The Perfect Father

August 13, 2018

Chris Watts made the conscious decision to kill his entire family.

The Perfect Father plays out the events leading up to the murder of Bella, Celeste, and pregnant Shanann. It starts at the very beginning of their marriage. It was not long before marital issues snuck up on them. They were in their mid-twenties and they were going bankrupt. They were swimming in debt which just continuously got worse after having their first child together.

Chris and Shanann decided to move across the country to Fredrick, Colorado, where they soon began building their new home. Again, bankruptcy was on the horizon. Chris worked at Anadarko Petroleum and Shanann was quickly moving through the ranks of Le-Vel. They earned just enough to get by but were still living well above their means. But with Shanann working from home, she decided to take a six week vacation back to their hometown in North Carolina. This became the perfect opportunity for Chris to make a move on a woman in his office.

Chris began obsessing over this woman. In five and a half weeks he had fallen head over heels in love with this woman. He knew he was going to have to end it with Shanann, and end it fast.

We'll never actually know his reason behind killing Shanann, his baby girls and soon to be son, Nico.

His story has changed so many times, it's hard to keep up with.

But what we do know is that he plead guilty to multiple counts of first degree murder and is now serving five life sentences.

Looking for other books by John Glatt?

The Doomsday Mother

The Family Next Door

Tangled Vines

Looking for other books on Chris Watts?

My Daddy is a Hero

A Beautifully Foolish Endeavor

I love this book.

So we all remember An Absolutely Remarkable Thing, right?

Well, this picks up with Andy, Maya, and Miranda all trying to cope with the loss of April May. They're each in their own stages of grief but they all know one thing...April's alive. They just have to find her.

So, lets start with Andy.

He's trying to fill April's shoes with all these new people looking to him for answers. He becomes obsessed with a Youtube channel called "The Thread" who publishes anonymous videos sharing unfiltered news. He wants to be a part of something bigger, something better than the life he's currently living. So when he's lead to The Book of Good Times, which he literally finds in a trash can at the park. So obviously, the logical thing to do is follow the advise it's giving him. Soon, Andy finds himself with a girlfriend and billions of dollars.

So Maya, I love her.

She's on the hunt to find her ex-girlfriend. She hits the road with nothing but a sprouting potato. She follows a lead to a little town and quickly realizes something is wrong there. After befriending a local coffee shop owner, she learns of a giant market where sellers come from all over to set up shop. There she finds these rocks that make her think Carl may still be a part of their lives and sparks that hope that April is with him. When the seller won't sell her these rocks because of the color of her skin, she follows him to a rundown motel where she finds The Book of Good Times under a pile of trash. According to the book, she'll have all the answers she needs in two weeks.

Now Miranda, she had the most immersive experience.

Miranda has been working to recreate The Dream. Her PhD program was trying to humanely figure out a way to use interfacing programs to create artificial intelligence. The one thing that put her program on hold was Carl. Carl needed someone like Miranda to take down a more dangerous AI than the one her lab was creating. An AI run by the man who is responsible for April's death. The only problem is.....she has to go work for his company, Altus.

This book was so dimensional and fantastic.

It's written the same way as AART, written as a book by the characters involved.

Great wrap-up to this duology.

Looking for the rest of the series?

An Absolutely Remarkable Thing

Shattered Night

I'm a sucker for a true crime book.

So I initially started this book for two reasons:

1) My coworker's mom loaned it to me and I've had it for way too long

2) I needed a palate cleanser before I start my next big novel.

For some reason, I always end up reading some obscure true crime book to get myself back on track.

So, Shattered Night follows the Sandiford couple, Kay and Frank.

For those unfamiliar with the case, Kay shot her well-known heart surgeon of a husband.

So the book is broken into three parts; "The Shooting," "The Beginning," and "The Trial."

The shooting obviously grabs you in because it leads you on a goose chase as to why in the world Kay bought a gun and decided to use it on her husband. Very quickly we see Kay was not in the best place mentally. We hear her stories of how Frank beat her one night not long after they were wed. He thought he needed to teach his wife discipline.....with a good beating. Everything went downhill from there. She knew the kinds of moods he was in based on how in walked in the front door after work. She knew this was a marriage she needed out of.

This book dealt with Kay's mental state more than anything else. Yes, it talks about the shooting too. But mostly, it talks about how Kay went from subservient housewife to battered wife who kills her husband. It was all very textbook.

It was definitely a good read and the perfect true crime cleanse that I needed!

Chosen Ones

As hyped as I was for this book, I finished it with a meh feeling.

The Chosen Ones is Veronica Roth's debut adult fiction, more like new adult fiction. Not gonna lie, I love the idea of new adult fiction because it's an easy pathway from ya fiction to adult fiction because it has characters that aren't quite teenagers but also aren't 40 and going through a divorce, so NA fiction is definitely a genre I'm enjoying.

Okay, so you guys probably want to hear about the actual book now, right?

The Chosen Ones is filled with magic, mystery, and multidimensional universes.

There are five "Chosen Ones" on Earth who showed magical capabilities at young ages. The idea of being chosen stemmed from a prophecy at the end of the world. These kids were expected to fight against the Dark One. They were expected to learn and excel at magic use. They were expected to put their lives in the hands of each other and just hope for the best.

This book actually starts at the 10 year anniversary of the Dark One's demise.

It seems fitting for Matt, the ultimate chosen one, to propose to his longtime girlfriend Sloane. But this isn't what Sloane wants, none of it is. She never wanted to fight this fight, she never wanted to have a connection to this monster, and she definitely doesn't want to spend the rest of her miserable life with Matt.

Them their lives turn upside-down, literally.

Sucked into a new dimension while trying to mourn their friend is not something 3 of the 5 chosen ones had in mind. They land on a dimension that has summoned them to fight a new fight, a new monster, with new rules and new magic. They're told they can't go home until they fight The Resurrectionist to the death. But not knowing who to trust they quickly find themselves breaking rules and making enemies.

Now don't get me wrong, I did really enjoy this book.

But it is not at all what I was expecting it to be.

Part Three really brought it home for me and I'm hoping there will be more stories from these characters!

Looking for other books by Veronica Roth?

Divergent (Divergent #1)

Insurgent (Divergent #2)
Allegiant (Divergent #3)

Four (Divergent #4)

Carve the Mark (CTM #1)

The Fates Divide (CTM #2)

The End and Other Beginnings