Review: Suspense,  drama and a hint of mystery in this creative serial killer novella
Rating: 3 out of 5
Date: 02 9, 2013
A mentally retarded giant, the son of rich parents, has a caretaker named Carol who takes him to a make-your-own-doll shop where he designs dolls that look shockingly similar to children victims of a serial killer. The novella is broken into four different point of view narratives and each one advances the tale incrementally. I felt like the best point of view was Carol's and had the most climactic scene between the mute Bobby and Carol. A real poignant scene that displays the strong narrative skill of the author.The author takes a gamble creatively (something I tend to enjoy reading) by creating a story that appears like four loosely-connected vignettes, but instead are advancing the story from different character point of views. By the end, the reader is wondering what is the story really about? The mute giant and his relationships with others or learning the identity of a serial killer? I wished the ending had some sort of proper character wrap-up. It needed a coda for me to feel like the characters presented in the first two segments had a satisfactory conclusion with their relationship with Bobby, the mute giant, rather than being a creative vehicle to move the story along. Good fodder for discussion.FTC notice: I received this as a bonus free story as part of my DarkFuse subscription.