When her mom abandoned the family, Evelyn Crayley was left with an alcoholic father, a drug-dealing older brother and the nickname "Evil." Starting fights at school and getting high do little to ebb the rage welling inside. Her brother, Jim, does his best to protect her from their violent father, but Evil still feels helpless, doomed to live the same kind of white trash life she and her family have always known.
That summer everything changes: her father's abuse spurs Evil to run away from home, and her budding romance with Jim's best friend, Dopey, damages her relationship with the brother she depended on. When she is forced to return home again, will Evil's secrets destroy her? Or will she finally learn that the girl in the mirror can take control of her future?
My Impressions:
What a wonderful book. The characters are so real and dealing with real life situations that it draws you completely into the story. Although I do not condone drug usage, the take the author does is captivating and realistic. Sadly this is the life of way too many children out there in the world that they live with and through daily. Emily did a wonderful job breathing life into each character to the point that some of them you down right loath, but all the way through you feel the pain of these characters.
The story is told through the eyes if Evil, Jim, and Dopey, a few weeks before the start of summer. Evil's home life is horrendous and she deals with the violence, abuse and hellish life by turning to drugs and alcohol as her coping mechanisms. Despite Jim's best efforts to be the protector, he follows in his families foot steps of violence keeping the cycle going.
There is hope though for this family, and the epilogue does a nice job of summing things up and giving up that glance into Evils' hope.
Excerpt:
Evil
We turn onto our street, roll to a stop outside the
house. It looks so small and dark and
lonely, and I don’t want to go inside. I
want to run away. But before I can even
think about jumping out of the car, Dad grabs my wrist, slams the car into park
with his left hand, opens the door, and yanks me across the seat. I grab onto the door handle, panicking.
“Get out of the car!”
Dad yanks me harder. Then, when
he sees that ain’t going to work, he grabs me with his left hand and uses his
right to punch the side of my head.
“Get your ass out of this car!” He punches me again, then lets out this
hellacious roar and jumps back in. He
starts beating the shit out of me; gets my eyes, the back of my head, my chest,
my arms. There’s sweat and blood and
grunts and I feel like I’m an animal; I’m on my hands and knees on the ground,
snorting. The air’s kicked right out of
me and I’m curled in on myself, shrinking, trying to get some air in my
lungs. It’s like those dreams where you
open your mouth to scream but nothing comes out—only in reverse. I can’t get nothing in. I’m being kicked, then grabbed, then dragged,
but all of that’s far away. The only
thing I can think about is air.
Dad leans in close; his face is red and he’s hollering at me
to get up. Then everything fades away.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~
AUTHOR Bio and Links:
Emily
P. DeLoach was born and raised in southern Virginia. After graduating from
Ferrum College with a Bachelor's degree in psychology (with a minor in
English), she went on to work in a variety of jobs, from boardwalk train driver
in Ocean City, Maryland, to a missionary in the Russian Far East, before
becoming a teacher on the Eastern Shore of Virginia. She is currently a
stay-at-home mother living in Hampton Roads.
Emily
has been writing for most of her life, and has had the characters from her
first novel, Escaping the Mirror, stuck in her head since she was fifteen. She
loves character-driven stories and writes to give her own characters a voice.
She
is currently working on her second novel.
Links:
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00I0BKVW8
Disclaimer: I received a free e-copy of this book from Goddess Fish Promotions in exchange for my honest review and opinion.
Disclaimer: I received a free e-copy of this book from Goddess Fish Promotions in exchange for my honest review and opinion.
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