Saturday, October 3, 2009

The Church of Dead Girls by Stephen Dobyns

The Church of Dead Girls is a book I've had on my shelves for far too long. I got this from either a library sale or thrift store, and I am a bit disappointed I waited this long to read it. It was a good book, more literary fiction than straight up suspense, and I give it a B+.

Back cover:
For decades, the faded, rural upstate New York village has lain dormant- until it is startlingly stirred to life when, one by one, three young girls vanish...
Nightmares are turned into horrifying reality when their corpses are found, brutally murdered, each missing their left hand...
Now as the search for a madman gets underway, suspicion shrouds the quiet streets of Aurelius when its residents soon realize that a monster lives among them...
But not even prayers can save their loved one from the rage of a twisted mind who has only just begun his slaughter...

In The Church of Dead Girls, the town of Aurelius is in itself the main character of the story. The narrator, a man who I am not even sure is ever named and if he was I don't remember, serves as the readers eyes and ears for the events that turn this small town upside down as three young girls are kidnapped and seem to vanish. There are many characters to keep track of, but while reading these pages, you are transported to small, snowy Aurelius and all of it's residents. Suspicion is thrown on everyone, the gay residents, the single men, the married men, and even one or two women. I believe the story is an accurate picture of what would happen to a small town suddenly thrust into the national spotlight because of a terrible person. While I normally enjoy the heavier and grittier suspense books, The Church of Dead Girls was a great literary suspense book that encouraged me to escape from my ususal comfort reads.

It took me a week to read this book! Part of it was because the book was long and desires to be read slowly so you savor the story and the other reason was because I've been busy. A couple of weeks ago, I accepted a subbing job for a week for the same teacher. On Tuesday she became quite sick and had to have an emergency surgery and I was called to take over her class again. Since this wasn't a planned abscence, I had to do planning and now it seems she will be out for another two weeks and progress reports are due! Today my day was totally shot by a wedding (I am currently in between the church portion and we are leaving shortly for the reception), so tomorrow will be checking papers and prepping for the next week. As much as I am missing my free time, I am thankful to have this long term subbing position since I get to actually teach and I like the class! I also need to start managing my time a bit better as I seem to be spending much time surfing the internet, looking at nothing. Time to fix my makeup and leave. Happy Reading everyone and have a fantastic weekend!

4 comments:

Literary Feline said...

This book was recommended to me years ago, but I had such a hard time finding a copy. I have one now but haven't read it yet.

I am glad you enjoyed it, Kristie. I love books that are more slow going and meant to be savored, but they don't always fit well into what's going on in my life at any given moment. I can be hard to settle in when there's so much going on.

Sounds like you have your hands full with the sub position. I imagine it's doubly hard when it's unexpected like you described. My mom is a teacher and writes out the most detailed lesson plans. She'd probably be in a panic if she wasn't able to leave instructions for the sub. She'd probably be on the phone with her if possible. LOL

Enjoy the wedding! And have a great week.

Staci said...

That sounds like an excellent read. Isn't it funny how long we'll let books sit around before we finally get to them. I'm glad that your subbing job has extended for a few weeks!!

Kristie said...

I hope you get the chance to read it Wendy! It really was a good book, but I probably would have enjoyed it more so if there wasn't so much going on. It's funny you say that about your mom. The lady I'm filling in for had surgery and she said she was in the ER trying to get her husband to call in plans. It turns out I was able to get the job and it's the grade and same school I did my student teaching in, so she was quite relieved.

Thanks Staci. It makes me realize how much I really, really want my own class though!

Staci said...
This comment has been removed by the author.