I just this very minute finished reading The Rules of Survival by Nancy Werlin. Wow. What wonderfully, fantastically, tragically sad book.

The book is actually a fictional letter written by Matthew to his little sister, Emmy. He writes it because he wants her to know about her mother:

I have decided to write it all down for you, and I will, but that decision doesn’t keep me from having doubts. I wonder if maybe it would be better if you never read this. I wonder if you really need to know exactly what happened to us – me, you, Callie – at the hands our our mother.

How’s that for a good opening? Mother is not very nice, either. She is more than just not nice. She is a horror show. This book chronicles the way the three siblings got away from thier mother. They enlist the help of a man named, Murdoch. Matthew meets Murdoch one day in a grocery story when he comes to the aide of a little boy who is being abused by his mother. When Matthew sees this he knows that Murdoch can save them. So he finds a way to befriend him and, eventually, encourages him to help them get away from their mother.

Like I said, this is a tragic book. Great story, though. I couldn’t put the book down. Highly recommend it.