
Yet each character possesses a unique voice and feel. The way the characters sometimes talk about or treat each other, it’s easy to forget who is who’s mother, sibling, cousin or child. She’s also provided a necessary family tree to aid readers. “Perish” is raw and deeply upsetting, but Watkins manages difficult, taboo subjects with grace and grit. Perhaps in death, Helen Jean can bring the family together and right the wrongs that proliferated like a tumbleweed through the generations.

Abuse, silence and pain scar them, their wounds still festering because they never healed. Though the family views secrecy as a way to maintain normalcy and stow away pain, it’s backfired horribly.
