family
By Micol Ostow
3.5/5
()
Currently unavailable
Currently unavailable
About this ebook
i could have. died.
and maybe it would have been better if i had.
It is a day like any other when seventeen-year-old Melinda Jensen hits the road for San Francisco, leaving behind her fractured home life and a constant assault on her self-esteem. Henry is the handsome, charismatic man who comes upon her, collapsed on a park bench, and offers love, a bright new consciousness, and—best of all—a family. One that will embrace her and give her love. Because family is what Mel has never really had. And this new family, Henry’s family, shares everything. They share the chores, their bodies, and their beliefs. And if Mel truly wants to belong, she will share in everything they do. No matter what the family does, or how far they go.
Told in episodic verse, family is a fictionalized exploration of cult dynamics, loosely based on the Manson Family murders of 1969. It is an unflinching look at people who are born broken, and the lengths they’ll go to to make themselves “whole” again.
Micol Ostow
Micol Ostow has written over fifty works for readers of all ages, including projects based on properties like Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Charmed, and Mean Girls. In addition to Nancy Drew, she currently writes the bestselling Riverdale novels and comics based on the original Archie Comics characters. She lives in Brooklyn with her husband, two daughters, piles and piles of books, and all the streaming channels. In her past life she may have been a teen sleuth. Visit Micol online at MicolOstow.com.
Related to family
Related ebooks
Family Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Incubus Succubus Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsJosie's Phantom: In Between Tales, #3 Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsCaladrius Dreams Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsAll at Once: Prose Poems Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Churning Waters Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Bourbon: An eclectic collection of short stories, poems, and musings Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsJack Scar: And The Rogue of Westwind Isle Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsLegacy of Shadows Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Jade Plant Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsSoul Hook: The Devany Miller Series, #5 Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsA Fool's Journey Volume I Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Library of Lost Souls Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsEverything Left to Remember: My Mother, Our Memories, and a Journey Through the Rocky Mountains Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5A Fool's Journey Book I Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsCatspaw Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5People: A Descent Into Holy Horror And Deranged Love Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsLove Affair: A Memoir of a Forbidden Father-Daughter Union Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Misdemeanor: A Missy Rae Mystery, #2 Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsEden's Garden: a Nia Rivers Adventure, #5 Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsEdens Garden Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Void A Mother's Journey of Joy, Pain, and Desperate Hope Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsUnseen Paths Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsLost in Heat Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Hunt Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Dragonfly Dreams Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsWitch Sisters: Book One Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsShira: The Name History Forgot Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Tale Of Emma Ott Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsTomorrow is a Long Time Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratings
Children's Lifestyles For You
Little House in the Big Woods Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Vanderbeekers of 141st Street Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Little House on the Prairie Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Sarah, Plain and Tall: A Newbery Award Winner Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Freddie Goes Fishing With Grandpa (A Beautifully Illustrated Children's Picture Book) Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5On the Banks of Plum Creek Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Farmer Boy Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Little Town on the Prairie Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Long Winter Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Books Make Good Friends: A Bibliophile Book Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5By the Shores of Silver Lake Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The First Four Years Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Berenstain Bears Visit Big Bear City Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5A Gathering of Days: A New England Girl's Journal, 1830-1832 Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5These Happy Golden Years Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Strawberry Girl Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Sophia's War: A Tale of the Revolution Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Silent Boy Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Black Beauty (Illustrated Edition): With linked Table of Contents Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Cricket in Times Square: Revised and updated edition with foreword by Stacey Lee Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Secret Garden: The Original 1911 Unabridged and Complete Edition (A Frances Hodgson Burnett Classics) Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsI Want to Be a Teacher Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Thimble Summer Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Tractor Mac Farmers' Market Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Tractor Mac New Friend Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsHome Is Where the Heart Is Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Brothers at Bat: The True Story of an Amazing All-Brother Baseball Team Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Little Fire Truck Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5
Reviews for family
25 ratings6 reviews
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Soooo unsettling and upsetting, family is the story of Mel, a seventeen-year-old who's left her abusive stepfather behind and headed to San Francisco, where she meets Henry, a man the author has based on the infamous Charles Manson.famliy is loosely based on the Manson family and the murders the group committed at Manson's direction in the 60s, and is suitably dark and chilling. Henry, like Manson, is charming, charismatic and manipulative, and through Mel's free-verse narration, the reader gets an idea of how appealing his message of love and freedom was to such a 'broken' (her word) individual. Taking Mel's journey from relief at finding someone who claims to want to protect her to dawning horror at what she and the others in her 'family' have been sent to do is an unpleasant yet powerful journey.This story also made me wonder how close it was to the actual Manson family murders (pretty darn close - Ostow even includes quotes from family members' interviews), and as a result, I spent an evening reading many articles online about them. I'm sure I'm now on a couple of government watchlists...Recommended for older teens, due to drug use, and sexual and violent content.
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Micol Ostow's family is loosely based on the Manson Family murders (and Charles Manson's cult) of 1969. family's main character (and narrator) is seventeen-year-old Melinda Jensen a girl who's run away to escape abuse when she meets Henry (the stand-in for Manson). Told in free verse poetry, familychooses to examine Mel's past as well as her introduction to and life in Henry's 'family.'The 'family' lives together, sleeps together, eats together and shares everything. They gather food for their meals, wash the clothes, everyone has a chore, something to do.To really be a part of her new family--and succeed at leaving the old one behind--Mel has to take part in everything Henry and his 'family' have to offer.No matter how far they might go . . . or what she Mel might be called to do in the name of the family.Because family is told through Mel, we only get her perspective on things. She usually feels . . . disconnected or removed from everything, including that which is happening in her life. It's easy to see why a girl who had suffered abuse like Mel and left to be free, would fall in with Henry.Mel's disconnection from things makes sense given the situation, but at times it keeps the reader from really connecting with the story. We never quite get why Henry is so enigmatic and attractive to all of these people. Why it is that everyone's so willing to do what he says.family is more a look at a girl in Henry's family than it is a look at Henry's (re Manson's) family. Readers do understand how (if not why) things operate in the group and the poetry gives a real sense of who Melinda is--and how she got that way, though. The glimpses into the way that the family operates, do give the reader the opportunity to see the little ways (that are not so little in the end) that members are controlled--the girls especially. It's Melinda's immersion in the family--and therefore her lack of reaction to most of these things--that while sometimes give them more impact, also the reader from finding out more.Those looking for a true telling of the Manson murders--or the people involved--via YA fiction, might be slightly disappointed. But if you go into family realizing how much of it is a story about a girl who thought Henry was going to save her . . . and then found the dark side to everything, it's a great read.MIcol Ostow's poetry is beautiful (and capitalization choices that I love). Even if you aren't one to normally read verse novels (YA or otherwise), do give family a chance.
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Abused teenage girl runs away from home to San Francisco and ends up with Charles Manson-like "family." Though the ending disappointed me a bit, this is an exceptional novel in verse. Intense, disturbing and quite terrifying.
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Wow, this book was...wow! It definitely pulled me right back to the early 70’s. Mel describes herself as broken and she has been through so very much. It was at times disturbing to see the affect Henry had over his “family”. Further and further down the rabbit hole they all seemed to fall. How far will they all fall for the love and acceptance they crave so deeply? The verse it was written in was interesting and while it did switch between past and present, it seemed easy enough to follow. THis is one of the books on the Contemps Challenge. There are depictions of sex and drug use in this book, so be aware of that. I would recommend this book especially as a look back into history. Even though fictional, it's very realistic of that time period. This book was a taut emotional ride through a very haunting time and experience in America. I’m giving it four kisses!
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5This novel told in lyric verse will make your skin crawl.Of course, what else would you expect from a story based on the Manson Family murders?FAMILY chronicles the life of seventeen-year-old Melinda Jensen from the time she leaves home, to when she is found on a park bench by charismatic Henry, and through her time with Henry and her family — the young men and women who live on an abandoned movie set (“the ranch”) outside of L.A. Melinda, a broken girl having suffered abuse at the hands of her stepfather (and neglect at the hands of her mother) is easily charmed by Henry, and the love she receives both from him and from her new brothers and sisters. Henry is her father, her brother, her lover. He is God, a prophet, and it won’t be long before he has Melinda and her sisters wound so tightly around his finger that they will do anything in his name.Micol Ostow‘s latest is chilling, to say the least. Those who are familiar with the Manson murders and the cult surrounding them will find lots of similarities — many scenes, as they say, “ripped from the headlines.” But the author takes the story beyond history, gets into the heart of Melinda, of the lost teenage girls who were Manson’s victims. This is a book about the strength and fragility of the human spirit. And while a book like FAMILY is certainly not for the faint of heart, those who can handle a tough story are sure to be entranced by it.
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Family is in the point of view of Mel, a girl who defines herself as broken. Mel meets Henry, who she falls head over heels in love with. Henry brings her to live with his “family” on a ranch that used to be a movie set. Readers who enjoy the poetic style of Ellen Hopkins will enjoy Family, which is also written in verse. The book is loosely based on the Charles Manson murders and explores the cult dynamic.Honestly, this book creeped me out. The only word in the book that are capitalized are Henry and pronouns that are referring to him. It was chilling how the characters fall over this person because they’re so broken that they don’t know what else to do.Family is definitely a book I’m recommending you read. Ostow’s way with words and manipulating the story weave the book into a chilling tale that will leave you thinking long after you’ve finished the last page.