The book was not what I expected at all! Although fiction, the dark world is a reality some places and it's a horrible thought. The book contained a lot of unnecessary details, but I found it insightful reading about each character and how the story developed between Claire, husband Paul, Claire's sister Lydia, and missing sister Julia. Their parents were described in gory details. Each of the families had some form of dysfunctionality, including drug or alcohol abuse, infidelity, rape, murder. It was hard getting through the description of rape, torcher, mutilation of young women, filming and selling in the dark world. My favorite character was Lydia. She endured at lot through her life, including the sexual encounter with Claire's husband, Paul. When Lydia told Claire and her mother about the incident, they didn't believe Lydia because of her previous theft and lies due to drug abuse and Lydia disappeared for 18 years. Lydia eventually got herself together, raised a daughter and living a normal life, that is until she was abducted by Claire's husband who faked his murder previously. Paul did some very awful things to Lydia including waterboarding her with his piss. After it all, Lydia was the hero in my opinion. There were so many twists and turns in this book, it was graphic, scary, but insightful in the dark world.