Spoiler warning: Ending of book!!!

[Melissa]

I stayed up until 1:00 a.m. last week reading this book. If you read the book, what did you think of the ending? I was totally blown away and was not expecting it. I am still on the fence if I liked it or not?

[Bee (BacchusVines)]

THAT ENDING CAME IN LIKE A WRECKING BALL.

I was like OH NO. I couldn't believe after the entire book that Mary was able to convince me (the reader) that her mother was ultimately at fault! She played into her mother's mental illness and all that AND NOW I'M LIKE. CRAP.

I loved that ending! So much more better than so many other thriller/crime drama pieces!

[Sara]

I felt like the ending was completely ridiculous and for an extra "thrill" factor. It was completely out of character and did not make any sense. Honestly it made me like the book even less than I already did at that point.

[Bernice]

I was like, *waitttttt, am i reading this right????!!!' I was totally stunned but after, I feel it's possible for someone who went through such scenarios.

[Kearsie]

I literally just finished reading less than an hour ago so my thoughts have yet to become fully fledged - BUT here are my initial thoughts about the ending. Also don't know if anyone else will even reply to this but I had to process my thoughts.

First of all, I was expecting something to come of the hints of Mary's mental state - her sleep talking, the mention of her talking to herself, the "blackouts" we heard mentioned so many times, but Mary herself never addressed...so I was waiting for something to come of that.

However, I was expecting the twist to have something to do with Mary's real birth parents. It was clear early on that Mary wasn't Momma's biological child, and with the death of Junior and the ambiguity of how Momma gained custody of Mary in the first place really had me wondering how those elements might amount to something in the end. But those elements seemed to ultimately be red herrings.

I think this book could be a really interesting re-read, knowing what we know now and seeing what kinds of clues and unreliability of Mary's narration we could pick up on.

The ending makes me ultimately wonder who Mary was writing/telling this story to. Aside for the obviously choice of shock value, was the author ultimately trying to make a statement in the way the Mary's story unfolded? I assume we can take all the excerpts from the newspapers/books/etc as truth, but Mary's own narration is highly unreliable. She comments at the end about being a good liar - was this story told to people like us, unassuming outsiders who were eager to side with Mary and see her innocence proven, with Mary knowing just the right way to manipulate us? Or was it told as a lie to herself - a lie she wanted so desperately to be true that she even believed it to be true herself, until it was safely accepted by all and she could begin to admit the truth to herself again.

The unreliability of Mary's narration ultimately makes me wonder about other events in the book as well - were the horrific events from her childhood all true? Did she pit us against Kelly and New Girl when perhaps she was painting an untrue depiction of them and perhaps she was really at fault for more of that animosity than she let on? We'll probably never know for sure, but having the rug torn out from under you in a book like that makes for good analyzing and discussion...

[Jamesha]

But did Mary and Ted get back together?😭that’s all I want know

[Zana]

Kearsie, you post some really great questions!

[Kaydence]

I had read this book a while back, maybe a few months ago, so I'm not fresh out of reading this book, but still, the ending seemed so...boring. It was a brilliant example of an unreliable narrator, but I was so into the character that this seemed like the ultimate betrayal. It's like she broke character just for the end, and I guess that was the whole point, but it just seemed to not affect me as much as it did others. I still believe the mother should have also been given a sentence. The only thing that really troubled me, in the end, was the fact that she would completely forget about Ted, just so she could be with that one mom. It made me feel disgusted that I had ever even hoped she'd keep her baby in the first place.

[Dorian]

So many questions & observations, I just need to vent!

The autopsy report said that Clonidine & Ritalin were both found in Alyssa’s stomach.
Mary’s mom was trying to use the cross to clear her throat?

This was the 3rd death of a baby surrounding Mary’s mom. Her brother, Junior, & now Alyssa.

So Mary saw her mom put pills in Ray’s food. Is that where she got the idea?

Mary killed Alyssa to get away from her mom & basically have Alyssa’s mom to herself??


Who were Mary’s parents & how did she come into the custody of her “mom” was it the sister & brother in law who died? Cause she gave mary their last name.

[Venita]

I am soooo messed up by this ending. I was not expecting this at all. Mary had us all rooting for here until those last 10 pages. I just knew her mother was unstable so I completely believed her story just like the other characters in the book. Only one time while reading I think I got the idea that Mary was actually jealous of Alyssa, but I brushed it off thinking I'm always one to look at the dark side of things when reading mysteries,

BUT MAN... I am still a little taken back. I'm torn because a part of me HATES the ending and a part of me loves it. And I think that's what Tiffany Jackson was trying to do with this ending. Because even though we find out that Momma did not physically kill Alyssa by giving her the pills.. emotionally she did.

Mary never needed those pills in the first place. Ray was a pedo and there was no reason that Mary was given so many medications that she was in a zombie state at such a young age. If she never thought she was a "bad" child and never associated those pills with sedation or "not crying" then she would have never thought to give them to Alyssa in the first place. ALSO if she had a stable and healthy relationship with her mother then she wouldn't have been jealous of Alyssa and looking for Mrs. Richardson to be her saving grace.

The ending of this story was actually very powerful. Mary is really somewhat of a psychopath, and childhood trauma can do that to you. This was also about how our justice/juvenile system has failed so many children in a lot of different ways.

ALSO WHO IS MARY'S REAL PARENTS! Did Dawn steal her from a hospital? I need a sequel !!!