WHIDBEY

A sex offender’s murder triggers a sequence of events that devastates the lives of his female victims and their loved ones.

Birdie Chang visits Whidbey, a sparsely populated Puget Sound island, to escape “phone calls…tabloids [and] news bits” about Calvin Boyer, the man who videotaped himself molesting her when she was 9. The case was dismissed in court; but for Birdie, now in her 20s, the nightmare—which includes yearly visits to Florida to renew the order of protection against him—continues. Her pain only intensifies when another young woman, Linzie King, publishes a bestselling memoir that not only details her experiences with Calvin, but also makes public information from the case files of other rape victims, including Birdie. Calvin’s mother, Mary-Beth Boyer, also lives in anguish over the son she fiercely loves for his “too-big heart,” but over whom she despairs for the “sickness” that drives him to abuse children. When Calvin is killed by someone who runs him over five times, tensions escalate. Birdie quietly ruminates over Linzie’s appropriation of her story and her alcohol-fueled relationship with a girlfriend named Trace Levenson. Linzie experiences a slow, destructive awakening about a lifetime of half-acknowledged abuse. And Mary-Beth is forced into a reckoning with the past that changes not only her, but the members of her family. Moving among multiple perspectives that showcase a gift for creating in-depth, psychologically complex character portraits, Madden weaves a dark, propulsive narrative. As unrelenting as it is probing and compassionate, this extraordinary novel addresses themes—like childhood sexual assault and damaged love—that eloquently force readers out of their comfort zones.

A searingly original novel that examines the impact of sexual trauma on the human psyche.