#BookReview ‘True Crime’ by Samantha Kolesnik

About the book…

Suzy and her brother, Lim, live with their abusive mother in a town where the stars don’t shine at night.

Once the abuse becomes too much to handle, the two siblings embark on a sordid cross-country murder spree beginning with their mom.

As the murder tally rises, Suzy’s mental state spirals into irredeemable madness.

Published by Grindhouse Books in e-book and paperback in 2020, ‘True Crime’ is acclaimed writer, Samantha Kolesnik’s debut novel.

”I never saw something properly gutted and I wanted to”

*Warning-there is such poetry and imagery in this book, but it also pulls no punches in what could be triggering topics in shining lights on child abuse, sexual abuse, murder, kidnap, incest and animal cruelty*

A story, a murderous roadtrip, a chance at redemption…it feels as though the story of Lim and Suzy is plated before you and left for you to taste and decide whether this dish is sweet or sour.

”It struck me then how much distance we put between ourselves and animals.Perhaps this was from design,to ensure the very thin line which kept us polite would seem thick and impenetrable.We were all murderers,after all. Some of us just hadn’t discovered it yet.”

A final reckoning, a snapping of sanity and family ties has Suzy committing an act of violence from which there is no return. Lim, her older brother, her protector, takes her on the run and it is as if the floodgates have opened to a deluge of feelings expressed through use, abuse and violence. They cut a swathe through town and country alike until, at appropriately enough, a side show, they are caught.

The words which Suzy uses to describe what she has been through, witnessed and suffered through are not lingered on, the sheer awfulness does not need to be, as there brief recaps are all her fragile mind can cope with.

Is she a monster? Was she always such? Is it hereditary?

These questions plague her, as they would any child which turns against the parents who, society teaches, are supposed to love their offspring unconditionally, and, if necessary, die for them. So when that parent does not supply the nurture expected from them, the child blames themselves and sees that they must be some kind of monster. It is completely untrue, but this is what a child, Suzy’s, mind believes.

She details how she wishes she could be seen as more than mounds and holes for people to grab, take,exploit, devour and stick themselves into.

There was no evil in the world that was not man’s work. And there was no man in the world that was not woman’s work.”

She reads her  True Crime magazine almost obsessively, not able to relate what she is reading, and can identify as a crime, with her real life. The women in it, those who have been killed and are displayed in the naked glory of their deaths have been immortalised by the actions of monsters.

As she and Lim take off on their inevitably futile flight, Suzy comes across people outside of her sphere of existence, so-called normal folk, but is anyone truly normal? As she laments that people cannot see the monster which lies underneath her skin and straddles her bones, she, too, cannot see the monster in others and this seems to be the meanest and cruellest trick which life has played on her and her brother.

Their familial link is through combined experience, abuse and exploitation and without the constructs around them, who, then, are they?

It is as though with the death of Mama, it has released all these pent up feelings, the fences coralling murderous intent are no longer there and they can reach out and take, for as long as they are able.

The men they encounter still see Suzy as consumable, and, I think, it is no accident that she begs Lim to take her to the fair, to see the exhibited show pigs and to find out why, exactly, they are ‘show’ not regular pigs.

What she sees is horrific, boys who continue to sexualise her whilst staring at 3 , trapped and disabled pigs.

As she lies on the floor, knocked down by a parent whose son she attacks for poking the pigs, with stunning clarity she sees that these poor specimens were made freaks, they were not born.

I don’t want to give too much away, as it is a short novel which took me possibly 2-3 hours to read(with necessary breaks as some parts are super hard to swallow). And after, I sat for another good couple of hours processing why that novella felt like it reached down my throat and squeezed a vital organ until it went pale and began to necrotise.

We all have the potential to make, raise, become, a monster.

As Suzy says, she doesn’t really need anyone-

” At least not any more than a carpenter needs a hammer. 

And I could always find a new hammer.’

 

About the author…

Samantha Kolesnik is an award-winning writer and film director living in central Pennsylvania.

Her screenplays and short films have been recognized at top genre film festivals. Her debut, True Crime, is out now.

She is also the Bram Stoker Award-nominated editor of ‘Worst Laid Plans:An Anthology Of Vacation Horror’, the first horror anthology from , which is now being adapted into a feature film.

Twitter @sam_kolesnik @GrindHousePress

Links-https://grindhousepress.com/