It's "Single White Female," Meets "Sleeping With The Enemy!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"

                                 OK, now that I have basically given the book away in my headline, I leave it up to you whether to read the book, or not.  I have not said how the two are connected, nor what it reveals, but since I am going to treat this post as a discussion with those who have already read it, some of you may want to stop here.  If you do choose to go on, I don't think it would harm the enjoyment of this book.  It is pure, bitch fun, and may be more enjoyable if the machinations are understood.

                                  But, first, let me explain.   Liv Constantine, whose first novel this is, is a pseudonym for two sisters, Lily and Valerie Constantine, who live states apart, and write jointly through cyber space.  They are not the Brontes, but hey, if the Brontes were alive today, they would be writing cyber, even if their literary quality was still better, which it would be.

                                   Which is not to denigrate the present day sisters. They may have fallen on other plot threads, but the way things are structured and conveyed, give their novel a compelling nature that makes one want to keep going, even if what one suspects turns out to correct.

                                        And lastly, this is a cautionary tale for those who come from Goat Alley backgrounds.  Don't try to up your station in society, darlings!  You will always be found out, and you may end up facing consequences worse than your Goat Alley background!

                                          Amber Patterson is the pseudonym of Lana Crump, who comes from some Podunk, Goat Alley type town, in, I want to say, Missouri.  She is a psychopath, because the brief back story that is given says she always had ideas that were above her station in life, which her mother tried to quash. I am not sure if Lana/Amber, kills her mother, but the book alludes to her having done something to the woman.  What is known, is Lana had tried to frame the town's wealthiest boy, Matthew, whose mother knows Lana is pure White Trash.  So, Lana frames Matthew for rape, then goes on the lam.  Meanwhile, a girl named Amber Patterson has gone missing, and is never found.  Lana latches on to the girl's passport, and then adopts her identity.  She covets the life of the upper crust, and that search centers on Jackson and Daphne Parrish, a wealthy Connecticut couple, living in Bishop Harbor.  Renting a hovel not far from them, Amber begins to infiltrate herself into their lives.  The Parrishes have a spoiled brat of a daughter, Bella, who livens things up, and whom I thought would be the one to expose Amber, which would have been fun to have her taken down, by a spoiled, entitled prepubescent, child.

                                            However--

                                             While Amber is playing Daphne for the fool she thinks the woman is, she has no idea that Daphne is playing her.  And she has a reason to.  Her husband, Jackson Parrish, so presentable in public, is much like Martin Burney, the abusive hubby, portrayed by Patrick Bergin in the 1991 Julia Roberts film, "Sleeping With The Enemy."  Bergin was so creepy and good as the abusive hubby, I would say just attach him to this film project.  Jackson is an older man, in his mid-Fifties, and I am certain Bergin could play it.  If he wants to.

                                                 Daphne is beaten, humiliated, and mistreated in every conceivable way to make Daphne's life a living hell.  As the reader comes to find out, when Amber latches on to her, she sees a way to get her daughters and herself out of this abusive situation.  And, as the story goes on, the abuse, centered, for the most part, on Daphne,  is beginning to trickle on down toward the daughters, making it imperative Daphne and the girls get out fast!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

                                                    How Daphne achieves this, the consequences faced by her tormentors, the "reward" Amber gets, which is more like a death sentence, is all played out in a way that demands reading the rest of the book.

                                                     Who is "The Last Mrs. Parrish?"  I leave that for you to decide.  Duality, like the Constantine sisters' writing is dual--two women pitted against each other, and two mentally disturbed contrasts--a psychopath (Amber), and a sociopath (Jackson).  Remember, the first is born, the second made. I wish the sisters had explained more of how Jackson morphed into a sociopath besides parental neglect.  I think it takes more than that.

                                                        But, girls, Reese scores another for her Book Club. I have to say, of all the bourgeois clubs out there, Reese's selections have been the most satisfying.

                                                         Go to town, on this bitch fest, dolls!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!