I've rarely read a thriller which over 300 pages keeps revealing essential details without becoming repetitive, stereotypical and at the end of the story, plain boring. In the Blood, by Lisa Unger is made of small little pieces which will match the great picture only at the very end of the day.
A girl with a bloody hunted past built a new identity made of lies and half-truth, but in the era of the Internet nothing can be a perfect secret or cover anymore. Exploring various psychological layers and big topics - such as various Jungian approaches to psyche - but also some genetical questioning, In the Blood has a simple story which is simply written, with a special focus on the details hidden by the main characters and the subtle psychological game of manipulations and temptations. As the story unfolds, nothing stays the same, including the gender of some of the characters and although the general pace is slow, you don't feel like anyhting happens, rather the opposite.
The background discussion of the genetics of crime and psychopatological behavior is very interesting but not necessarily conclusive. Is the tendency towards violent crimes part of our genetical heritage? Can we counter the dark evils, or in fact, although therapy and special psychological measures, things stay in fact the same and we cannot escape the deviant pattern?
Those directions and the intense characters this book is populated with, made it into a very entertaining - the bad bloody kind of entertainment - reading. I am personally very curious to discover more writings by this author, as the ideas explored and the characters will stay with me for a long time.
Rating: 5 stars
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