My dad and his side of the family were shit. He was both physically and verbally abusive, controlling, demeaning, etc. etc. I've gone no contact with him. My mother is ok with the exception of excusing his behavior and having the strategy of "just shut up and do what he says".
And I never tell that to people in real life because they hit me with "Oh my Gooood, he's your father, he raised you!!!"

Many novels are just too damn long! Anything above 90k words is just rambling and masturbatory.