Were they truly wicked?

While reading over some "best of" lists covering 2013, I came across the book The Wicked Girls by Alex Marwood.  This title was recommended by Stephen King as one of his favorite books from last year.  Good enough for me!

The book deals with issues that are timely and have been in the headlines recently:  namely, what happens to child killers once they've been released back into society?  The story concerns two women, Amber and Kirsty.  Twenty years ago, when the girls were young, they were convicted of murdering a 4 year old child.  They were sent to separate institutions, and, in time, given new identities and released.  Each woman has maintained her anonymity, even from family and friends, and they have had no contact with each other in the years following their release.

In the present day, Amber works in management at an amusement park in the seaside town of Whitmouth.  She feels dowdy and unglamorous, but does have the consolation of living with the hunky Vic, who also works at the park.  Kirsty is married with two children and works as a journalist.  She travels around the country, following breaking news stories.  The worlds of the two women are about to collide when the bodies of murdered young women begin appearing in Whitmouth, and eventually even inside the park where Amber works.  Kirsty is sent to cover the story, and inevitably the two women reconnect.  Neither woman especially wants to re-establish contact, but Amber is an important witness Kirsty would like to interview and once they see each other, there is an immediate recognition. 

The chapters alternate between the events taking place in the present, and those that led up to the arrest and conviction of the two little girls.  As children, the lives of Bel and Jade (as they were known then) couldn't have been more different.  Jade came from a poor, neglectful family on a housing estate while Bel had a more privileged upbringing -- at least materially.  Bel's mother had re-married and had another child, and while Bel lives in an upperclass area, she is neglected by her parents and overlooked in favor of her mother's child with the new husband.  On the day of the crime, Bel and Jade meet for the first time in a candy store.

At the same time, a disturbed loner develops a fixation on one of Amber's co-workers that shifts itself to Amber when he believes Amber is the reason the woman will no longer speak to him.  He observes the meetings between Amber and Kirsty, and, wanting to get revenge, begins following the women.

The book addresses a lot of important social issues, such as the varying quality of rehabilitation programs and the issue of trying children in adult court.  The mob violence and hysterical atmosphere that surround criminal cases these days are also held up for examination.  The book certainly was a page turner, both as I waited to see if the women's true identities would be exposed, and to find out what really happened when the child was killed all those years ago.
Final Verdict for The Wicked Girls:    Four Gherkins, for being a thought-provoking novel about some important social issues

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That was a long holiday!

As usual, I had all sorts of grandiose plans for how I would spend the Christmas vacation from work. The stack of books beside my bed was enormous, I had plenty of British DVDs that I had been "saving for a special occasion" and I just knew I was going to make some extreme progress in working my way through the backlog. Naturally, not much was accomplished. The culprit in this lack of productivity was not yours truly, but rather Stephen King! Yes, I'll admit I was swayed by all the glowing reviews his new behemoth of a novel, Under the Dome, has been receiving, so I decided that I simply must read it.

Well . . . first of all, let's just say a word about the HEFT of the thing, shall we? It's totally unnecessary for a dedicated reader such as myself to risk injury to various facial features merely by attempting to hoist an over-sized book above my head in my favorite reclining reading position. Especially when said book has plenty of blank and/or nearly blank pages included. Ahem. Unfortunately, the sheer size of the book meant that I was pretty well occupied for the reading times I had available during the break.

On to the story. As I'm sure everyone has heard, the novel concerns the town of Chester's Mill, Maine, which is suddenly and inexplicably cut off from the rest of the world when an invisible dome descends. As several planes and cars crash into the dome, the plight of the town is soon brought to the attention of the media and the military, but no one seems to have any ideas on what can be causing the problem.

Conflicts among the people of the town are really the true story of the book. Unfortunately, the "bad" folks are identified pretty quickly, and there's a dark cloud hanging over the story as you wait for them to to do something to the "good" guys (who naturally have some previous history with the baddies in pre-dome days). There were some pretty amusing and thinly veiled references to some recent politicians sprinkled throughout the book.

As usual with Stephen King's books, the actual story is very engaging and the characters are interesting. The only downside with the book (aside from the heavy-handed baddies and the aforementioned weight of the thing) was the ending. I must admit, I was wondering what the explanation and resolution was going to be, and I was sadly disappointed. Really? That's the best you could come up with after all that? It was really beyond silly. But, I guess that's the chance you take when you suspend disbelief with Uncle Stevie -- sometimes you're rewarded (The Mist or any short stories), sometimes you end up with strained eyes (from rolling them back in your head too frequently) and carpal tunnel from lifting the books. This was the latter, sadly.

Oh well, I'm sure that won't deter me from reading/listening to his next effort! And maybe the movie will be better.

Final Verdict for Under the Dome: Two Gherkins, for a promising start, but an overall disappointing outing from the King of Horror

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That was uncalled for, Uncle Stevie!

I've been a huge Stephen King fan for most of my life. I read Carrie and Salem's Lot when they first came out, and anxiously awaited his new releases. As time went on, however, the books got thicker, but less coherent somehow. I stopped grabbing each new release, and eventually stopped reading his books altogether. I was thrilled to see that he released a new collection of short stories recently called Just After Sunset. Although his novels might have "lost the plot," he's always been a master of the short story.

I listened to the audio book of this collection. The introduction, end notes and one of the stories were read by King himself. Other narrators included Mare Winningham, Jill Eikenberry and George Guidall. There seem to be two recurring themes in the book: the events of 9/11 and facing/dealing with death. Most of the stories were enjoyable, but didn't really make a big impact on me. Until, that is, the last one, titled "A Very Tight Place." This has to be one of the most disturbing stories he's written in a long time. Maybe it was because I was listening to it rather than reading it, but . . . it's really awful. But, awful in a squirm-in-your-seat/Stephen-King sort of way. I get that the point of the story was rebirth and a new appreciation for life. Still . . . eeeeewwww! In the notes at the end of the story, King said he even grossed himself out a little with that story. And you know that would take some doing!

The other stories, particularly "The Gingerbread Girl" and "The Cat From Hell" were also enjoyable and suspenseful. All in all, another great outing from the master storyteller!

Final Verdict for Just After Sunset: Four Gherkins for the sheer audacity of "A Very Tight Place" alone!

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