The Absence Of Nectar by Kathy Hepinstall

 

Alice and Boone had a great life.  They lived with their father and mother, Meg, in a small town.  But their father left their mother one day, sending her into a depression.  That opened the door to a smarmy man named Simon who entered their lives and made it clear he wanted all of Meg's attention.  He barely tolerated Alice and Boone and as the months went on, the two were sure he wanted to get rid of them, permanently.  Meg said they just had wild imaginations but they saw the evil side of Simon he kept hidden from her.

Boone was saintly, always wondering what God would want him to do.  That led him to write to Persely, a teenager in a mental hospital who had poisoned her parents and killed them.  Persely is an escape artist and on one of her escapes, comes by to visit Boone.  When the kids decide to run away from home, they take Persely with them and hide out on a nearby island.  Once there, they find out they are connected in ways they had never expected and Boone experiences his first love.  

Kathy Hepinstall is one of those authors who has never broken out into the top tier of authors but whose books are each fascinating to me.  They often feature women who are victimized by either the times or the men in their lives and this one is no different.  The story is told by Alice and as she starts to realize the truths around her, she begins to change from a child to a young woman.  Simon is a villain whose evil is easy to believe in as he attempts to control everyone around him while pretending to be religious.  This book is recommended for readers of literary fiction.