True Crime
available 1/15/20 from Grindhouse Press
Preorder from Amazon HERE
Samantha Kolesnik’s debut novel sears an indelible brand. I flipped through it in one sitting, and while those edges still smolder, I already anticipate her next offering.
In this tale, a pair of siblings escape their dysfunctional and abusive home to be met with a rocky trail of missteps, dangerous choices, and the consequences that follow. What begins as a tremulous dive into an unacceptable situation escalates into a regional tour with plenty of murder, disfigurement, and gore-splattered signs to gently suggest, THIS WAY.
The voice with which the narration is presented matures along with the protagonist, and it becomes apparent that any perceived errors I may have criticized at first were quite purposeful. Samantha did an excellent job with effective placement to convey this intention.
Even though the protagonist begins her journey on a dark path, there is a dim light whose gradient begins to soften the farther she wanders from the Pit that spawned her. This winch creates just enough of an opening to browse our own thoughts on the exact definitions of redemption. What happens when our borders of moral stance are stretched far beyond territories of the familiar?