Genre: Fiction
Publisher: Atria Books, 2017
Pages: 384
Rating: Recommend
Synopsis: The Voss family is anything but normal. They live in a re-purposed church, newly baptized Dollar Voss. The once cancer-stricken mother lives in the basement, the father is married to the mother's former nurse, the little half-brother isn't allowed to do or eat anything fun, and the eldest siblings are irritatingly perfect. Then, there's Merit. Merit Voss collects trophies she hasn't earned and secrets her family forces her to keep. While browsing the local antiques shop for her next trophy, she finds Sagan. His wit and unapologetic idealism disarm and spark renewed life into her - until she discovers that he's completely unavailable. Merit retreats deeper into herself, watching her family from the sidelines, when she learns a secret that no trophy in the world can fix.
Fed up with the lies, Merit decides to shatter the happy family illusion that she's never been a part of before leaving them behind for good. When her escape plan fails, Merit is forced to deal with the staggering consequences of telling the truth and losing the one boy she loves.
Review: I sat down with a stack of books intending to read the first chapter of each, to see which one seemed to have promise. Right out of the gate this book grabbed me with it's quirkiness. The quirks, are intentional and deliberate, and I really appreciated the author's sense of humor and style of writing.
Despite the quirks, and moments when I giggled out loud, this is not light reading. Without Merit touches on some dark themes, although some suspension of belief may be required.
I would read more by this author.
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