RATING: VERY GOOD BUT AN UNCOMFORTABLE READ
SPOILERS!!!
Things go from bad to worse for Jane, and she seems to go off the rails completely. David comes one weekend to tell her that they need to sell the house. His story with Diana is over, but he doesn’t say anything that he wants Jane back. So he needs a place to live. Jane refuses, but David insists and insists. Then Melanie comes and says that they need to have a holiday, and she decides they should go camping.
Jane and Melanie and their children travel to Dorset where they spend five days. Jane drinks too much, and Max is always there with her and his mother, and Sam is not happy at all. Things come to a head when Melanie produces a bag with pot, and Jane accepts a joint. Sam is mortified as Jane laughs hysterically with Melanie and Sam until she is sick. The following day Jane feels terrible, and they decide to go home. Sam won’t talk to her and neither will Ella.
David has already made arrangements with the estate agent to sell the house. Jane continues making bad decisions, letting Max and other boys come to her den whenever they want and even she buys beer for them. One night when it is just her, Sam, Ella and Max, they watch a film. Before that, when Jane was in the kitchen, she started crying, and Max was there, and he hugged her, and Jane found comfort in what she thought was kindness. Ella and Sam go to bed, and when Jane is in her bedroom, Max appears. He grabs her arms, and as she tries to pull away, he kisses her, throws her on the bed and before Jane can fight him, he rapes her. Jane is left paralised and disgusted. Max is a big boy and she is only petite, and the following day she knows she can’t say anything, and when she sees him, it is obvious that he doesn’t think he has done anything wrong.
Jane stops seeing Melanie, which annoys her, but she can’t make her children stop seeing Max and Abbie. Sam has a party and tells Jane that he will sleep at Melanie’s, an idea which Jane doesn’t like. Then the following day when she goes to pick him up, he is not there, and Melanie coldly tells her that Sam is not at her place. Jane panics and when she goes to enquire in the house where the party took place, but he is not there either. Jane finally finds him in her den, but he won’t talk to her even though she begs him what is wrong. Jane fears the worst. Ella says that Sam is upset because at the party, Lydia, the girl who he likes went with Max. Jane tries to talk to him, and Sam talks to her under duress. He says that Lydia was in the bathroom and Max went in, and then she came out, crying. When Max appeared, he told Sam that he had sex with Lydia and his mother. Jane is aghast and can only tell Sam that it is a lie. Max did make a pass at her, but what he said was false.
Things become worse when Max posts on Sam’s Facebook page about Jane, calling her a MILF. Sam is so angry and mortified that he says that he is going to London to live with his father because his life here is ruined. Jane has no other option than call David, and when he appears, Jane is vague about what is happening to Sam, saying that it is about a girl that he likes and Max got. In the end, Jane tells him that Max raped her, and at first, David reacts as if he didn’t believe her, but he then wants to talk.
David spends the night with them, but he has to go to the office as he has a meeting. The situation at home is unbearable. Sam won’t go to school and Ella is also upset. Then Jane loses her cool and decides to do something. In her nightie and wellies he drives to the school, hoping to talk to Lydia. The girl agrees to talk to her, and when Jane asks her if Max raped her, the girl panics, says that she was drunk, and tells her that her parents can’t know. Lydia runs away, and then Jane sees Max, and she follows him home. Without thinking about it twice, she knocks on Melanie’s door, and Abbie opens, and Jane walks in. Melanie appears and Jane demands to see Max, and she calls out his name. Max appears and Jane sees him blanch when she says if she should tell what he did. He says that he didn’t do anything, and then Jane blurts out that he raped her. Melanie doesn’t react well, calling her disgusting and a pervert. As Jane goes, Melanie threatens to report her, and Jane says that she will also tell. When she goes outside, she falls and scrapes her knee, and arrives home, feeling devastated and humiliated. She knows that Melanie won’t report her as she won’t make her family go through some legal battle.
At home Jane drops on the sofa, and Ella comes to hug her, and soon Sam also joins them. They spend the rest of the day like that, and when David arrives, the children scurry up to her rooms, and when he sees Jane and the blood on her nightie, he gets angry when she says that she went to Max. He is ready to go and have it with him, but Jane stops him, saying that she fell. David is really tender towards her as he patches up her knee, and then he starts crying, saying ‘I’m sorry’ over and over again. Jane feels moved and reaches out for him, and they hug. That night they share the bed, and from that point there is a turning point. They talk to the children and make them go to school, and then they talk to the headmaster, who doesn’t seem to even know who Sam is. Jane feels the looks of everyone on her.
David returns home, commuting to work, while Jane and the children put up with their life there. David brings some brochures about places to live, small towns near London, where nobody knows them and will be easier to commute. When Jane tells Ella and Sam, Ella says that she doesn’t care where she lives but she wants to live with Daddy. Jane says that they won’t go anywhere without Daddy, and Jane realises that all this experience has taught her a lesson: the place where they are is not important as long as they are all together.
This was a fantastic read, but I can’t say I ‘enjoyed’ it because I suffered alongside the characters. I felt very angry towards Jane for her selfishness and the bad decision she made even though she really believed she was doing everything for her family, she was really blind to their real needs. And when David left, she went worse and worse, and she didn’t consider her children’s feelings. I felt so sorry for poor Sam. I really love the ending when David returns to them, and Ella gives her mother a lesson about what a home really is.
In summary, a great read but quite daunting.
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