Review: When wishes don't come true - A+++ READ!!
Rating: 5 out of 5
Date: 06 19, 2013
I pre-ordered this the minute I heard she had written another book. I was sucked in by Helga Zeiner and her book "Section 132". Her story was dark in that book and this one proves to be the same. The authors intense research is again evident and I cannot stress enough how incredible the writing is. Her second book is even more disturbing than the first. There were a few triggers, such as me wanting to curb stomp mothers who enter their children in beauty pageants...Things I love about Helga's writing - She writes as if she is the one who has experienced these things. Her research is top of the bar and her writing is some of the most incredibly realistic and dark I have read in a long time. Whereas yesterday' review of Cold Killing was from the killer's point of view, Helga Zeiner is able to write from a victim's point of view invoking some of the most realistic emotional responses  from me as a reader in a long time.The story seems cut and dry once we find out who Tiara is. A former child beauty queen raised in a dysfunctional household. Child princess grows up and mother having moved back from the Pageant State of Texas and now is a brooding teen? Oh but this teen decided to go into a homicidal rage against a Starbucks customer for no reason and it is caught on everyone's smart-phones. It has your basic cast:**An oblivious mother who doesn't understand how this is happening to her baby girl! (insert major eye-rolling)**A seasoned detective (Mackenzie) who has a heart of gold (yes yes reverse of a western .. no hooker with a heart of gold.. oh wait YES there is but I will get to that later)**An estranged family member, in this case Grandma, whose own daughter cannot even call her Mom... hmmm what is up with that?**Bad guys.. bad guys galore ... a lot of wolves dressed in sheep's clothing it seems**The victim... and man is this victim, who starts off as the perp, one doozy of a victim.But Tiara, or Princess Tia, which she refers to herself  to the psychiatrist when she finally ends her silence, is not scared she is finally in control. Some people would be scared about being locked up, but Tiara was grateful. Her storm was quieting and she had control over her life for once. Finally ridding herself of the last person connected to her pageant past, her mother, by refusing to have her visit.Oh ... confused? Don't be, this is the most gut wrenching story and it is told in birthdays starting with her birth. Since she has a problem sharing verbally the doctor suggests writing out her memories. As she works through them birthday year by year the gaps and confusion pouring forth from dark corners of which are filled with both real and constructed memories from tales told by her aunt and mother. These memories both constructed and real get more frightening and alarming digging deeper and darker with each turn of the page.Nothing about this book is a cookie cutter psychological thriller.  The players may seem cut and dry but as the story unfolds we find they are not even close. A child used and abused for her looks, raised in isolation and made to be a pageant baby, toddler and girl till she was too old then used even more for "photo sessions" (cringe). Tiara's memory is muddled with cobwebs and drug induced nightmares. Despite all these roadblocks (and there are many many more), despite her crime, the victim manages to find stability on the streets of Vancouver B.C. with that aforementioned hooker with a heart of gold and in the trust of the curmudgeon of a detective and a forensic psychiatrist, two of three of the only men she feels safe with.A thriller with breathtaking - should I say stealing - writing. Our author presents us with a victim which we cannot help but feel for, a victim who made me want to hunt down all those reprehensible mothers who think it is OK to dress up little girls like little beauty queens, creating a pedophile's wet dream under glitter and crowns. I was left with anger, grief, terror and shaky triggers which did not fire only because of how wonderful of a writer Helga Zeiner is.The triggers: This is a story of years of exploitation, sexual abuse, of a child's trip down a memory lane which must be cleaned off and brought into the light in order for Tiara to move on and survive. Even you have never experienced violence in your life, or rape or sexual abuse you could be moved by the horrors presented.  I am a survivor and can say this was a courageous act of bravery and love in these pages. Helga Zeiner handled each situation and scene without the use gratuitous violence, or sex but still so successfully and sophistically woven I won't be surprised to find this book becomes award winning.There are not enough stars! Thank you again, Ms. Zeiner, for such an amazing literary thriller.