Mark Twain once said, “Truth is stranger than fiction, but it is because fiction is obliged to stick to possibilities. Truth isn’t.” An odd concept to be sure, but sometimes a work comes along to insist on its truth.

“In Our House: Perception vs. Reality,” by Marala Scott and Tr? Parker (a former University of Wisconsin student), tells the true story of Scott’s childhood growing up in an abusive household. The abuser is her father, Colin, who deems it necessary to dole out physical and mental cruelty in a vicious manner. Colin goes after every single family member and never seems to give anyone leeway when it comes his rage.

As a result of years of abuse, Scott’s mother, Alley, decides to finally make an attempt at escaping Colin’s anger by joining an odd church with bizarre beliefs and practices. While the church and its members offer Alley strength against Colin, she also seemingly becomes possessed by demons.

It is in this collection of stories from Scott’s “horrific childhood” — as the back of the book puts it — that Scott and Parker want to convey the idea you must not carry the “unnecessary baggage” of your past into the future, lest it comes back and destroys you later.

It’s clear from the outset that Scott believes in the Christian God. Every chapter begins with a Bible verse, and Scott explicitly points out numerous times that her childhood was a battle between God and Satan. Depending on the reader’s view of Christianity, the entire second half of the book might well be passed off as ridiculous due to Alley’s alleged possession.

Scott’s Christianity is both the book’s greatest strength and weakness. While it does serve to lend credibility to the memoir in that her mother really was demonically possessed in Scott’s eyes and that God really did save Scott from her own personal hell, it also serves to discredit the idea just as easily and allow for readers to simply consider Alley a nut job. Also problematic is the description of the book referring to it as a “true story,” since certain scenes seem to be elaborated upon via creative license. For example, early in the book, Scott relates an anecdote about rushing upstairs to her shared bedroom so her father doesn’t come home and catch her and her brothers still awake at midnight. Yet, Scott is able to describe movements and expressions of her parents downstairs while they argued in vivid detail. I acknowledge that she has a point to make in using this (and other scenes), but a story’s either true or it’s not.

Yet, the worst part of this purported memoir is that Scott’s writing is melodramatic. Actually, it’s melodramatic to the point that daytime soap opera actors are subtle by comparison. To that end, the book redefines the word “tedious.” But what really pushes the tedium of “House” over the edge is the bitterness with which Scott pours her soul into the work.

Scott seems hell-bent on demonstrating her father was “Satan’s pawn” and, perhaps more importantly, the physical and emotional scars that he left on his family were permanent baggage for them. Sentences like, “Eroding the self-esteem of others was among the many arts he learned to master,” are resentfully over the top. Better still is when Scott describes Colin’s treatment of Alley as “the abusive cocktail that Mom was forced to drink.” Give me a break.

The real shame is that Scott has an important story to tell and an important point to make, but it’s pissed away through her feelings toward her father. And, really, her emotions toward him can’t be held against her in reality. That said, when put into a book, her bitter writing style engulfs her and her story like a symbiote (i.e: the sentient entity in the Marvel Universe that resulted in supervillians like Venom and Carnage).

Problems aside, “In Our House” is nonetheless poignant. The accounts within are sometimes sad and sometimes enraging. Mostly, though, they’re disturbing: To think Colin was that sadistic defies belief considering Scott appears normal today. Had she toned down the sensationalism, Scott would have one hell of a book. As it stands, however, the memoir reads as an attempt of Scott purging demons herself.

3 stars out of 5.