n 1964, sixteen-year-old Joan Andersen survives the crudest form of savagery: a botched abortion. What follows is a series of painful complications, leaving her traumatized and emotionally scarred. Plagued with guilt and longing for redemption, Joan convinces herself that the baby she lost is still with her, an obsession bordering on delusion.
Jack Smithfield is devastated when his girlfriend confesses to having a back-alley abortion behind his back. Tormented by the loss of a baby he never knew existed, Jack is hell-bent on vengeance. After tracking down the man who performed the procedure, he exacts his revenge and considers the matter to be settled. Jack remains loyal to Joan, and the couple are married two years after the incident. Eager to start a family, the Smithfields are blessed with a healthy baby boy.
After welcoming Jonathon Smithfield into the world, Joan suffers from postpartum depression. Her quest to find purpose in the confines of her mundane life often comes at the expense of her child. Jack vows to be the father his son needs, but struggles to suppress a darkness that has haunted him since childhood. When his dark side begins to emerge, the once loving and devoted dad is replaced with a monster whose unveiling changes his family forever. As Jonathon’s world begins to unravel, he finds solace in the form of his grandfather, an unlikely hero determined to liberate a family of its demons.
In Very Bad Parents, the reader will become immersed in the lives of a seemingly picturesque family whose complex dynamic is explored through multiple points of view over a twelve-year period.
