Daisy Chain/My FIRST Review!

First “Published” Book Review!

Daisy Chain (Defiance Texas Trilogy)

A Novel

By Mary E. Demuth

Publisher: Zondervan

The title: Daisy Chain spoke to me of childhood, innocence, and a chain of events. This carried through in many ways throughout the whole book.

The book is fiction but reading it, you could imagine many real life versions in some of the scenarios and relationships.

The story line is about a teenage boy who finds himself in a storm of guilt when his young friend, Daisy disappears. Truths about what goes on behind the “clean cut doors” of Jed’s home life come out and his hope to make things better is hard for him to hold onto.

An abusive father in full time ministry, a mother who writes loving notes on flower petals, a quiet, scared sister and an adoring dog make up his family.
There are characters:

The mother of the missing girl, a man who wants to walk like Jesus, and woman with a beautiful and time sensitive dream and more.

The search for the missing girl drags those who know her through a range of questions and in spite of the anger, fear, and fight of it . . . relationships are formed.

The flow of this book carries the reader through what hidden secrets can look like for the victims and takes one all the way to redemption. Intense emotions are provoked from the circumstances, issues, and appalling situations but they are written in such a connected way that you don’t get overwhelmed.

I found myself imagining being in the midst of some of the relationships and really wanting these characters to be real.

The author writes in a casual and small town style to fit the “back drop” of the book and it often plays like a movie while being read.

Community, families, and friendships paint their own mural in words and keep the disturbing realities from crushing all hope.

There are dark and raging sections and they urge us to anger because most know how horridly real they can be.

The generations of my family had dark secrets.
I have learned that we aren’t the only ones . . . most families have them somewhere.
A teenage girl recently revealed to me and some others of a secret life going on and it has been sad. People don’t always change just because they should. They don’t always snap out of one behavior and into another.
Daisy Chain shows some of that truth and shows a strength to carry on anyway.

This book has disturbing elements but forgiveness and healing are poured through and hearts are drawn together.

I didn’t like all of what took place as I read and a lot of it made me angry and frustrated . . . but I believe the readers are supposed to feel these things. It is a reality in ministry families as well as those outside of the church. We should be bothered and not stagnant. We should be moved.

I was.

I am waiting for the next book in the Defiance Texas Trilogy and can’t wait to read it!