Official blog of G. A. Lodise

I’m into the second half of the book. I am reading about the murders. And I now really understand the genius of what I am reading. The reports, and that’s really what this section is about: a series of reports, just go on and on and on in very succinct detail about the rapes, mutilations, and murders of hundreds of young women and girls. Because they read as reports, you don’t get very emotionally impacted by them. But after the hundredth one and there’s no end in sight and the police are helpless and the people of the city are helpless, it starts to really wear on you and the effect is that you begin to feel helpless and disturbed and anxious while reading. One might say that just one brutal murder should elicit such a response but in the manner in which the story is told, that is difficult to do with just one account. And I think that’s the point. We are by default jaded and numb to violent, brutal murders/rapes and this method of presenting them acknowledges this and brings us back to the point where each one begins to weigh on us and the totality of them is just more than we can handle. The delivery turns us on our heads which is really a substantial feat in this day and age of dime-a-dozen movies and stories that revolve around graphic depictions of violence.