Review: "The Rules of Survival," by Nancy Werlin

For Matt and his sisters, life with their cruel, physically abusive mother is a day-to-day struggle for survival. But then Matt witnesses a man named Murdoch coming to a child’s rescue in a convenience store; and for the first time, he feels a glimmer of hope. Then, amazingly, Murdoch begins dating Matt’s mother. Life is suddenly almost good. But the relief lasts only a short time. When Murdoch inevitably breaks up with their mother, Matt knows that he’ll need to take some action. Can he call upon Murdoch to be his hero? Or will Matt have to take measures into his own hands?​

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If there is one thing that I absolutely despise in this world, it is a bully. And essentially, that is what abusive parents are. They are basically bullies to their very own children and that is something that I will always be unable to comprehend.

Matthew, Callie, and Emmy are all siblings who live under a roof with their abusive mother, Nikki. Nikki isn't one of those abusive parents who hits her kids 24/7 but she has hit them before. More than physical abuse, she emotionally abuses the kids by making them do whatever she wants. It is really heart-wrenching to hear about stories like this, however, with this book, I didn't feel as sad.

The story was well developed and the characters were pretty intriguing as well, but I felt that the book was a bit lacking. Since the story takes place over the course of several years, you can see the development of the children and how they cope with Nikki. Matt and Callie both care about each other, and especially Emmy, so you can see how each child thinks and what role they play in their situation. Because the story is in Matthew's point of view, you can fully understand how he dealt with everything in his own personal way and how he grew stronger to go against Nikki.

All of the characters had a background story that provided insight into how they acted the way they did with Nikki's behaviour. Nevertheless, there was one character whom I was a bit confused about. Murdoch. (What a strange name too, right?) Murdoch is quite a mystery. You never learn his entire background until the end when he reveals an important part of his childhood. Even then, he still confused me. I didn't understand why he did everything that he did and they way he acted - but that may be how the author wanted it to be. On the other hand, each event that took place was described very well. Each thought and event were separated by chapters so the book wasn't chronologically confusing.

One thing I really liked was the author's dedication page: "This book is for all the survivors. Always remember: The survivor gets to tell the story."

Whilst this was a compelling read, it was a bit slow and not as emotionally captivating for me as I hoped it would be.

Overall rating: 3 stars