Review: Be prepared to be shocked
Rating: 5 out of 5
Date: 03 6, 2014
I received the book from the author for an honest review.At first I wanted to give this book a 4 star review, and if I can be brutally honest; I thought to put down the book a few times at first. Well I didn't and as you can see it had progressed to 5 Stars. My reasons, well read on...I must be honest with you as a reader, but this book had me puzzled, annoyed and at times down right mad. If that was the objective of the author I would say he'd succeeded in his task. You are drawn into from page one as you learn more about each character.The blatant disrespect from these characters, the immaturity of the parents and the abusive language from everyone involved had me going. Religion was also used often to accomplish the goal. To come back to the profanity; good grief, do parents and children really talk like this with each other? I'm by birth an Afrikaner from South Africa, with a very strict up-bringing and disrespect in any form will never be tolerated; not even now when everyone are 'enlightened' in this modern age. It will never do.Well enough of my ranting, I think the author did a great job creating each scene that kept on building to the end...and what an ending.The book's subject is about pedophiles and their manipulation of young people; girls in this case and how they use their lack of love and basic things to buy their way into their pants.The many different layers to this story had me spell bound, guessing and wondering what makes a person like this tick. Wondering if the perpetrator would be caught. Nerve-racking I say.Dennis Rask was an influencer of minds and souls, a manipulator of situations, an sex addict, graving for righteousness; due to a mother's abuse; in his own sick way. The list can go on but its just to long. The way that he would find a 'victim' and the places he would go to accomplish this; normally a mother and daughter that hates each other with a passion, destroying each other while it seems he is innocent; playing them until he gets what he wanted. He is creating scenarios where doubt and mistrust is in the order of the day and at the end his games ends up in disaster for these unexpected families.With no idea who the sick bastard is...sorry but this man is passed sick.Layer upon layer you learn more about his twisted ways and how he will go to great lengths to achieve his goal. He is the mastermind of the game, pulling the strings like a puppeteer and still enjoy his time while doing it.But the mother who deserves her own focal point is Caroline, a widow left with two daughters after the death of her husband in a accident; a she-devil. She hates her daughters unashamedly, not even hiding the fact and when she ends up in an asylum you know it cannot be good. Playing with her daughters lives while on drugs and alcohol, never taking responsibility for them as a parents suppose to do. Even planning their demise because of her jealousy towards them. It is simply unreal. You can actually taste the venom dripping from her as she tunnel all her animosity on them. Accusing them of all sorts of things.Emily, the youngest daughter, received the worst treatment. A real darling, but so messed up and afraid that she would take any kind of love and flourish on it. Heart breaking.Elizabeth, the older sister, acting as the strong one, trying to defend Emily the best she could but at the end...well I was in for a surprise.Her Love relationship with her best friend Brei had grown in much more than just friends and at the end their relationship led them into trouble. Dangerous trouble.Throughout all of this Rask played a huge role in their destruction and the ending or beginning in this case is very sad.The story start off right away with police investigating the crime scene and your heart wants to break as you learn more about them. Especially about the two daughters Elizabeth and Emily struggling to survive under their mother's abusive tongue.When Rask stepped into the picture he was literally seen as their knight in shining armor.The more you read and the more you get to know the characters you started to sympathize with them.The story goes back and forth between the present and past and you could not help but to hate this villain of innocent lives. The author masterly crafted this plot so that you didn't get confused about the next chapter as it went back and forth between other victims that suffered under his hand. Each time it felt like an continuation of the present giving you greater clarity as the story unfolds.The detective, Frank Bostick, had a hard time believing the so-called evidence that had everyone believed this was an open and shut case. He was more in trouble with the police captain and his peers and it seemed that even his partner worked against him at times. You could feel his frustration and powerlessness as he tried to find solid evidence against Rask.The author did a great work in opening the world of pedophiles and how they think, how they act and what they do so that a child would believe his lies, preying on the weak and vulnerable with no conscientiousness.Even the young women in this book was not unaffected by Rask. His unconditional love for each of them put them at ease as they explored the world of sex openly while he planted the seeds of sexual intercourse, death and secrets in their mind.This is not a book for someone that is easily offended, the profanity alone is enough to make your skin crawl; your hands itching to wash out their mouths, but yet the author did a wonderful job creating this story. There is no doubt in my mind about it.Thanks for the opportunity John.