Julie Bigg Veazey has an excellent story telling skill and style,
as she picks up from the first page the reader’s interest in this seemingly ordinary
character, Jadine Tomecelli. In a
sequence of fast moving chapters laden with detail, Veazey begins to sculpt the
character of Jadine by exposing her actions and packing an immense amount of
depth into her personality. Being a
victim of early abuse began to turn Jadine’s disposition ever so slightly into
experimental violence, then ultimately escalating to fully fledged killings, as
we are taken on a journey of events of Jadine’s deranged behavior. The book’s episodes become chilling as she
grows up through her high school years, changing her name to Jade, and seeks
comfort in her friend Billy-John; an Indian boy nicknamed “Bear.” It’s not the action of “pushing a person down
the stairs” that is so fascinating a story element but the way in which Julie
Bigg Veazey captures the thinking of Jadine and writes about her justification
of violence which draws the reader into the very personal space within Jadine’s
mind. The reader is taken through her
life, inside her disconcerted mind of malice and mayhem, murder and mercy
killings, vengeance and violence.
The plot’s setting can best be summed up in the Rochester
High School’s report for Jadine’s personality profile: “She
was an immature adolescent, battling conflicts resulting from a number of early
traumas, including so many losses ranging from abandonment by her mother, the
drowning of her stepsister, to the death of her stepmother and the estrangement
(of) her father.” Furthermore, the
report stated, “She suffers from a deep
sense of rejection and resents the great sacrifices and kindness offered to her
by the townspeople of Rochester.”
The book at times reminded me of having some of the key
elements found in classics such as Truman Capote’s In Cold Blood, with some of John Steinbeck’s character development
of Lennie and George in Of Mice and Men. Her descriptive language is laced with “storyboard
imagery” which would appeal to the director’s eye of someone like Quentin
Taratino. However Julie Bigg Veazey has
a unique written voice, and her snippets of chapters sew Jadine into a patchwork quilt of many descriptions, complex emotional
levels and psychological twisting elements. The reader builds a bond with Jade, Jadine’s preferred new name,
although she is an antithesis to society. Raising a masterful tide of suspense, the reader is challenged to guess
at what the foreshadowing of the plot would ultimately reveal. It is a gripping and unforgettable tale based
upon a little known true story of an anonymous person.
Jacketed in original cover art showing a portrait of a young
lady looking into a box, you are drawn into the story before the book even begins. Julie Bigg Veazey has created a work in Jadine which no doubt will be applauded
by fans loving psychological suspense thrillers of deep character development. I recommend this to the seasoned reader
seeking originality of credible characters within a story having all of the
elements of making indelible memories.
Buy this book at Amazon.com
