REVIEW: "The Wrong Family" by Tarryn Fisher
It's weird how what we recognize as the model of a perfect family has changed.
Years back — well before my time — it was the Cleavers of Leave It To Beaver or the eponymous Bradys that had seamlessly united to make a bunch. They were the families that everyone saw as ideal. The model to which we all aspired.
Now the families that too many of us aspire to emulate actually live among us. They live down the street or on the ritzier side of town or snuggled together in a self-sustaining modern farmhouse in the country.
They’re the people whose pictures we can't avoid on social media. People with perfectly coiffed hair — beachy waves for the girls and hipster faux hawks for the boys — in perfectly matched family attire. They stand lined up by height, one of them undoubtedly holding a package of dish soap pods or bags of organic seaweed chips that they are discreetly foisting upon the public as a means of financing their perfection.
But, just as the families of the past probably understood that the sublimity of sitcom families could never be matched in real life, we all know that these modern models of familial perfection aren't as flawless as their social media might suggest. Even though, in our weaker moments, we may passively long for a similarly flawless existence, we all know that what happens behind closed doors is decidedly less rosy. Their everyday lives are nowhere near as worthy of a place on your social media feed or a slot on the prime time television lineup.
In real life, some of these families are probably just as troubled as the one depicted in The Wrong Family, Tarryn Fisher’s end-of-2020 release.
Much like the social-media perfect families that capture adoration, Winnie and Nigel Crouch live in a stately Seattle home. The house is more than they need, considering they, along with their son, Sam, are a compact family of three. But Winnie is dedicated to impressing people and Nigel is dedicated to not pissing Winnie off, so they rattle around in this big, expensive house, trying to fill its largely vacant rooms with life.
Despite Winnie’s efforts, though, their lives aren’t even close to perfect. Their family is fractured. Winnie and Nigel are on the cusp of divorce and Sam, largely ignored by his parents because they have their own stuff going on, is basically biding his time until he can escape this emotionally frigid house and set off on his own.
Though the Crouch’s manage to keep their marital discord secret — thanks, in large part, to Winnie’s Herculean efforts — there is one person outside of their family from whom they cannot keep their strife hidden: Juno, an elderly woman who lives in the Crouch’s home.
It is almost impossible for Juno to ignore the Crouch’s constant fighting. It filters through the floorboards, invading her personal space. And it is during one of these unavoidable eavesdropping sessions that Juno hears something particularly peculiar.
The couple has a secret.
And though neither Winnie nor Nigel disclose enough information to fully clue Juno in on their secret — talking in codes and reducing their volume to whispers for the most salacious bits — Juno can tell that the couple has, at one point, done something very wrong.
This leaves Juno wondering what type of family she is living with and sparks in her a compulsion to right the wrong that this couple once perpetrated.
Though Juno might have to take risks to get to the bottom of the Crouch’s mystery, readers take few risks when picking up a Tarryn Fisher novel. Fisher’s thrillers are consistently gritty and unputdownable, and this one is no exception.
Fisher, it would seem, has a very distinctive view of the world. And this worldview translates beautifully into her novels. She pulls no punches in her descriptions, tackling abrasive topics and not shying away from more difficult thematic elements and plot points.
The characters themselves are central to the successfulness of this novel. Ultimately, it is a book about flawed people thrust together to form a family.
It wasn’t just one character in this novel who was distinctive in motivations and experiences. Almost all of them had their own idiosyncrasies and they were all — every last one of them — damaged in some way.
In novels in general, and in this one in particular, I find these kinds of complex, rich characters very satisfying. Though it could be argued that it’s enjoyable to read about people in whom you can see yourself, I find that it’s even better to read about people who are incredibly different.
People who seem impossibly complex.
Impossibly layered.
Impossibly flawed.
The only thing that gave me pause in regards to this novel was the plausibility.
For the climax of this book to take place as it did, there needed to be a major confluence of unrelated events. And believing that these events would all happen as they did, when they did, required a bit of disbelief suspension.
Ultimately, though, I was willing to push my doubt aside. It was worth it because, by doing so, I got to enjoy a deliciously satisfying ending to a delectably unputdownable thriller.
This novel, my last read of 2020, earned 5 out of 5 cocktails. Fisher proves again that she can keep her readers guessing with his gritty, twisty, and distinctive thriller.
If you could model your family after one family in a book, movie or TV show, which family would you want to copy? Why? Tell me about it in the comments, below.
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*I was provided a gifted copy of this title by the publisher*
