This book was absolutely brilliant, just my type of read where I am gripped from the start. I loved every single thing about this book . From the first chapter I knew this was going to be good and it sure was.

How far would you, as a parent go to protect your child?

Adam, Ulrika and Stella are a normal family. Adam is a pastor, Ulrika is an attorney and Stella is their 18 year old daughter. Their daughter who is accused of murder.
I see lots of people raving about this book and saying how they were gripped from the start and couldn't put it down.
This was not the experience that I had. I certainly wasn't gripped and I have to say that I had no problem at all with putting the book down - it was picking it up again that I had a problem with.

The book is divided into three sections which are told from the point of view of the three main characters. I really liked this as sometimes it can become confusing when reading a book that keeps chopping and changing POV's all over the place. Especially when it's a book that you're already struggling with.

I enjoyed this book. I liked the way the story unfolded. I found the characters very believable.

Many thanks to netgalley and M.T. Edvardsson fir the advanced copy of this book. I agreed to give my unbiased opinion voluntarily.

Gosh where do I start with this book! Brilliant and kept me gripped until the very end. 10/10, really enjoyed it!

A Nearly Normal Family was an unusual storyline which I loved. I was gripped from the first few pages and enjoyed the twists and turns throughout. A great read.

Loved loved loved this book.

I let the hype die down around this book before I read it. I am so glad i did. I was hooked.
Such good story telling with gripping characters portraying their side of the story.
I loved the perspectives coming from all members of the family.

An ending i never saw coming

I went into ‘𝘈 𝘕𝘦𝘢𝘳𝘭𝘺 𝘕𝘰𝘳𝘮𝘢𝘭 𝘍𝘢𝘮𝘪𝘭𝘺’ with very little expectation! I remember seeing this one around #bookstagram when it was released but I don’t think I’ve heard many people rave about it and the goodreads reviews are mixed, so I wasn’t expecting much.⁣⁣
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But, I have to say, I loved this. I read the 500 pages in one sitting. I loved the unique way of telling the story, in three characters perspectives - but each as a third of the book. It meant that we saw the initial events through the dads eyes, the build up through the daughters and the ending through the mothers. It was such an interesting way to go and kept the plot feeling fresh throughout as you were seeing things differently.⁣⁣
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I do have to say that I don’t think this book will be for everyone. I think this will be a 𝐩𝐫𝐞𝐭𝐭𝐲 𝐩𝐨𝐥𝐚𝐫𝐢𝐬𝐢𝐧𝐠 one, that you may love or hate. I love books like that though as it’s boring to read a book that everyone rates 3 stars. The writing and plot is slow, some of the twists are pretty obvious (although you really do have to read until the last page), and you may hate the characters. However there was just something about it, it was compulsive for me and I couldn’t put it down. ⁣⁣
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This one is definitely a slow-burn novel with literary thriller and mystery elements - however it is also very much about family dynamics and therefore if you’re not looking for that, I don’t think you’d enjoy this one. I am really happy I read it and loved my experience. ⁣⁣
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𝐂𝗪: 𝐏𝐡𝐲𝐬𝐢𝐜𝐚𝐥 𝐚𝐛𝐮𝐬𝐞, 𝐝𝐨𝐦𝐞𝐬𝐭𝐢𝐜 𝐚𝐛𝐮𝐬𝐞, 𝐜𝐡𝐢𝐥𝐝 𝐬𝐞𝐱𝐮𝐚𝐥 𝐚𝐛𝐮𝐬𝐞, 𝐫𝐚𝐩𝐞, 𝐦𝐮𝐫𝐝𝐞𝐫.⁣⁣

A compelling scandi noir, "A Nearly Normal Family" tells the story of a girl accused of murder from three perspectives - her father's, hers and her mother's. Each individual reveals a different side of the case until the final shocking Big Reveal.

The characterisation is fascination, each individual flawed in a very human way. It's a tale which has enough detail to be believable - this could potentially have happened in real life. Trying to figure out who's responsible for the death of an alleged abuser is compelling enough to keep you turning the pages and although it has the usual slow moving scandi feel, there's something about this book which compels you to stick with it.

Thanks to Netgalley for the ARC without obligation.

I enjoyed this and loved the three POV's and thought they were cleverly done, authentic and believable.

I really enjoyed this book. Its well written and the plot has obviously been well thought through and perfectly planned and as a result, brilliantly executed.

Would definitely read more from this author. Would reccomend

A gripping, twisting story that had me on edge, who do you believe? Great physiological tale that perhaps doesn't end how you expect. A must read!

A Nearly Normal Family is on the surface a legal thriller. But dig deeper it's about how much we will do to protect our families and how much we lie to ourselves about our families. Stella is 18 and accused of murder. Her parents, a pastor and lawyer, seem positive she couldn't possibly do something like that. But as each of their stories is revealed it becomes apparent that this family isn't as "normal" as it appears.

I struggled through this a bit. I have a history of not getting on with translations. Apart comedies and satire I just haven't found one I like yet. But I don't think that was the issue this time. It was just a bit unbelievable. The fathers story seemed stretched and the mothers didn't make sense. However the daughters seemed much more authentic leaving me wishing it had been told from her point of view. For me this just felt a bit flat.

Unfortunately I read this book a while ago and seem to have missed it when writing reviews. - sadly I cant remember enough detail to give a full review.
However, thanks to NetGalley for the ARC :-)

I really enjoyed reading this book. Told from different points of view, it kept the story alive throughout. Lots of twists and turns. I’d recommend this book.

A fantastic book told from the perspectives of an 18-year-old accused of murder, her father and her mother. What will each of them do to protect the others? Definitely recommended reading. 5 stars.

First published last year, this is a slow burning legal thriller that was very hyped up at the time. (The story was initially written in Swedish and later translated to English, and the story itself is set in Sweden). Personally, I love a good legal thriller and so I was looking very forward to this one. And to a large extent, I really did enjoy this book. But be warned, when I say that this is a slow burning thriller, I mean it. Part One is very slow and there were times when I wasn’t sure whether I was going to keep going or throw in the towel. I decided to push through and I’m so glad I did because Part Two was decidedly more interesting, and Part Three, culminating in the actual court case, was riveting. This book wasn’t one that raced along at a rollicking speed, but rather, it plodded along slowly in the beginning, written in such a way that ensured that the reader got to know the characters fully and completely.

This novel takes a deep look at the family dynamics of the Sandell family, after Stella, the couple’s eighteen year old daughter is arrested for murder. It’s definitely a suspenseful story, one which builds nicely over the pages. As mentioned, the book is divided into three parts and each part is told by a different character. Part One is told by Stella’s Dad, who reminisces about the type of child Stella was, while also sharing his feelings about Stella’s arrest, and describing his actions in the wake of that arrest. Part Two is told by Stella herself, and she goes into detail about her life and the circumstances surrounding her relationship with the murder victim. Part Three is told by Stella’s mother, and this also happens to be the part that details the trial and the proceedings at trial. This is also the part that brings the whole story together, and that gives us those wow moments.

I loved that this story was told through three different perspectives, being different people in the same family all talking about the same event but with such different perceptions of the people involved and what actually happened. There were definitely three sides to this story. In the beginning of the story there were times when I wished that the pace would pick up, but fear not, because that definitely happened and then wham! The ending arrived and it knocked me slightly off balance.

If you think you can handle the slow beginning, and can appreciate it for what it is, then please do yourself a favour and give this one a try. It’s a great family drama come legal thriller and by the end of the book I was so glad that I had persevered.

A Nearly Normal Family
By, M.T. Edvardsson
Genre: Psychological Thriller / Legal Thriller
Rating: * * * *
Format: Trade Paperback

A lovely, extremely enjoyable thriller. Written from three different points of view - the father, the mother, and the murder-accused herself. So much was I enjoying the first section, the point of view of the father, a pastor, that I was initially disappointed when it switched. But such was the quality of writing that I was soon immersed in the accused girl's account and did not want that to end, either. Ultimately, I think I'll be forgetting this novel - it's a fairly standard thriller/police procedural, bar a few twists and USPs - but it was massively readable nonetheless. And (something you can't always take for granted with the genre), despite the many plot leaps and twists, I cared about the characters depicted. If you enjoy a good crime thriller, read it.

A smart, well translated and twisty tale that I found hard to put down.

Told in three parts from very different but all very interesting points of view - the dad a pastor believes his daughter is innocent, the imprisoned teenage daughter & the mum a lawyer who thinks her daughter has something to hide.

I soon became absorbed in this multi-layered narrative, its complexity focusing on the characters their actions, motivations and how far they are willing to go to protect who they love.

It missed out on 5⭐ because I found some of it a bit repetitive and I found the Dad's part slightly annoying, I've nothing against annoying characters but I did find his section dragged slightly for me.

I would definitely like to read more from this author in the future and it was a refreshing take on a family-based psychological thriller.

Thanks to Pan Macmillan & Netgalley for sending me this in exchange for an open and honest review.

This book started great! I has very into the story right from the beginning.

I liked the plot and that it's divided in 3 narrators, The father, the daughter and the Mother.

Towards the last part I started to get the feeling that it was taking to long to get to the end of it and it was easy to predict the ending.

I didn't get into this straight away but I really enjoyed it once I did. I liked the fact it was in three parts - Adam, Stella, and Ursula. This narrative slowly gives things away, while still keeping you guessing right until the end. I had doubts right up to the end and was still surprised by the reveal. I've not read anything from the author before but I'm excited to do so in the future!

I was putting off this book for some reason. But when I did actually pick it up I found it pretty easy to get into. I actually didn't want to put it down. That being said the first handful of chapters read like a list (I did this, then I did this, next I did this), but I started to wonder why. Was the character setting up an alibi?
Part One:
This part was in the fathers POV. I started to theorize that maybe he was involved. Or that maybe things he was accused of did happen but his blocked them out of his memory to protect himself. Something wasn't right about him and his behaviour.
Part Two:
This was Stella's POV. Which was the POV I was most interested in hearing. What I found interesting was how Shirine (her psychologist while in prison) had her read books that all followed a similar theme. Something Stella could relate to. But without Stella really knowing what she was doing.
During this part I felt maybe I was wrong about her dad. Maybe it was someone else. Someone who it made sense as the story developed.
Part Three:
Her mums POV was the only one where someone new wasn't added to me suspect list.

What I loved about this book is that I found myself questioning my theories every part. There was 3 or 4 people who could have easily been guilty. None of them would have shocked me in the end. But I did find myself unsure up until the epilogue.