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373 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 2004
“When her sobs trickled down, she looked in the mirror at her reflection. There were large, dark circles under her eyes, the whites red. Despite not sleeping much last night, and everything else she had gone through, she didn’t look that bad.”Because, of course, we, women, when we are kidnapped and find a mirror, we have to comment on our beauty, right? We go through something so traumatic, the person told us we are going to be in a snuff film, raped, and then killed, but hey, at least I don’t look that bad. HOW SHALLOW DO YOU THINK WOMEN ARE? This was the moment I knew I will rate this book 1 star not even caring what I found in this book. This book can shit unicorns at me and I would still rate this 1 star.
“What are you going to do?” Lisa was sobbing, and now her emotions did gain the upper hand. All she could think about was how this man was destroying all her hopes of having a baby with Brad, a dream she had been working to achieve for the past two years. All she could think about was saving herself so that her baby might live.The female character in this book, somehow the main character is reduced to being a woman carrying a baby for half the book and only that. All the characteristics this author gives to this woman are fighting for her baby. That’s it!
Mr. Smith / Tim said this: “I understand now why you were so feisty back there at the motel. Your maternal instinct kicked in. You weren’t just thinking about saving your own skin, you were thinking about the unborn baby in your womb. Weren’t you?”
“There were thousands of women who had babies that didn’t appreciate the life they had helped to create. She grew angry whenever she heard a news story about a baby being abandoned in a trash can. What the hell was wrong with people? There were thousands of couples that would give anything to adopt a child, and these selfish bitches dump their kids like so much trash.”
“And then there were children that grew up in disadvantaged homes. She knew that she and Brad would be able to provide for their child above and beyond providing food and shelter. As lawyers, they both had a combined yearly salary of just under three hundred thousand dollars: their child would never have to worry about being hungry. She knew that any child she and Brad had would be well taken care of, both in love and in security.
Mr. Smith turned to her. “Why do you want to know?”
Lisa shrugged. “I figure as long as I’m going to…you know… I might as well know more about it!” (I don’t know if there was supposed to be an exclamation point here, but the spelling mistakes and the grammar are in hell in this one so w.e fuck it, if the author & publishers didn’t mind, why would I?)
Mr. Smith turned back to the window and continued boarding it up. “I admire that. You’d rather face up to things than run away from them. I like that”
This is NOT a LOVE STORY…..it is not unicorns and rainbows with Happily Ever Afters…..it is a raw, dirty, gory and mind fuck book about rape, snuff films, cannibalistic tendencies and torture beyond anything your mind can conceive.
There were many times in the book where I had to step away and take a break from the feelings I was having about what was going on with the characters because if not – I seriously would have either had a heart attack or a mental breakdown. This story grips you from about ¼ of the way in and you just need to know what is going to happen next.
Ok, so Lisa has a secret to tell Brad, her husband, and they are off on their way to spend a romantic get-a-way weekend together. They are set up in a citizen’s arrest and Brad is arrested while Lisa is kidnapped and brought to a cabin to star in a snuff film.
We are then introduced to Tim (abductor), Al (film producer) and Jeff (aka Animal) who is the other star of the snuff film. Animal is anyone’s nightmare because he is the ultimate masochist who loves to fuck any orifice on the human body whether it’s already there or he has to make one. (Yup – sick shit). Lisa watches in horror as another woman has to experience Animal’s demented sexcapades and after having been prone to Animal’s tendencies, Lisa begs and tries to ransom her way out of being “next”.
To Lisa, she believes that if she does as they ask by giving them close to a hundred grand and help exchange herself for something better, then she will be let free without EVER mentioning what happened in that cabin. Lisa follows through with their demands but as she is about to go, she knows they will never let her free – she gets lucky and is able to run away and escape.
We then find out, that it was Lisa specifically who was requested to star in a snuff film by an unknown benefactor of the underground. This mystery man/woman wants her raped, mutilated and dead and money is not an issue. These men must get Lisa back without “passing go and collecting $200”.
Welp, that’s it for the main story line – you have to read the book to find out if Lisa makes it or not and who the “mystery person” is. I’ll just leave you with – I was fucking FLOORED when I found out.
If you have a queasy tummy or get offended easily – this is NOT the book for you!
If you love a good psychological gory thriller…then pick this book up!
Here is the final truth of horror: It does not love death, as some have suggested; it loves life. It does not celebrate deformity but by dwelling on deformity, it sings of health and energy. By showing us the miseries of the damned, it helps us to rediscover the smaller (but never petty) joys of our own lives. It is the barber’s leeches of the psyche, drawing not blood but anxiety....We make up horrors to help us cope with the real ones.