Day: September 21, 2022

The Foster Family by Nicole Trope is a psych thriller that gets the reader in the feels, allowing for some real emotion to be felt.  

Although I can detach and remove myself from just about anything I read, I feel it is only fair to say that this one involves foster care (duh) and some of the horrors that could go along with it.

To be honest, the scenes dealing with dementia were harder for me. I suppose it all depends on where your personal experiences lie in relation to the story.

At any rate, the author handles all of it with realism but sensitively. It never felt like either aspect was just a plot point. Everything fit naturally into the story.

I did like how the author added an aspect that I was thoroughly not expecting. Sometimes a psych thriller will have a gotcha moment, but this one was much more than the usual ploy.

I thoroughly enjoyed that I did not connect all the dots until the author revealed a surprise – in fact, I thought the author was going in a completely different direction.

One of the things that I got the most from this book was how much a little bit of compassion can go a long way. Whether it was Malcolm for his dad, Gordon, Gordon for Elizabeth, or Elizabeth for Joe…the author did a superb job of highlighting the importance of human connections.

We’re not going to include Howard in any of that. He is evil to the core – but that’s pretty obvious from the beginning. The only question for the first part of the book (for me) was whether or not Elizabeth was a reliable narrator).

Her situation and the reason for her actions became apparent pretty quickly.  

The only thing that I didn’t exactly get was the psych thriller aspect. It almost felt more like a family drama/thriller rather than something with a psychological twist to it. But that’s a minor point.

Nicole Trope has used potentially sad or troubling aspects of life to illustrate how much difference a person can make. And for that reason, The Foster Family is a unique psych thriller.