A Welcome Reunion by Lucinda Berry

A Welcome Reunion is a short story that I was able to read for free as part of a subscription package that I get.  It's 81 pages, more of a novella maybe.  I'm not going to rate it with stars or put this rating on any of the public sites because I have mixed feelings about the content.

I would call this a psychological mystery/thriller.  It's about a family who adopted an abused child after the father, a doctor, took care of her when she was rescued.

It's sort of loosely based on the story of a Ukrainian girl who had a huge, public falling-out with her American adoptive parents.  There was a lot of contention about whether she was actually an adult with a medical condition that made her appear much younger.  Both sides claimed extreme abuse.

But in this story, the girl is extremely antisocial.  She leaves the home after some extremely violent episodes on both sides.  The adoptive child, Janie, has changed her name to Hope.  She's been released from a detention facility because she's turned 18.  She's written a book and is doing a publicity tour.

The story involves the former social worker and the adoptive parents acclimating to the fact that she's back in the world now, with a new name and a new narrative that the rest of the world is buying into, where the adoptive parents are the villains and she's a sympathetic victim.  Because both the parents and the social worker know the truth:  that Janie/Hope is  a vicious sociopath.

In the process of keeping tabs on Janie/Hope, there are some twists and turns.  I won't spoil the story in case you want to read it.  But in the end, this is a vigilante/revenge fantasy.

So here's why I can't really recommend this book.  Because on an emotional level, it makes you feel okay about just killing Janie/Hope.  She's such a bad person that she just has to be killed, and that's fine.  I'm not good with that message, sorry.  Can't recommend.

I realize that's maybe hypocritical of me.  Because I admit that if the roles had been reversed in my own home, if I had been the mother and Susan my daughter, I'd probably have had Joe Kalady killed by my father's relatives.  But maybe I'd just have called in the favors to ensure he'd never get out of prison.  Vito Marzullo could have arranged that.  But I still can't recommend this book's message at the end of the day.

While the writing was good, everything about the story was great except for this one thing, it will make me hesitate to read anything else by this author. 

I write true crime for survivors.  And I feel like it's important to walk a healthy line.