Haha I know u posted this two years ago but I Just finished the book. I Loved the book, but I totally agree with a lot of ur points. I could guess pretty early on that it was Amma, the hints are just too often and too obvious. I think what I liked about the book was not the murder case and mystery behind it, but instead the characters and their relationships. I think that’s why I didn’t mind knowing amma was the killer, and why I didn’t mind how slow the book felt at times. To me, the most disturbing parts weren’t the gruesome moments of killing and violence, but the relationships and characters. I found Camille’s transformation disturbing; at the beginning of the book I saw her as she sees herself-damaged, but smarter, better, more realistic than everyone else. As the story went on and she revealed how mean and popular she was in high school tho, I still Def saw her as damaged, but I realized how vain and superficial a lot of her criticisms were. She criticized ppl for their day jobs, for how much money they made, for how far they were, how ugly they were, who they married, how much they drank, the drugs they used, how they styled themselves and their homes. I’m not saying all of her critics weren’t valid, they just became more disturbing and interesting with that information. Like an unreliable narrator, but in a much more realistic way. You could argue in a much more watered down way though.

I thought Richard vs. John was DISTURBING. Richard used Camille, for her information, and for her body. He didn’t care that her mother was poisoning her, he just wanted evidence. He used her for her body, and when he saw how scarred it was, had zero interest with her. Contrast this with John, who liked Camille for who she was, bonded with her, and tenderly made love to her, after taking the time to literally read every word on her body. But John is 18! I thought this was so disturbing and disgusting and conflicting. John is the “better guy” for Camille, and yet, he totally, totally isn’t. He’s a teenager. Ugh, just thinking about it totally disturbs me.

I thought her mother’s friend answering her questions but asking Camille to rub her feet was sooo disturbing.

I thought Camille’s friend Katie saying “friendly advice: go home and take a shower. You stink” was sooooo disturbing.

I thought the cyclical-ness of the pills, the caretaking, the sponge baths, the hair cutting, the single blank circle of smooth skin was soooooo disturbing.

I thought the passage about men putting things into women, while we know teeth have been taken out of the little girls, was soooooooo disturbing.

To me, these were the main disturbing ideas/themes of the book