The Girl Before
By Rena Olsen
What if you thought that everything you did was right and normal? Then all of a sudden you find out that you had been living a lie and what you were doing was so wrong?
This is Clara Lawson. The life she knows is torn apart in an instant. The police storm in and take her husband and “girls” away. Her husband tells her to say nothing but she doesn’t know what he is talking about. They haven’t done anything wrong.
“In chapters that alternate between past and present, the novel slowly unpeels the layers of Clara’s fractured life. We see her growing up, raised with her sisters by the stern Mama and Papa G, becoming a poised and educated young woman, falling desperately in love with the forbidden son of her adoptive parents. We see her now, sequestered in an institution, questioned by men and women who call her a different name—Diana—and who accuse her husband of unspeakable crimes. As recollections of her past collide with new revelations, Clara must question everything she thought she knew, to come to terms with the truth of her history and to summon the strength to navigate her future.” Goodreads
This book deals with the heinous crime of human trafficking and abduction. Clara is frustratingly naive, often refusing to see the evidence right in front of her. Her husband is strict and teaches her lessons that she needs to know, even if that means abusing her. It is our job as the reader to decide if Clara is the victim, perpetrator, or a bit of both. The book was difficult to read due to the subject matter but really hard to put down! The alternating chapters, changing from the “Then” chapters to the “Now” chapters, were difficult but seems to be the new writing style of many. The “Then” parts weren’t always in chronological order and always seemed to revert back to the “Now” just when you would be ready for a new revelation. Overall, it created an amazing tension as you waited on the next horror to be revealed.
I enjoyed the book in spite of the dark subject matter and it made me wonder if this was in anyway based on true events. Unfortunately, human trafficking is still a practice even here in the United States and even scarier… in the state of Louisiana.