This is a truly dark and disturbing book about the pervasiveness of evil and the age-old question of nature v nurture. I loved it.
In some respects, it put me in mind of one of my favourite thrillers of recent years, Lucinda Berry’s The Perfect Child, in so far as they both deal with the terrifying prospect of a child who may or may not be inherently evil.
And that’s one of the most terrifying thoughts I can imagine. How can a child, who we’re programmed to believe is the personification of innocence, perpetuate such hideous crimes as torture and murder?
It sends a chill down your spine just thinking about it.
My Perfect Daughter is the story of Zoe, who’s lured to an old farmhouse by a young girl, Maddie, and where she is imprisoned and abused by Maddie’s father, Peter.
The early chapters where Denzil takes us back to that time are creepily evocative and brilliantly written. This writer has some imagination and a dark mind!
You feel like you’re living the scenes with Zoe, sharing her desperation and her pain. Denzil’s writing style certainly propels you through the pages at breakneck speed.
Eventually, Zoe manages to escape from Peter’s clutches with Maddie’s help and a few years into the future we’re given a glimpse into Zoe’s new life after adopting Maddie as her own daughter.
But then one of Maddie’s friends dies, falling off a cliff on a camp that she shared with Maddie – and the question arises, did Maddie push her?
And of course, the wider question is posed – if you’re the daughter of a sadistic psychopath, is there any hope you’ll turn out differently?
Over the course of the story, we’re asked to question what’s really going on in the family and whether Maddie really is evil.
I enjoyed the ending, although it does conclude a little open-endedly, with the reader asked to draw their own conclusions.
I like that. I don’t want my books to spoon feed me. I want to be challenged and left thinking deeply about the book long after I’ve switched off my Kindle.
And The Perfect Daughter had me doing just that.