DNF after 143 pages.
I wish I loved this book. I love the concept, I love the atmosphere, I love the experimental writing style, but God almighty the vocabulary is so repetitive it nearly made me nauseous.
The words "infinite", "now", "forever", "undertow", "endless" and "orbit" could have been used a quarter as much and still gotten the message across; Mel is completely consumed by man with an indescribably strong presence and force of suggestion. His will is her command, and she loves him for it.
The technical experimentation with capital letters is very well done. Mel never capitalizes any words which are not referring to Him, Henry. Everything else in her world is small and insignificant, not just by comparison, but by nature. Everything was small and insignificant before Him.
I'll say it again; I wish I loved this book. ( )

Abused teenage girl runs away from home to San Francisco and ends up with Charles Manson-like "family." Though the ending disappointed me a bit, this is an exceptional novel in verse. Intense, disturbing and quite terrifying. ( )

It pains me to have to write this review because for so long I have pined after this book, and all I feel is let down. When I first heard that there was a YA novel about the Manson family murders, I was totally intrigued. I've read Helter Skelter many, many times, and I've watched countless documentaries on Manson himself, and his 'family.' I even have a favorite Manson girl:




These murders were vicious and brutal and scary. Really, really scary. The cult dynamics of the Manson family were intriguing at best, and horrifying at their worst. I've always wondered what kind of person you'd have to be to be so brainwashed, so wrapped up in another person that you would commit heinous acts of violence and call it 'love.' This has eluded me ever since I heard of Charles Manson, and with FAMILY, I thought I could gain some insights. I was wrong.

When I found out that FAMILY was written in verse, I hesitated. And I'm glad I did. The only books written in verse that I've read are by Francesca Lia Block, but we all know that she is the name in that style, the best at what she does. So I guess either I've got really high standards, or I haven't read enough books like this to totally grasp the why of writing in verse. It seemed so... stupid. It literally took two pages to tell the reader how much Mel loved doing laundry. I am not making this shit up. And - this happened more than once - I would turn the page only to read something literally copied and pasted from a previous chapter. Also, the wording was so, so, so repetitive and freaking redundant. I skipped so many pages of "always, never, His message, Henry, no ego" OVER AND OVER again. Seriously? I freaking get it.

I couldn't really connect well with any of the characters either. Mel is just a husk of a person by the time the book starts, so I don't really think there is anything to connect or relate to. I mean, I don't even know what she or Henry (aka Charlie) look like. I never figured out exactly what Henry did to make Mel believe in him so much. I mean, I could guess a bunch of theories as to why Mel fell for it all, but none of them would be concrete or correct, because it was never touched on in the book. One day Mel runs away from home, and the next day she is sleeping with Henry in his van doing acid. There was so much disconnect between me and Mel that I just couldn't accept that she wanted to be there.

The only character that I really liked - loved - was Shelly. She was Mel's closest confidant, best friend, sister in the compound. She felt wholly real to me, entirely fleshed out. A story (even told in verse) from Shelly's point of view would have been dynamic and entertaining and captivating. Shelly actually goes through some character arcs throughout the novel that really made me feel something for her, made me feel close to her. Mel never actually changes or even makes decisions during the story, so it was hard to tell if she grew or not. But Shelly was fascinating, and broken, and just plain old crazy. I loved her.

There were a few passages that were well written towards the end. When the climax hit, that is, the murders, I was frantically turning the page. But fuck did it take long to actually describe what was happening. The murders only took place for like five minutes, but it took a grand total of 120 pages to describe them. And THERE IS NO DETAIL at all. All it is is Mel having a heart attack over what she's doing. There is no gore, no violence, no chaos. Nothing. Just Mel saying "no never always infinity Henry His message shaking drowning premise promise" for fucking 120 pages.

The ending was a total letdown for me. It really sealed the deal for me as far as NOT buying into Mel's brainwashing and devotion to Henry. It was dumb. The synopsis says that this novel is 'loosely' based on the Manson murders, but it follows the entire story to a fault. So I really, really didn't understand why Ostow chose this ending.

In all, this book could have been something special. It could have really shown the violence and the horror of the Manson family freak show. It could have given us a glimpse inside the head of a brainwashed victim of a cult. With a better ending, and NOT being written in freaking verse, this book could have been phenomenal, but instead it was a let down. ( )

It pains me to have to write this review because for so long I have pined after this book, and all I feel is let down. When I first heard that there was a YA novel about the Manson family murders, I was totally intrigued. I've read Helter Skelter many, many times, and I've watched countless documentaries on Manson himself, and his 'family.' I even have a favorite Manson girl:




These murders were vicious and brutal and scary. Really, really scary. The cult dynamics of the Manson family were intriguing at best, and horrifying at their worst. I've always wondered what kind of person you'd have to be to be so brainwashed, so wrapped up in another person that you would commit heinous acts of violence and call it 'love.' This has eluded me ever since I heard of Charles Manson, and with FAMILY, I thought I could gain some insights. I was wrong.

When I found out that FAMILY was written in verse, I hesitated. And I'm glad I did. The only books written in verse that I've read are by Francesca Lia Block, but we all know that she is the name in that style, the best at what she does. So I guess either I've got really high standards, or I haven't read enough books like this to totally grasp the why of writing in verse. It seemed so... stupid. It literally took two pages to tell the reader how much Mel loved doing laundry. I am not making this shit up. And - this happened more than once - I would turn the page only to read something literally copied and pasted from a previous chapter. Also, the wording was so, so, so repetitive and freaking redundant. I skipped so many pages of "always, never, His message, Henry, no ego" OVER AND OVER again. Seriously? I freaking get it.

I couldn't really connect well with any of the characters either. Mel is just a husk of a person by the time the book starts, so I don't really think there is anything to connect or relate to. I mean, I don't even know what she or Henry (aka Charlie) look like. I never figured out exactly what Henry did to make Mel believe in him so much. I mean, I could guess a bunch of theories as to why Mel fell for it all, but none of them would be concrete or correct, because it was never touched on in the book. One day Mel runs away from home, and the next day she is sleeping with Henry in his van doing acid. There was so much disconnect between me and Mel that I just couldn't accept that she wanted to be there.

The only character that I really liked - loved - was Shelly. She was Mel's closest confidant, best friend, sister in the compound. She felt wholly real to me, entirely fleshed out. A story (even told in verse) from Shelly's point of view would have been dynamic and entertaining and captivating. Shelly actually goes through some character arcs throughout the novel that really made me feel something for her, made me feel close to her. Mel never actually changes or even makes decisions during the story, so it was hard to tell if she grew or not. But Shelly was fascinating, and broken, and just plain old crazy. I loved her.

There were a few passages that were well written towards the end. When the climax hit, that is, the murders, I was frantically turning the page. But fuck did it take long to actually describe what was happening. The murders only took place for like five minutes, but it took a grand total of 120 pages to describe them. And THERE IS NO DETAIL at all. All it is is Mel having a heart attack over what she's doing. There is no gore, no violence, no chaos. Nothing. Just Mel saying "no never always infinity Henry His message shaking drowning premise promise" for fucking 120 pages.

The ending was a total letdown for me. It really sealed the deal for me as far as NOT buying into Mel's brainwashing and devotion to Henry. It was dumb. The synopsis says that this novel is 'loosely' based on the Manson murders, but it follows the entire story to a fault. So I really, really didn't understand why Ostow chose this ending.

In all, this book could have been something special. It could have really shown the violence and the horror of the Manson family freak show. It could have given us a glimpse inside the head of a brainwashed victim of a cult. With a better ending, and NOT being written in freaking verse, this book could have been phenomenal, but instead it was a let down. ( )

From the very first page I was hooked. Family tells the story of 17 year old Melinda who breaks away from an abusive family home and flees to San Francisco to find herself, and in the end, I was left feeling shocked at what she did with her new "family" in order to feel whole again. Loosely based on the Manson Family murders of 1969, this book is a definite page turner I'd recommend. ( )