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A review by canaryp
The Girl Next Door by Jack Ketchum
challenging
dark
sad
3.0
I'm giving it 3 because 2 feels too low but I really didn't like this book. It was well written, in terms of tone, the consistent narrator voice giving retrospect as well as genuine confusion of a child, but beyond that....
It felt very.. intrusive to write about Sylvia Likens story like this. Voyeuristic, focusing on the emotions of some guy who wanted to fuck her rather than the girl herself. Making Meg's untimely death the story of how sad some guy is about it feels just gross. As well, the author's morality was set up weirdly - at times he was desperate to help, at others, he loved the torture, idk it felt like the author couldn't decide if we were meant to sympathise or not
It felt very.. intrusive to write about Sylvia Likens story like this. Voyeuristic, focusing on the emotions of some guy who wanted to fuck her rather than the girl herself. Making Meg's untimely death the story of how sad some guy is about it feels just gross. As well, the author's morality was set up weirdly - at times he was desperate to help, at others, he loved the torture, idk it felt like the author couldn't decide if we were meant to sympathise or not