Descent by Tim Johnston

 

This is a novel about a family that suddenly find themselves living a nightmare, and it conveys really well just how violently it disrupts them as a family and as individuals. The characters are all strongly drawn and clearly recognizable as human--except for one, who's an inhuman monster. The actual story is a little disjointed, all kinds of time skips that often aren't entirely clear, and I can see someone being put off to a greater or lesser extent by the pages that are all in italics. It's clear reading it--especially noting the copyright date of 2015--to pick up on at least some of the real-world inspirations for this novel, but it's very much its own thing, pure fiction, characters under a magnifying glass.