Murder with a youthful twist

This book is so full of energy that it's hard to stop reading. It's takes place in a "fashionable" atmosphere, with its characters boldly discussing Freud and sex and other town gossip. All of the extra narration that one would think to be miscellaneous comes together extremely and eerily well centered around the main character, who is a child murderess.

The first idea that I found impressive is that the author makes no bones about Rhoda being a different and self-serving child. There is no question from the start that she is able to kill and feel no regret. Most books like this would leave a doubt as to her innocence in order to keep tension high, but it's not even necessary in this case. Instead, how the author works with that to slowly drive her mother (Christine) insane to the point of attempting to kill them both, but only succeeding in killing herself, was extremely intelligent as well as an eerie ending instead of a "happily ever after" one.

I also found it quite challenging that a writer would write about a female child of eight who kills, and this story was not disappointing in creating or moving the calculations of such sickly brilliance in a young mind.

Though I am not a fan of Freud, the book utilizes the theories on dreams and unconscious urges well. Instead of being slapped on for some easy explanation as to how a child would be capable of such things, little notions from the theories are gently placed in the plot in addition to other theories. They all work together to basically state that sometimes people just are born killers and not much has been discovered yet to explain why.

The most striking uses of psychology theories come through Christine. She has always thought she was adopted for some reason, and has dreams that seem familiar that she doesn't connect with her present, happy life. However, her parents had hidden her from the fact that she had been the child of a serial killer. It's only after intense study and research that she figures this out, but keeps the information to herself. The information is also divulged in such a way that you can't help but be intrigued as Christine is making these discoveries. And how she vascillates between knowledge and the action to take due to the knowledge also made this book a fascinating read.

All of this depressing and somewhat sadistic mental slide is set against the backdrop of a small town society, where everyone knows each other and make the smallest detail in life the topic of a lengthy conversation. Instead of having moments of incredible clarity broken up by long expanses of simple everyday life, the entire atmosphere creates an unearthly tension in which you have no idea what would provoke the child and what Christine's reaction will be.

I realize this is an old book (and you can tell by the language that it is), and not one of the first that will be picked up like a Michael Crichton or John Grisham. However, it's a short, fun, intelligently written piece of literature and I would recommend it for any rainy day.