Two normal families, almost identical, where numerous secrets abound. “Raisons obscures,” the sixth novel by Amélie Antoine, is a chilling tale about bullying and unspoken truths.
The Kessler family moves from Toulouse to settle in Laetitia’s childhood small town. The couple’s children, Ezio, Orlane, and Marjorie, struggle to adapt to this life change. While Yanis does everything he can for the family to thrive, Laetitia reunites with her old flame and quickly falls for his charm.
The Mariani family also experiences a life change, but most family members aren’t aware of it: Frédéric, the father, a brilliant HR director, is ousted from his position and decides to conceal this information from his loved ones. Meanwhile, Claire, his wife, has just launched her own sewing business but faces an extremely aggressive neighbor… Sarah and Clément, the children, sense their balance is shifting but each has their own concerns.
Despite all these secrets, it’s not these that will lead the families to their downfall, but rather the bullying of one of the children.
This psychological thriller by Amélie Antoine, known for her novel “Fidèle au poste,” is a family saga brimming with secrets and unspoken words, a chronicle where the most terrible things are those left unsaid. The first part of the novel focuses on the adults, tangled in their daily troubles, providing a broad view of these two ordinary and so similar families.
Then, the second part opens, and hell follows. The power of bullying is described here in all its horror and astounding detail. The reader witnesses, unable to intervene, a daily tragedy they cannot prevent. Amélie Antoine alternates between the perspectives of the bullied and the bully, this duality is absolutely terrifying, and admirably described and conveyed by the author.
One closes “Raisons obscures” with pain, pain at the silence of the victims, pain at the lack of foresight of the parents who will always carry immense guilt within them. The new Amélie Antoine is a psychological thriller of incredible and chilling realism.
