Thanks Netgalley for the copy of this ARC. This was a first time read by this author and the synopsis and blurbs didn't give me much to go on, so I went in pretty blind. I actually think that's the best way to do this. If you like dark books you will be pleasantly surprised. I have often questioned nature versus nurture as an adopted person and this book touches on all of that and more. The writing is quite beautiful and leads yo down a path of deep thoughts and lots of questions, but not a lot of answers. After all this is just one story of that.

Evelyn is the daughter of a mass shooter who is on death row. She is struggling with this legacy and joins a support group for people like her to find her way. She meets another girl who has the same kind of questions that she has and together they set out on a search for answers. Will she be able to deny her violent impulses or is she more like her father than she knows?

I read most of this book with a sick feeling in the pit of my stomach. It is that disturbing. Evelyn has a caring, supportive mother who is in a stable, committed relationship. But Evelyn’s father was a mass murderer, who is on death row. The nature vs nurture debate forms the basis of the story. [spoiler alert] The book seems to come down on the side of nature, in a very depressing way. [end spoiler alert] Do not expect to finish this book feeling good. But that is not necessarily a reason not to read it.

Evelyn has grown up under the shadow of her father’s unforgivable crimes. He opened fire on a shopping mall in St. Augustine, Florida, killing eleven people. With her father on death row, Evelyn has never understood why he did the unthinkable. Now, she intends to find out why. She becomes involved with a support group for kids whose parents are in jail and becomes close friends with another girl there. As time progresses, Evelyn must decide whether she will let her father and what he did define her, or if she can create her own future. Dietrich’s book looks into the old nature vs. nature argument and whether our destiny is actually written before we are even born