Frank H. (perryfran) reviewed on 8/31/2020 + 1223 more book reviews

Helpful Score: 1

This was really a unique and disturbing story told in the first person by Eileen when she is older. The story she tells takes place during the week before Christmas in 1964 and gives her perspective and thoughts about her very bleak life. She is 24 years old at that time and lives in a very filthy house with her alcoholic ex-policeman father. She works at a prison for juvenile boys where she fantasizes about one of the guards who she also stalks by driving by his house at odd hours. The car she drives is her father's old Dodge that has a leak in its exhaust system so Eileen has to drive with the windows down to avoid asphyxiation. She has very low self esteem and doesn't like her body or how she looks. On top of all this, she also seems to have a drinking problem and at one point passes out in her car in a puddle of vomit. But then she meets Rebecca, who is hired at the prison as a counselor. Rebecca is beautiful in Eileen's eyes and she actually takes an interest in her. But then Rebecca gets chummy with one of the young prisoners who had murdered his father and based on what he tells her, Eileen gets drawn by her into an unimaginable crime.

This book was really a character study into the mind of a very unhappy young woman. I thought it was very well done even though it was hard living in the mind of Eileen. The story was very creepy but also compelling with Eileen wanting to leave the small New England town where she lives and eventually finding a way out.

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