Take a photo of a barcode or cover
A review by zraitor
12 Nights of Sorry by John Shupeck, Collin Xenophontos
5.0
A ten-year-old girl is abducted and held in captivity as a child bride. Seven years later her older brother and the Sherrif of their town conduct an unsanctioned investigation of their own while the now seventeen-year-old girl plots her escape...
The character work in this is great. We see from the perspective of an abused little girl, the predator that took her, a police officer haunted by his failure to solve the case, the older brother who is obsessed with finding her, and even the alcoholic father. Every character had a lot of thought put into them and it showed. It certainly grounds this in a bit of realism that isn't ruined even by the out of place supernatural elements.
I'm not sure if out of place is the right way to say it but the psychic visions/dreams the brother and sister share clashed with the rest of the themes in the story in my opinion. They also never amount to much and everything would have worked out just the same if they weren't in it.
The main bulk of this is Cordelia James being held prisoner by a man that tells her to call him "Papa Stu". He's a total nutcase who pretends God tells him that he deserves a child bride and commands him to do these things. The disgusting things he does to her not just in body but in mind are awful. Conditioning her and keeping her as childlike in thinking as possible is the way he keeps her control. If she steps out of line he chains her up in the basement for weeks at a time with little food and water.
Seven years of this go on and "Papa Stu" finds himself no longer attracted to Cordelia who is maturing into a beautiful young woman. He decides God tells him to get rid of her and find a new child to replace her. If you haven't figured out where the book gets its name from by this point don't worry it will become clear to you in incredibly gruesome fashion soon enough.
Just a really smart and well-written book. Nothing is wasted and everything is thought out from the characters to the police investigations and the impact on the communities hurt by this act. It also gets quite dark and violent. I like it so much I won't even do a bad joke about how YOU would be sorry not to read it. I mean you would, but I won't. Check it out.
The character work in this is great. We see from the perspective of an abused little girl, the predator that took her, a police officer haunted by his failure to solve the case, the older brother who is obsessed with finding her, and even the alcoholic father. Every character had a lot of thought put into them and it showed. It certainly grounds this in a bit of realism that isn't ruined even by the out of place supernatural elements.
I'm not sure if out of place is the right way to say it but the psychic visions/dreams the brother and sister share clashed with the rest of the themes in the story in my opinion. They also never amount to much and everything would have worked out just the same if they weren't in it.
The main bulk of this is Cordelia James being held prisoner by a man that tells her to call him "Papa Stu". He's a total nutcase who pretends God tells him that he deserves a child bride and commands him to do these things. The disgusting things he does to her not just in body but in mind are awful. Conditioning her and keeping her as childlike in thinking as possible is the way he keeps her control. If she steps out of line he chains her up in the basement for weeks at a time with little food and water.
Seven years of this go on and "Papa Stu" finds himself no longer attracted to Cordelia who is maturing into a beautiful young woman. He decides God tells him to get rid of her and find a new child to replace her. If you haven't figured out where the book gets its name from by this point don't worry it will become clear to you in incredibly gruesome fashion soon enough.
Just a really smart and well-written book. Nothing is wasted and everything is thought out from the characters to the police investigations and the impact on the communities hurt by this act. It also gets quite dark and violent. I like it so much I won't even do a bad joke about how YOU would be sorry not to read it. I mean you would, but I won't. Check it out.