"Those Girls" by Chevy Stevens

I received a copy of "Those Girls" by Chevy Stevens through the Goodreads First Reads program.  This novel is written in two parts and my opinion of each differs greatly.  

The first section deals with the lives of three sisters from a terribly abusive home.  The abuse becomes critical one evening and leads to an event that sends their lives spinning out of control.  I could not stop reading through the first half of the book.  The terrifying narrative has no holes, is full of suspense, and has well developed, plausible characters.

The second half of the book was a struggle for me.  I strongly disagree with the author's decision to change the narrator to a completely new character, and was unable to overcome my dislike of the new point of view.  The characters that were so well developed in the early stages of the book suddenly lapsed into caricatures of their former selves.  The second half plot was serviceable, but nowhere near the gripping first half.  I rate this between a 3.5 and 4.0 on a five point scale.