The Murderer's Daughters

It's hard to believe The Murderer's Daughters by Randy Susan Meyers is a debut novel. I really like reading debuts. The first novel is, in my mind, the book the author has been carrying around for years, the magnum opus of a writing career up to that point.

The Murderer's Daughters is an ambitious book, beginning when sisters Lulu and Merry are little girls, and heartbreaking in its plotline. From the very beginning, the girls are thrust into a nightmare when their father kills their mother and knifes Merry. They're shuttled from grandma to grandma until finally everyone dies and their one remaining aunt sends them off to an extremely rough orphanage.

Meyers follows the girls from that terrible childhood well into their adult lives. The importance of this novel is in its shining character complexity. Lulu, the eldest, survives better through childhood but grows into an unhappy and inflexible adult until yet another tragic event shakes her loose. Merry is sweeter and softer and also something of a failure to launch as she wobbles through adulthood -- living in Lulu's guesthouse and stealing her coffee every morning -- though it is Merry who ultimately prevails in an event that shakes loose years of shoulds and prods herinto at last becoming a fully formed adult.

The girls, enmeshed by necessity, evolve through every aspect of their painful lives. The outcome is gratifying, one I wish always happened but I'm certain doesn't, as I've found complex characters are difficult to find either in novels or in real life. So many people get stuck in old patterns so deep that even an attempt to change just mires them worse. These sisters' ability to love each other and grow through everything they experience, recognizing finally how they've been holding each other back unintentionally, is powerful and beautiful.

The writing is great. The book is important. The story is tough to read. It's very sad. There are some trigger scenes for anyone who has experienced domestic violence or substance abuse. If you're a lover of character development, this book is immensely satisfying and I highly recommend it.