Ellington instead acts as a maternal figure to her. Cecilia dislikes being a mother, and she leaves permanently when Blythe is 12. She later cheats on him and wants to leave him, but then they find out she is pregnant. Cecilia grows up and meets a man named Seb. When Cecilia (Blythe's mother) is born, Etta marries her second husband Henry, but Etta struggles with motherhood and is often intentionally cruel to Cecilia. Etta suffered from moods and needed sedatives to calm her down. Her grandmother Etta's first husband died in a horrified farming accident. Meanwhile, the narration is interspersed with information about the women in Blythe's family and her childhood. When a boy falls off a playset and dies, Blythe suspects Violet tripped him on purpose. Violet has trouble getting along with other kids and there's incidences of violence towards them, too. As Violet gets older, Violet continues to be antagonistic and even violent towards Blythe. Soon, she starts to resents Fox for seeing her solely as Violet's caregiver, and Fox thinks Blythe is deficient as a mother. She senses Violet prefers Fox, but Fox insists it's all in her head. Blythe struggles with Violet from the beginning, Blythe is exhausted, and motherhood proves far tougher than she anticipated. Soon, they have their first child, a girl named Violet. The book ends by implying that Gemma suspects Violet has now harmed Jet.īlythe and Fox Connor are a couple who meet in college and get married at 25. Throughout the book, it's not clear if Violet is innately bad, if Blythe is a bad mother (Blythe comes from a line of bad mothers) or if it's all in Blythe's head. Fox has a son, Jet, with his new wife, Gemma. When their infant son Sam is killed, Blythe blames Violet. Blythe thinks Violet is violent and lacks empathy, but Fox thinks Blythe's insufficient love for Violet is the problem.

The one-paragraph summary of this book: Blythe and Fox have a daughter, Violet.

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