From the cover I kind of thought this was one type of book but to my surprise there were many twists in this story. I loved the theme of similarities passing through generations. I find this fascinating and I liked reading about it in this book.
The book as a whole was quite harrowing and I felt my body recoil at some points but I think I give credit to the author for how well written it is rather than that being a negative point. The sensitive matter was dealt with well.
I think the relationships between the characters was explained well and I liked the bonds that were formed.
A really unexpected read, a good psychological thriller.

The Family at No. 12 by Anita Waller is a superb contemporary psychological thriller that saw me gripped from the start. It is set over a number of years moving forwards from 1998.

The unique plotline is disturbing though engrossing and very quickly found myself emotionally invested in the main character. All of the characters were well drawn and realistic invoking a mix of responses from me. Told from a variety of points of view there are moments of female camaraderie and comprehensive, harrowing descriptions. A very powerful and chilling tale, not for the faint hearted.

I received a complimentary copy of this novel at my request from Boldwood Books via NetGalley and this review is my unbiased opinion.

An explosive start, resulting in an unwanted child being born. Whilst many parts of the story are horrific, the story is addictive. I couldn't put it down. One tragedy after another occurs, some deserved but others misfortunate. Just when you think everything has been explained and accounted for the book ends on more explosive reveals. I thoroughly recommend this book if you like to be shocked.

TRIGGER WARNING: rape, child abuse
Janette Gregson is mourning the death of her mother, quite agoraphobic and suffers panic attacks. She is brutally raped at home and gives birth nine months later...
The Family at No 12 is a dark psychological novel.
I initially felt great sadness for Janette. She has been severely affected by her abusive mother and leads a reclusive life. Her safety is compromised by the invasion of a rapist and her subsequent pregnancy. However, her neglect and cruelty towards her child, including not even naming her, is truly upsetting.
The second part of the book focuses on Janette's daughter. I really found myself with a mix of emotions at the damage she has endured but her actions towards others are cruel. In my opinion, the final section of the book was the least credible and I felt that there were some loose ends. I was expecting a particular twist and it never happened but the ending had other twists which I didn't feel were particularly believable.
The dark tone and upsetting content make this book impossible to 'enjoy'. However, it is very engaging due to the strength of the writing. I really felt strong emotions towards the characters and was gripped by the plot developments. Janette and Marta both suffer due to their mothers' actions but then inflict unhappiness upon others.
The Family at No 12 is hard to enjoy due to the dark content but it is fascinating as the characters evolve.

I was really pleased to get a place on the blogtour for this one as I thought it sounded like a thrilling read. I found the first part of the book that focused on Janette really easy to read and intriguing, but then, for me, it went downhill. There were a few issues I had with the story, one was the dialogue - I felt there was an imbalance between dialogue and description and that the dialogue was rather stilted and unnatural, particularly between Marta and Ellie. There was too much information slotted into the dialogue that should have been in the narrative. The biggest issue for me was Marta - there woud have been enormous physical and psychological consequences from the way she was brought up, with a need for intensive physical and psychological therapies and and these were mostly ignored. The role of the social worker stepping in as an educator seemed implausible. I found the plot to be very far fetched and there were so many triggers. The ending felt rather odd. I feel that this had the potential to be a really good story but it missed the mark on a few important aspects. It may have worked better as a dual timeline novel. I couldn't give the book a higher rating because of the issues above which is a shame as it has such potential.

Woah...
This book gets pretty dark. There are so many trigger warnings, and it makes for very uncomfortable reading.
The plot starts off as a slow burn, but if you can get through the opening pages, it becomes a gripping and intriguing read.
I wasn't sure if I 'liked' the characters as such, but they really added to the suspense in the plot.
As my first Anita Waller book, it was a strong introduction to her work, and I look forward to more.

Another incredible thriller from Anita Waller! I loved One Hot Summer but, wow, this was something else! It wasn't easy to read, especially at the beginning. Very dark, tense, traumatic and heart-wrenching. The Women in the story are such interesting characters, their development fascinated me through the book. I just couldn’t put it down!

The Family at No 12 is one of those books where I forget to re-read the blurb before I start and I am nowhere near ready for what is inside. The opening of the book is a shocker (in a good way for me personally) and is stays dark and haunting from there until the end. My strong advice would be to take a moment to check the content warning if you are a person who relies on these to avoid certain topics.
Janette is a quiet and introvert woman who has very little to do with the outside world. When a shocking event changes Janette’s life forever, she slowly picks up the pieces and moves on. But, nothing is what is seems at No 12 and once secrets begin to emerge, there’s no telling what else will be uncovered.
My heart broke for Janette in the beginning. Nobody on Earth can say how they would deal with such a situation and our brains do strange things when subject to extreme trauma. Despite her actions, I cannot truly bring myself to hate her and I felt utmost sympathy with the whole situation. Anita Waller really captures the impact trauma can have on a person in this book and it’s a harrowing tale which really leaves a mark on the reader’s heart and mind.
The child’s tale is equally as heartbreaking – more so due to the child being a complete innocent in the aftermath of the event.
Both characters are really well developed as the book spans several decades and we see them change. I think Anita has done some extensive research into trauma, neglect and the impact this can have on children and adults and yes of course, there is creative license used however, it has a good base in some reality when developing motives, emotions etc.
This is a dark and chilling read with a huge amount of food for thought and a lot of content that could be upsetting however it is an enjoyable and well plotted read that has great character development and it does play on your mind for a while after reading.

This is certainly not a read for the faint-hearted; in fact it’s incredibly dark in places and parts made me feel quite distressed reading it early on and I wasn’t entirely sure I was going to stick with it as a result.

That said, I persevered and I’m so glad I did!

While the content is often grisly, the character portrayal is fascinating and as the storyline develops, there are plenty of plot twists to add even greater suspense.

There certainly aren’t many likeable characters but each nevertheless draws you in as the story unfolds and I liked the way the parallels between past and present were woven into the narrative.

This is the first book I’ve read from this author and it was something of a baptism of fire but it ended up having me gripped until the end.

With thanks to the author, Rachel at Random Resources and Boldwood Books for the opportunity to participate in the tour.

This is my 1st book by Anita Waller but it definitely won't be my last. I could put it down & read it in 2 sittings! Thank you for a great read!!!

I’m still trying to process my feelings about The Family at No. 12. It was such a rollercoaster of a read. For one, it shocked me. To be honest, while it was enough to make me want to read the book, I found the cover and blurb to be somewhat generic. I knew I was enjoy the story but it would be similar to others I’d read. I was shocked. It’s worth preparing yourself for this one because it is a really dark book. The darkness continues throughout and when I thought the story was levelling out, something happened that shocked me all over again.

Admittedly, this up and down wasn’t great all of the time. Sometimes it felt like the genre was changing from a drama to a thriller and the flow of the writing style didn’t match very well. This was also the case with the plot. Some elements kept me turning the pages and wan thing more, while others felt out of place and a little too unrealistic. This also extended to the characters.

The characters in this book are very interesting and because the time period spans a couple of decades, we do get some great character development. At the same time, it felt like this development moved away from who the characters were. Of course, people change over time, there were just borderline realistic parts that took away from the book.

From the first sentence I loved this although it ended up becoming deeply disturbing and I could see a lot of trigger points for some readers. It is so out there and different from anything else I have ever read that I could not help but become addicted to it. I think the beginning of the story is what grabbed me because like Janette I also prefer dog's over people just for very different reasons. There are some really nasty characters in this novel. I relished in this dark and deep disturbing physcological thriller and I am really looking forward to reading more from this author.

When Janette is attacked in her own home, she tells no one except her dog Billy. But soon her secrets become bigger and hiding them won’t be as easy.

This novel was intriguing from the start, however, I felt slowed down a lot and I struggled to keep myself engaged with it but I am glad I did. This is a dark psychological thriller and I would recommend anyone to read trigger warnings beforehand; although things are not graphic I agree the reader does need to be aware of them.

This novel is split into 3 sections, showing a timeline through the narrative, each character has depth and the reader can’t help but question the different motives and actions of the characters which kept the novel interesting.

A really interesting novel and an author I would easily read again.

This is my first read of the author, but who can’t resist an author that began her career at sixty-nine? It starts out at a slow pace but picks up and really is quite dark and disturbing. I am still wondering what it was I read. I really didn’t like Janette in the beginning and the feeling just grew through the book. Of the three sections, I liked the first section best. The book is well written, but it is a difficult read. While I agree with Janette that I like animals better than people a lot of the time, her disturbing behavior haunts me.

I think those that like gritty and dark family plotlines will connect with this one.

The Family at No. 12 by Anita Waller.
When Janette answers the door to a potential customer looking to board his dog, she never imagines he has nefarious plans. But minutes later he’s dead and in her cellar. Weeks later she realises she’s pregnant. And so she becomes Mother and the baby Child, and a hidden life begins. But all secrets come out eventually . . .
A brilliant read. I love this author. Great story and characters. 5*.

I was hooked from the first page. Blown away. Wow. What a sick, twisted, dark and disturbing read the first half of this was. I really felt for the 'child'. As a mother of 3 I would never let that happen to any child. Utterly heartbreaking. The story is split into 3 books and we see how the child progresses with her life. I can't say too much without some sort of spoiler but you will devour this read, I did. It's one that will be hard to forget. Would recommend to all however, it does contain a rape though so trigger warning for that. A well deserved five stars from me. This book made me feel a whole range of emotions. Brilliantly written.

★★★ 3.5 stars

After finishing this book, I still can't decide how I felt about though it definitely held my interest throughout and made for very compelling reading, albeit uncomfortable in parts. The first third of the book is dark and disturbing featuring a few triggers - a brutal rape, murder and child abuse - but then what?

Janette Gregson is something of an eccentric recluse, the product of her mother's warped perspective of the world no doubt, and as a result is pretty much scared of her own shadow. She is too scared to venture beyond her front door much of the time though she does from time to time and the cellar? Well, obviously her mother has scared the heebie-jeebies out of her to even contemplate the dark confines of the abyss that lays beneath the Victorian house. Her mother has since died but her legacy remains and while she has been left comfortably well-off thanks to her mother and grandparents before her, Janette has her own dog kennelling business she runs from her house. It was obvious from the beginning that Janette prefers dogs to people...can't blame her for that. Dogs are the best people I know!

One day she gets a call from a prospective customer who wants to look over her kennels. Not a strange request. Sometimes clients want to see where their fur babies are going to be boarding but in this case, Janette never imagined the heinous agenda he had in store. Within minutes, she is laying unconscious on her kitchen floor as he violently rapes her and she wakes to find him straddling her naked body. By the end of the day, he's dead and laying at the bottom of her cellar steps. And then several weeks later she realises that she is pregnant. She sketches her plans of what she has in mind for she cannot keep this child. His child. And above all, no one must know.

Her plans go awry however when the baby is born and it is a girl. Girls, her mother always told her, are special. Boys, not so much. What is she to do with the child now? And so she sketches out a new plan...where she becomes Mother and the baby becomes Child. She will provide the bare necessities of food, clothing and a bed but nothing else. Child looks to Mother with a smile she does not reciprocate. Child cries for attention but gets reprimanded instead. Child reaches for Mother but is ignored. Before long, Child knows to remain silent. Cries gain you nothing. And as she grows from the drawer to a cot and then to a single bed, Mother gives Child her room which comes with an en suite and in that way Child never has to leave her room...ever. Mother locks Child in who knows no other life but the four walls that surround her. While outside, no one knows Child exists. And Mother wishes she didn't.

If this was the whole of the book, I would have been happy. There was so much that could have been done with this story between Mother and Child to make it even darker and more disturbing than it was...and it really was. Although for the most part the reader is just waiting until Child is rescued so she could go on to a whole new life that was just waiting for her. But it was kind of anti-climatic, to tell the truth. The most powerful part of this story was the first third when it was just Mother and Child. Sure, after she is rescued and the reality of the isolation in which she lived is revealed it is heartbreaking. To discover that she had no name but Child, no concept of anything beyond the four walls in which she lived, no vocabulary beyond the limited words Mother had taught her...is just mindblowing. And to be honest, this was very cleverly written. The child's complete naivety and innocence at not even knowing what a garden or a tree was. The only animal she knew was a dog because Mother had one named Billy. And I loved Billy. Though nothing untoward happened to him, it was always apparent that Billy's time would come and though it was peaceful, I bawled like a baby. He was the loveliest character in the entire story.

When the story took a turn and it became Child's story from then on, things changed. At first, it was heart-rendering to witness the child's innocence. And she was so lovely then. So polite and eager to please. When almost everything asked of her resulted it "will it hurt me?" or "please don't hurt me". There was an innocence to this part of the story that made it somewhat poignant. And then it became something else entirely...

The second half of part two and pretty much all of part three was just weird. Some things that happened just felt a little out of the blue and others were alluded to but never really went anywhere. On the whole, the entire second half felt like a completely different book! Although it featured the same characters, everything felt detached and surreal. And the child was barely recognisable from that of the first half of the book. I felt her metamorphosis was a little unbelieveable and one has to suspend belief to see any resemblance to the Child. I couldn't get a grasp on her really. She would start doing something and then what...? Abandon thought and take another direction? And what the hell happened at the end? I could see it coming but it just made no sense whatsoever. I mean, why? And then that epilogue a year later? What happened within those pages made even less sense...where did that come from? What was the point? In fact, what was the point of the entire ending? By the end, I just felt there were more unanswered questions.

The first half of the story between Mother and Child, as I said, was the most powerful part of the book. It was dark and disturbing. But it was also incredibly sad. Not just for Child, but for Janette too. I saw her as a product of her own mother's making who nurtured and shaped her into the man-hating frightened eccentric recluse that she was. Although she had lived in the whole house alongside her mother I doubt it was an easy life. Janette alluded to that on more than one occasion...and yet she loved her mother still. But her mother deprived her of love as well as books to read and learn, so Janette knew no other way. And then to violated in such a way as she was merely reiterated all that her mother taught her about the male species. So when she discovered she was pregnant, Janette couldn't make herself love a product of such a violent act, nor did she know how to love. She even questioned her ability to love...even with Billy, and he was the closest thing she came to loving. And though her treatment of Child was abhorrent, Janette knew of no other way to process all that had happened to her. Which I found incredibly sad. I didn't hate Janette, I felt sorry for her.

THE FAMILY AT NO 12 could be a very powerful tale had it not incorporated the child's life beyond being rescued. I think that should have been left up to the readers' interpretation and imaginations. It might well have been a happier tale had it been. I really loved the first half of the story, as dark and disturbing as it was, but then it just took a different direction that in the end made no sense.

This is my first read by Anita Waller but it won't be my last as I feel she is a clever and skilfull storyteller and I look forward to seeing what else she has in her library of tales. I didn't hate THE FAMILY AT NO 12. I just felt it was over-extended and ruined what could have been a very powerful poignant story.

But one thing is for sure...it's made me glad I never adopted any children. If I was thinking of doing so, this book would have changed my mind on that score.

I would like to thank #AnitaWaller, #Netgalley, #BoldwoodBooks and #RachelsRandomResources for an ARC of #TheFamilyAtNo12 in exchange for an honest review.

This review appears on my blog at https://stinathebookaholic.blogspot.com/.

What have I just read? This is not a new author to me but this is unlike any of her previous books. A twisted psychological thriller with some major triggers - rape & child abuse included, not graphic but there all the same.

Read the blurb as it tells you what you need to know. But take it from me that this author’s easy writing style makes you not realise what you’re reading until it’s too late.
A story in three major parts: Mother & Child, Marta & the conclusion. For me, the latter didn’t sit well & that's why a star is dropped.

Well written & recommended.

I was excited to read this, the idea of a hidden family isn’t necessarily new but it sounded intriguing.

I enjoyed the writing style, it was easy to read whilst still being descriptive enough to really flesh out the characters. Short chapters and a few jumps forward in time kept it easy to keep track of events and characters.

The story itself I felt started off really strong; I actually liked the fact that my opinion of Janette changed so drastically within the first section of the book, from ‘that poor vulnerable woman’ to ‘wow, what a stone cold bitch!’

Unfortunately I didn’t feel the ending lived up to my expectations, after the lengthy beginning and middle sections the end just felt quite rushed. While it was a solid read for me it just didn’t blow me away like I was hoping.

Having said that I did enjoy this, enough to keep me reading long after I intended to go to bed in order to finish it!

Thank you @rachelsrandomresources and @bookandtonic for my copy of The Family At No 12 🙏🏻

This was my second book by Waller and another five star review from me.

I don't know where to even start it was so good; maybe the trigger warnings of rape, child abuse and a fathers unhealthy interest in his girls. So, as you've gathered the story veers on the dark side, if you liked King's Misery or Castle Rock it's definitely the one for you.

The first half of the book sees Jeanette, a seemingly harmless woman running her kennels and having a pretty boring lifestyle, how wrong was I?

Without ruining too much we'll skip to the fact there's now a young girl, simply called Child who remains in her bedroom 24/7.

The second half of the book is newly named Marta's story and let's just say the apple doesn't fall far from the tree...

Have you gathered I liked this book?

Thoroughly gripping, compelling and definitely one for the shock factor!

And the ending was definitely a 😱 moment for me.

I can't wait to see what Waller has up her sleeve for us next!

Many thanks to Rachel's Random Resources for my tour spot.

Rating ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐