#BookReview #SummerThrills ‘Three Days In The Pink Tower’ by E.V Knight

About the book…

Josey Claypool begins the summer before her senior year at a carnival, where a fortune teller with milky-white eyes gives her a foreboding tarot reading. She’s spooked, but nothing could prepare her for the following day when two strange men show up at her front door.

Josey is kidnapped at gunpoint and brought to a pink cabin in the woods where she is held prisoner. In her darkest moment, the fortune teller appears and gives her a deck of tarot cards, which she must cast and interpret in a fight for her life.

In this work of speculative autofiction, award-winning author EV Knight reclaims the narrative of her own past in an exploration of trauma, agency, and survival.

Published by Creature Publishing in paperback, July 2022, ‘Three Days In The Pink Tower’ is an unforgettable work of fiction rooted in the experience of author E.V Knight. The introduction is a powerful statement on ownership of trauma and the reasons behind the tarot design of the book cover-the striking and highly personal nature of cartomancy is a key feature of not only foreshadowing what happens to Josey, it is also an important aspect of E.V Knight’s recovery.

There is no need to discuss the aftermath of what Josey goes through, the setup is obvious and scattered through the start of the novella, we exist in a patriarchal society where the blame is to be squarely laid at the feet of a girl, for, just being a girl. There is the intimation of danger from the boys lurking around the carnival, the warnings of Josey’s bible studying friends, the fact she is the only one of them with a boyfriend, that she dares to enjoy the attention that being looked at gives her…we the readers are all too keenly aware of exactly how she will be treated afterwards, we know how it goes.

Her crime?

She opens the door to her home, helps a ‘stranded’ stranger and enters a whole new world of pain, suffering and hell in the pink tower, a cabin in the woods painted pink which contains a black room where pain and suffering are indelibly embedded into its very structure.

The one thing which keeps her grounded, the one thing which guides her through the horrendous events which follow her kidnap by these two men, is the random encounter at the carnival with a tarot reader. The reading and the bind woman who foretold Josey’s future, in a manner reminiscent of a Greek chorus, anchors Josey through her trauma and provides her with the means of weaponizing what remains of her, in order to escape.

The horror is beyond comprehension, as the very notion that 2 men should randomly be cruising ,in order to find a girl, on  her own, kidnap her, and abuse for 3 days solid is so far removed from what anything that you can imagine. You feel tainted and sullied by the notion that you share a species with people who could do such a thing, all the while knowing that those people do exist, and that for their victims, there is no escape, no justice, no restorative measures but her, in the shadow of the pink tower, revenge is dealt with a gruesomeness and invention which befits what is done to Josey.

And what is more, when trying to find the feature image, I came across the Montessori exercise called the pink tower, which is an activity that refines and employs all the senses through building a tower. In this sense, and also in an almost biblical allegory, Josey essentially dies, goes through hell and is then reborn. She claims and reclaims her very soul, she is torn apart, quite literally, and then uses the very thing which these men sought to take from her, and uses it to destroy them.

In using startling and vivid imagery, that brings to mind the darkest of fairy tales, E.V Knight does not linger on what the men do, she places you squarely in the mind of Josey, you live and see through her eyes. It’s truly astounding how this writer takes her trauma and creates such a redemptive and astounding work of art, and in reading it, it is not an exaggeration  to say that you feel moved, changed and forever altered by looking through the eyes of a survivor.

About the author…

EV Knight is an American author of horror and dark fantasy stories filled with bad-ass females. She has just released her first novel, ‘The Fourth Whore’, the story of a young woman’s fight to find the truth in time to save her world after she accidentally releases an ancient demoness who has a vendetta against God Himself. EV is currently working on her second novel which takes place in her beloved home in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula.

Raised on Grimm’s Fairy Tales in a country home near the woods, EV inevitably developed a whimsical imagination and lifelong interest in the macabre.

These days, when not writing something spooky, EV spends her time taking long walks through graveyards and visiting haunted houses. She collects skull art and death-related oddities. When she is feeling adventurous, she enjoys road trips to unusual roadside attractions. Yes, she has, in fact, been to see the biggest ball of twine in Minnesota.

EV is inspired by mythology, fairy tales, and history such that there are often kernels of truth in her fiction. No scary thing is off limits. And she doesn’t shy away from gore. Like Frankenstein, she likes to experiment and piece things together until her creation breathes on its own. EV hopes you’ll love her monsters as much as she loves making them.

Links-https://evknightauthor.com/

Twitter @EvKnightAuthor @creaturelit