What happens when you grow up idolising your not-so-perfect mother and she abandons you? Zoe Morgan’s childhood was marked by her younger sister’s tragic illness and her dedicated parents until her final days. After the divorce, abandoned by both parents Zoe sets a high bar for herself and grows up to be a compassionate women.
As star of the non profit world with a picture perfect life and marriage, Zoe steps into motherhood. Her obsession with being the perfect mother however slowly drives her beyond the mistakes of her parents into something darker and unforgivable.
The Dark Side, written by Danielle Steel is a psychological suspense that shares the dark side of motherhood. It narrates the horrors of an incurable obsession over being the perfect mother. The story quickly takes us through the hardships in Zoe childhood to falling in love.
Just as Zoe her husband Austin cares for her cause, he is known to champion pro bono cases to help abused children. Zoe has everything-career, love, marriage and when they try to get pregnant though after many attempts it happens, they bring home their beautiful healthy baby girl Jaime and their life changes overnight.
The Dark Side is a bit darker and heavier as to Danielle Steel's usual style. The book is highly researched and drives a strong emotional response. The fast paced story won't give you a moment of rest as one incident takes place after another all while the story gets darker and more intriguing. The book reminded me a lot of Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn just in it’s aura.
There aren’t many similarities but the only thing that stopped this one from being the same level of intimidating is it’s narrative style. I was hoping to get more into the story and the characters but instead got a bird’s eye view of the story.
I thoroughly enjoyed how deep the book got into MBP and kept the story so close to the core. Danielle subtly gets you to care about the characters and turns it into something you will not forget for a while. The end did satisfy my intrigue and also justifies how the story goes. The Dark Side will keep you turning pages until the end.
