Tag Archives: Kate McLaughlin

Review: Daughter by Kate McLaughlin

Book Review and Content, Contemporary, Young Adult/Teen 12-18, , , , , , , ,
Daughter by Kate McLaughlin

Daughter
Kate McLaughlin
Wednesday Books
Published March 8, 2022

Amazon | Bookshop | Goodreads

About Daughter

Scarlet’s life is pretty average. Overly protective mom. Great friends. Cute boy she’s interested in. And a father she’s never known – until she does.

When the FBI show up at Scarlet’s door, she is shocked to learn her father is infamous serial killer Jeffrey Robert Lake. And now, he’s dying and will only give the names and locations of his remaining victims to the one person, the daughter he hasn’t seen since she was a baby.

Scarlet’s mother has tried to protect her from Lake’s horrifying legacy, but there’s no way they can escape the media firestorm that erupts when they come out of hiding. Or the people who blame Scarlet for her father’s choices. When trying to do the right thing puts her life in danger, Scarlet is faced with a choice – go back into hiding or make the world see her as more than a monster’s daughter.

Kate McLaughlin’s DAUGHTER is a novel about trying right deadly choices that were never yours to begin with.

My Review

The thing that appealed to me about this book is its core conflict: a girl discovers her dad is a serial killer, and she may be the only person who can get the names of some of his victims and therefore bring peace and closure to their families.

One of the things I liked is that the story explores what members of the public felt about Scarlet and her mom, and how difficult that was for them. People speculated whether her mom knew or was involved in Scarlet’s dad’s crimes. They judged her and sometimes treated her as an object of fascination for her closeness to a famous killer.

I also thought the character of Scarlet’s dad was complex and seemed on point with the little bit that I’ve seen or know about killers like Ted Bundy or Aileen Wuornos.

There are a couple things I deeply struggled with in reading this book, though.

Does the book deliver on its promise to honor murder victims?

First, while I really admire that the author approached the story wanting to bring attention to the girls not strictly as victims but as people in their own right. Scarlet herself goes on a journey of trying to figure out how to draw attention to the girls themselves rather than glorifying or focusing on their deaths. It reminded me of some of the things Courtney Summers said about writing her book SADIE.

I’m not sure that I think this book succeeds in that goal, though. There are news clippings that only mention the girls in terms of how they encountered the man who murdered them. Lots of scenes reference a movie made about the killer’s life and trial. There are lots of conversations that center around what he did and why he did it. What he got out of it. How he saw the women he victimized.

I liked the idea of the news clippings being included, but I think it would have supported the author’s goal more if they focused on the girls themselves or maybe were pieces written by their families or maybe things from the girls themselves? I don’t know. It seemed more like the moral of the story was that the girls deserve to be treated differently, but the story itself didn’t really model that because so much of the story is devoted to learning about what Scarlet’s dad did and why.

Why I Reviewed the Book

If you’re familiar with my blog, you might already be surprised to see that I reviewed this book at all. I think I was expecting something more along the lines of SADIE by Courtney Summers or THE ROW by J. R. Johansson. This book really pushed my limits as far as explicit violence and sexual trauma go. I almost never quit a book, but I came very close to quitting this one.

On the whole, I think this book really wasn’t for me. If you like stories that go up close to really dark topics, like serial killers and assault, then you may really enjoy this one.

Content Notes

Recommended for Ages 16 up.

Representation
Scarlet’s best friend is Korean American. A couple minor characters are lesbians.

Profanity/Crude Language Content
Extreme profanity used fairly frequently.

Romance/Sexual Content
Kissing between boy and girl. References to sex. A couple of scenes explicitly depicting sex between a boy and girl.

Spiritual Content
None.

Violent Content – Trigger/Content warning for sexual violence.
Multiple mentions of assault, rape, murder, and necrophilia. Some details of those events.

Drug Content
Multiple scenes show Scarlet and her friends smoking pot and drinking alcohol.

Note: This post contains affiliate links, which do not cost you anything to use, but which help support this blog. I received a free copy of DAUGHTER in exchange for my honest review.

Review: What Unbreakable Looks Like by Katie McLaughlin

Book Review and Content, Contemporary, Romance, Young Adult/Teen 12-18, , , , , , , ,

What Unbreakable Looks Like
Katie McLaughlin
Wednesday Books
Published June 23, 2020

Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Book Depository | Indiebound | Goodreads

About What Unbreakable Looks Like

Lex was taken – trafficked – and now she’s Poppy. Kept in a hotel with other girls, her old life is a distant memory. But when the girls are rescued, she doesn’t quite know how to be Lex again.

After she moves in with her aunt and uncle, for the first time in a long time, she knows what it is to feel truly safe. Except, she doesn’t trust it. Doesn’t trust her new home. Doesn’t trust her new friend. Doesn’t trust her new life. Instead she trusts what she shouldn’t because that’s what feels right. She doesn’t deserve good things.

But when she is sexually assaulted by her so-called boyfriend and his friends, Lex is forced to reckon with what happened to her and that just because she is used to it, doesn’t mean it is okay. She’s thrust into the limelight and realizes she has the power to help others. But first she’ll have to confront the monsters of her past with the help of her family, friends, and a new love.

Kate McLaughlin’s What Unbreakable Looks Like is a gritty, ultimately hopeful novel about human trafficking through the lens of a girl who has escaped the life and learned to trust, not only others, but in herself.

My Review

I found this book really addicting. It’s intense– Lex is recovering from being trafficked, and some scenes show her in a recovery program and then transitioning to a life with her aunt and uncle. Some chapters open with memories from her past. Most focus on her relationships with the girls and her early relationship with Mitch, the man who trafficked her.

Trafficking is a really grim topic, and the scars that life left behind on Lex are obvious. Her mistrust, her tendency to disassociate, her ability to use her body to try to control others, all of that comes through on the page without apology.

But I felt like the story is almost this love letter to recovery, and to hope. What if a girl got out and found a community who supported her through her recovery? What if she found the courage and strength to speak about what happened to her?

WHAT UNBREAKABLE LOOKS LIKE shows an incredible (at times perhaps unbelievable) transformation that belongs to Lex. While she has great support, this journey is about her, and her power to become the woman she wants to be. It’s an empowering story, packed with hope and courage.

There are definitely some potential triggers, though, involving sexual assault and trafficking as well as physical abuse. See my notes below for more details.

Content Notes

Recommended for Ages 17 up.

Representation
Most characters are white. Lex’s uncle is Black. Her friend Zack is half Hawaiian.

I read another review of the book in which the reviewer commented on the use of AAVE (African American Vernacular English), especially when Lex was talking about her life while she was being trafficked. I sort of noticed it, but hadn’t really thought about how that might be offensive. It sounded like the author was trying to model the character’s speech after girls she’d interviewed and the way they talked, and maybe she didn’t think about how it would sound to Black readers. A note of explanation may have been helpful.

Profanity/Crude Language Content
Extreme profanity and some crude sexual language used throughout the book.

Romance/Sexual Content – TRIGGER WARNING
Explicit scenes leading up to and referencing sexual assault. References to and brief descriptions of sexual trafficking.

Some scenes showing sex and referencing or leading up to oral sex.

Spiritual Content
Lex doesn’t believe in God. She and her friends watch Jesus Christ Superstar and talk about the rumor that Jesus and Mary Magdalene were married. She also really has a connection with Mary’s song in the musical about how she feels about Jesus but isn’t able to act on those feelings or feels a disconnect between her feelings and actions.

Violent Content
References to self-harm and suicide. Several references to girls being beaten to death or physically abused. References to a man beating his wife and son.

Drug Content
Lex is a recovering drug addict. She attends a party where pot and alcohol are consumed, but she doesn’t participate.

Note: I received a free copy of WHAT UNBREAKABLE LOOKS LIKE in exchange for my honest review. This post contains affiliate links, which do not cost you anything to use, but which help support the costs of running this blog.