I went into this book based solely on my love of Alessandra and her writing so I can’t exactly say what I was expecting to get. Now having finished, I can honestly say that it was one of those WOW books. It is the darkest book I have ever read, but I still could somehow not stop reading it. Normally I say that I become engrossed in a book, but The Girl in 6E devoured me – not the other way around. The book is all about Deanna and her demons, and her alter-ego Jessica. She has her job as a cam girl, and her weekly phone calls with a doctor. She speaks through the door to the UPS man and her neighbor, but no real face to face interactions. Deanna has learned to function alone in order to cope with her horrible urges to kill. She doesn’t leave her apartment and she believes that it’s what she has to do.
I seriously loved the character development in this book. Every single person felt so meticulously planned and mapped out. They were each integral to the story and had their own voice. We do get to experience these other points of view and this is something Alessandra shines at. The overall tone changes drastically from chapter to chapter (dependent upon who is speaking), leaving the reader to feel such a myriad of emotions. You can tell whose eyes we’re experiencing things through based solely on that tone. Each chapter grips you more than the previous, until you’re finished and can’t believe everything you just experienced through words.
As a reader, I could tell that Alessandra had put a lot of thought into The Girl in 6E and poured her heart into it, leaving it with such a genuine feel. The cam girl scenes were incredibly fascinating and gripping for me to read. These particular pieces also helped to infuse some lightness into the story as a whole. On the other side of the coin, her reality was so mundane and I often felt like she was two characters. The flow between these worlds is so seamless and effortless with the way Alessandra wrote her and I was so captivated by this life she chose to live. I couldn’t relate even in the slightest to her, but the character is written so well that you just get sucked in.
This book is a dark thriller with what I’m sure some people will consider triggers. However, The Girl in 6E became about so much more than the darkness for me. It was about watching Deanna transform from page to page. She had to fight every single day, though I think deep down she wanted nothing more than to just be normal. I never thought I would say that a “dark” read is beautiful, but that’s the only way I can describe The Girl in 6E. The writing is a step above, the plot is intriguing and unique, and the characters are phenomenal. Although this book does end satisfyingly, I can’t wait to see what the sequel holds and where Deanna’s life will take her.
1. Your other novels fall more into the Erotica genre, so what made you choose to write a dark suspense thriller?
Thrillers are always what I, as a reader, have read. It’s my literary background. While doing research into the camming industry, I saw a little of the dark side of some clients’ fetishes. That sparked the idea of Girl in 6E’s conflict. And.. at that point, I kind of sat back from my computer and thought ‘hmm. Maybe this is my time to try writing a thriller.’
2. At the end of the book, you say that you talked to cam girls for research so you would get things right. Can you go into any more depth about how you began (and followed through) with researching The Girl in 6E?
I gave a magazine exclusive recently on the full side of my research into the camming industry. Check out September’s issue of Elle magazine for more… but I will say that I was online researching different fetishes one night when a popup ad caused me to click on a camming website. I was fascinated by the chat going on with this woman. That led to me exploring the site, and eventually to taking some of the girls into private chat and asking them about their work. That research led to the idea and creation of The Girl in 6E.
3. This book involves what most would consider a taboo topic – pedophilia. What made you choose this specific subject? Were you nervous some people wouldn’t even attempt to read it knowing that?
I chose pedophile because it was the most common illegal request that the camgirl’s mentioned: that clients wanted them to pretend to be younger than 18. The inner struggle that I saw — do you allow these creeps to satisfy their needs through this outlet and does that keep them from acting out in a different way… or are you feeding their disease… that quandry sort of pushed this story out. I was aware that it might turn off certain readers, or cause triggers in others, but I needed to write the story. The characters in my head didn’t give me much of a choice in that regard.
4. There are several different viewpoints with VERY different voices from which we hear. When you were writing, did you stay in each of their heads for prolonged periods, or did you actually write the book chronologically? Specifically, was it ever difficult to go back and forth between the camming scenes with “Jessica”, and the dark thoughts of Deanna?
I wrote the book scenes in chronological order, jumping in and out of different heads. I almost needed to write it that way, to preserve my sanity. If I had stayed in Deanna’s head too long… it was difficult to me at times.. being in her dark places. I didn’t have any issue switching modes, but often I’ll step away from the computer in between scenes — take the dogs for a walk or eat something — and that helps to wipe my mind clear and start over in a different head.
5. One of the characters we hear from, who for me, was more of a secondary character, but had some of the most poignant and touching chapters was Carolyn. Why did you feel her voice needed to be heard (as opposed to her husband’s)?
I got into Carolyn’s head for several reasons: 1. Because I felt being in Annie’s head might be too traumatic for readers, especially dealing with the pedophilic threat. 2. I wanted the ending to really pull on a reader’s heart, and thought that the emotions would be stronger if we were aware of her struggle and joy/pain. 3. I was able to relate more, and thought the readers would, to a mother, versus a father.
6. The Girl in 6E ended with no cliffhanger and just the desire to have more of this character. I know that you wouldn’t really give anything away, but I’d be remiss if I didn’t ask…are there any tiny hints you can give us to the general direction of where the sequel will go?
How about a look at the rough draft of my blurb?? (WARNING: It could be considered a spoiler for readers who haven’t read Girl in 6E…)
A lot can change in a matter of weeks. Two weeks ago, I stepped out of my apartment for the first time after three years of solitude. And twelve hours later, a man was dead, his blood on my gloved hands.
Now, I am venturing out of my apartment. I am tasting the bits of life that make up a normal existence, testing my boundaries in the rare moments that I think I can handle it. But the rules still dominant my life. And in those, I am kept from a normal existence.