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oddfigg 's review for:
True Crime
by Samantha Kolesnik
This is a grim, dark, and disturbing story, told from the perspective of a young girl who is a serial killer.
It was interesting to see the descent into evil from a woman’s perspective, as this is usually a story trope reserved for men. This story reminded me of the movie Confessions of a Serial Killer (p.s. this film is far superior to the more well-known Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer and I highly recommend you seek it out). It has the same bleakness, that gripping sense of dread that nothing is going to turn out OK no matter how desperately you wish it to.
I am a huge fan of the true crime genre; it will never not be interesting to read about how people go wrong, the extent of damage we can do to each other, even if the “why” is sometimes unexplainable. There is something cathartic to reading real stories like these, examining tragedy so we can hopefully find a way to avoid it in our own lives.
This novella, to me, did not capture the gritty realness of an actual true crime story. Though it is well-written, beyond the gender of the narrator, the plot didn’t offer a new story. It rehashes time-worn tracks that we know about killers—both real and fictional. Suzy and her brother, Lim, are abused—mentally and physically—by their mother from a young age. They know nothing but fear and anger, so of course they would turn to a life of crime, reflecting back what they know of the world. They are victims and this point can't be overlooked but as far as the narrative goes, it felt ineffective to me.
This story also reminded me of the difference between Stephen King’s The Shining and the Stanley Kubrick adaptation. In the book, Jack Torrance begins as a guy with a shaky past who is trying to make things right for his family, but he is slowly taken over by the hotel and returns to his vices. In the movie, Jack (Jack Nicholson) is crazy the whole time. There’s no character arc, and therefore it’s difficult to feel for Jack as a person. We really just root for his downfall.
I felt the same way about Suzy. She begins the book as someone with an evil outlook, that serial killer mindset, and it isn’t a surprise when she fulfills that role. What she endures is certainly horrible, but it doesn’t humanize her. It doesn’t make for compelling storytelling, to me. What I wanted to be left with was an internal struggle about Suzy. If she had been raised in a nurturing home, would she still have turned out the way she did? Or was it solely the violence enacted upon her that made her emotionally dead and violent herself? I didn't feel this struggle about Suzy's character and therefore wasn't invested in her. The narrative was more interested in the violence itself than the interiority and character development that makes fiction come alive.
My thanks to the author and Grindhouse Press for my copy of this one to read and review.
It was interesting to see the descent into evil from a woman’s perspective, as this is usually a story trope reserved for men. This story reminded me of the movie Confessions of a Serial Killer (p.s. this film is far superior to the more well-known Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer and I highly recommend you seek it out). It has the same bleakness, that gripping sense of dread that nothing is going to turn out OK no matter how desperately you wish it to.
I am a huge fan of the true crime genre; it will never not be interesting to read about how people go wrong, the extent of damage we can do to each other, even if the “why” is sometimes unexplainable. There is something cathartic to reading real stories like these, examining tragedy so we can hopefully find a way to avoid it in our own lives.
This novella, to me, did not capture the gritty realness of an actual true crime story. Though it is well-written, beyond the gender of the narrator, the plot didn’t offer a new story. It rehashes time-worn tracks that we know about killers—both real and fictional. Suzy and her brother, Lim, are abused—mentally and physically—by their mother from a young age. They know nothing but fear and anger, so of course they would turn to a life of crime, reflecting back what they know of the world. They are victims and this point can't be overlooked but as far as the narrative goes, it felt ineffective to me.
This story also reminded me of the difference between Stephen King’s The Shining and the Stanley Kubrick adaptation. In the book, Jack Torrance begins as a guy with a shaky past who is trying to make things right for his family, but he is slowly taken over by the hotel and returns to his vices. In the movie, Jack (Jack Nicholson) is crazy the whole time. There’s no character arc, and therefore it’s difficult to feel for Jack as a person. We really just root for his downfall.
I felt the same way about Suzy. She begins the book as someone with an evil outlook, that serial killer mindset, and it isn’t a surprise when she fulfills that role. What she endures is certainly horrible, but it doesn’t humanize her. It doesn’t make for compelling storytelling, to me. What I wanted to be left with was an internal struggle about Suzy. If she had been raised in a nurturing home, would she still have turned out the way she did? Or was it solely the violence enacted upon her that made her emotionally dead and violent herself? I didn't feel this struggle about Suzy's character and therefore wasn't invested in her. The narrative was more interested in the violence itself than the interiority and character development that makes fiction come alive.
My thanks to the author and Grindhouse Press for my copy of this one to read and review.