valerie and Jack, despite being totally different people with wildly different values, stay married for twelve years before any action happens in the book. The action begins at the 45% mark of the ebook edition I read. Jack is a serious creep towards tons of women and despises them. He regularly cheats on Valerie, and blames both her and the women he has sex with. He hits Valerie and his kids repeatedly.

Priscilla, one of the younger of the five kids, falls off the roof trying to avoid a blow from her father. Her death is a tragedy Jack absolves himself of guilt from. Valerie blames herself for it. She understandably develops mental health issues--she has no support system, her priest constantly tells her to stay in her marriage, and therapy is not part of her worldview. She later goes to a sanitarium for a year. Her kids all leave and the book gets boring. She runs her own business, and the book feels too long. She stands up to her husband and I wished it'd happened sooner.

[Alex Black · Rating 4 out of 5]

I love books like this. Really slow, drawn out multigenerational family studies. I found it so interesting to hear Valerie's story and the story of her whole family. It centers around her husband's abuse and her life story, culminating her trial for his death after more than forty years of marriage.

Mostly I just found this fascinating. This whole book was engrossing from page one and I never wanted to put it down. I love a book that draws me in like that.

The final third lost me a bit. It kind of felt like the book lost focus and was trying to get too exciting, but it really just wound up being a bit unbelievable and less interesting. It also focused a lot less on Valerie in favor of one of her children.

It also felt a little too short. Like this is a lengthy book for sure, but with how much time it covered, it didn't really have the space to fully develop all the characters the way they deserved. It was a little flat sometimes.

But I had such a great time reading this. I love interesting books and this held my interested the entire time.

[Debbie’s reviews 🌸📚📚📚🌸 · Rating 4 out of 5]

I'm giving this book 4 stars because it was very thought provoking in my opinion. I found myself thinking about the characters all through the day and could not wait to revisit them. I felt so bad for Valerie and all that she had been through. At times there was some fluff which is what kept it from meeting my 5 star scale . I would definitely recommend this book . Purchase your copy so you can put it on your shelf and go back to it again. I know I am.

[Dawn · Rating 3 out of 5]

Been years since I read one of hers. A little dated so may not hold my attention like other thrillers, but something about her writing holds me in. She writes a lot of dark stuff no one seems to be happy. And I knew there would be her usual twist in the end though this one was more predictable than her others. Still even though she got her justice in the end, she had too much to lose leading up to it. Still wonder why this author hasn’t written any more books.

[Monica · Rating 4 out of 5]

This story made me so grateful for the marriage that I have. Not that I wasn’t grateful before however, it reaffirmed just how lucky I am. My heart broke for Valerie and her children. Living in hell like they did for all those years. What it did to them as individuals and as a family. Goes to show that unless you are in ones shoes, you really have no idea what is going on in someone’s life and you don’t know how strong you are until you have to be.

[Libby · Rating 4 out of 5]

I love how well this book is written. I love that I just wanted to know what happens next. Having said that I skipped so many pages, especially about Ricky. I must have skipped 8 pages in total when it came to his story. It was so boring.
It’s not her best work. The story itself is very 3 star. And like another review says - it lacks depth.

I gave it four starts because the writing is top notch.
I love Susan r Sloane isolated incident and guilt by association.

[Janice Engstrom · Rating 4 out of 5]

Really enjoyed this book. Slow beginning but turned out to be a book I couldn't put down. Couldn't believe what this lady went through and everything that happened in this family. The ending I felt was predictable but a really good book, nonetheless.

[Eileen Leith · Rating 4 out of 5]

Interesting but sad story I think this book could have been shorter. It almost seemed like 2 stories

[Gretchen Stein · Rating 4 out of 5]

4.5 The year is 1959 and 18 year old Valerie is in love and doesn't see the warning signs in her new fiance. She then spends over 40 years as his punching bag....

[Andrea · Rating 4 out of 5]

Warum kann man hier bloß keine halben Sterne geben..... 4.5 wären es dann

[Angie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Liked it a lot, but not as much as Guilt by Association. I will continue to read through all her works!

[Tearra · Rating 4 out of 5]

Didn’t think a book could make me cry more than once until I read this 😭

[Meg Ross · Rating 4 out of 5]

So enjoyed this book! Loved the ending too. Would read this again

[Edith · Rating 4 out of 5]

Gut... gelesen Oktober 2012

[April Miller · Rating 3 out of 5]

Format: print
Recommend to others: on the fence
Potential for reread: i think not

[E. Sagmiller · Rating 3 out of 5]

I thought the first half of the book was interesting and kept me engaged, but I lost interest when the storyline turned. The latter part of the book seemed like an effort to make this story ‘book length

[Mary · Rating 5 out of 5]

Raised in a large, loving, closely-knit Irish Catholic family living in Vermont, Valerie O'Connor is a sheltered and innocent young woman who comes of age during the 1950s. At the age of eighteen, Valerie meets and falls desperately in love with twenty-five-year-old Jack Marsh - a handsome, dashing Korean War veteran and a member of the Air Force. Valerie has been raised with the belief that a wife is subservient to her husband and a mother must keep her family together no matter what. However, little does she know that she is about to begin a relationship that is doomed from the start.

Jack Marsh is a damaged man; a man whose inner demons cause him to take his fears and insecurities out on his wife and five children. During their many years of marriage, Valerie has learned to say nothing when Jack, now an airline mechanic, arrives home after midnight, silent and emotionally distant. She ignores the shirts that smell of strange perfume and the handkerchiefs smeared with suspicious lipstick stains. She endures without complaint the bouts of drunken rage, the sudden bursts of violence, the morning after scenes of devastatingly sincere, choking remorse.

And, whatever the consequences, Valerie will never discuss such private issues with her children; who are themselves too terrified to speak lest they become their father's next victims. To make matters worse, Jack moves Valerie and their children all the way across the country, taking Valerie away from her family, isolating her from the very people who know her and care for her the most. Too proud to ask for help or to admit her failure as a wife and a mother, Valerie is unable to protect either herself or her children from Jack's increasingly visible and physically violent rages.

As they grow up, the five Marsh children will carve out their own very different futures. One by one, pushed to the extreme, the children will manage to escape their fractured home. In one fashion or another, each child will ultimately leave, until they are all gone - even Ricky, the youngest son and the one who is perhaps the most troubled. The only one left is Jack, and Valerie finally must face the reality of her marriage and her life.

And then, as if out of the ashes, another generation begins. Will history repeat itself? Valerie's children worry, and even though they have successfully escaped their dysfunctional family, they will never escape the devastating effects it has had on each of their lives. This is a powerful story of a marriage begun with the best of intentions, but cursed by a legacy of violence that will have shocking consequences - a story that resonates with us all.

I absolutely loved this book; couldn't put it down. In my opinion, Susan R. Sloan is an excellent writer. This is only the third book by Ms. Sloan that I've read, but it most certainly will not be the last one that I read. I give this book an A+! - if I could give it an A+++!, I most certainly would! :)

[Tonya Branch · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really did enjoy the book and I thought it was very well written. It was very descriptive and detailed, for the most part. I love books that have year spans so you can get an idea of backgrounds and progress. My one complaint is there was really not enough information regarding all of her children. Just brief mentions without any real detail. All of her children were important in her life but we were left hanging without any closure. Also for her extended family to be such a large part of her life, there were no real details with them either. I feel like it slowed down toward the last chapters and this could have been used to expand on her children and extended family. But overall, I did enjoy most of it.

[Maria Longley · Rating 3 out of 5]

There are a surprising (or perhaps not so surprising) number of books called 'Behind Closed Doors', and basically nothing much good comes from closed doors such as these. This one is no exception and an unfortunate combination of patriarchy, young and naive love, isolating circumstances, religious scruples and guilt etc etc leads to Valerie Marsh being essentially trapped in a marriage and her family disintegrating around her. It opens in a courtroom so I was expecting a lawyer-driven drama - glad that that wasn't the case and that we got a story and not a courtroom drama. (Still a little unsure about the absolute ending though and whether that was justified by anything else that was previously related.)

[Paula · Rating 2 out of 5]

While I enjoyed reading this book, I thought it was just ok with a lot of unfinished threads, ie, if a woman who wanted 10 kids (whose husband wanted none?!) how come we never read another word about her hysterectomy? Surely in a woman like her, this would have caused her to go into a downward spiral much earlier. Also, children left her and it was kind of never mentioned again? Lots of undeveloped/unfinished threads.

[Didichan]

Raine could you be any more cheap... i am starting to understand what TSTL heroine is... goodness i hate girls that are just to easy ... this the reason i hate romantic suspense .... the girls have no self respect.... the man called her a slut or was it whore ... this story is was than a cheap xrated video ... what a disgusting book .. i would never read any think by this woman again with her disrespect for me and her female lead that lack any sense of dignity ... sicking

[Janet Richards · Rating 2 out of 5]

Lack of character development strikes again. Several sudden and mysterious transformations that were inadequately explained made the story loose it's appeal. I think it tried to tell too much over too much time. A smaller time period and tighter focused would have helped me not feel like "what just happened" as the story lurched foreward. I've read sagas and stories over long time periods before that didn't do this - it just wasn't handled well in this case, seemed rushed.

[Dawn · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was an amazing book! I could not put it down. There are not very many books that are over 500 pages that I have read as quickly as this one. The story grabbed me from the very first page and left me stunned by the very last sentence of the book. This book is an "edge of your seat" thriller that will leave you stunned.