He lives on your street, in a nice house with a tidy garden. He shops at your local supermarket.. He drives beside you, waving to let you in the lane ahead of him.
He also has an elaborate cage in a secret basement. The food he's shopping for is to feed a young woman he's holding there against her will- one in a string of many, unaware of the fate that awaits her.
This is how it's been for a long time. It's normal... and it works. Perfectly. But this time it's different.
Normal is Graeme Cameron's debut novel, told from the perspective of a serial killer and promising to be darkly humorous and twisted I couldn't resist. Unfortunately it just didn't live up to my expectations. For a book told from the perspective of a serial killer who keeps girls locked in a cage in the basement the book was too... nice! I felt like there was just too much emphasis on making him seem normal, It felt like I was reading a book about a killer written by Nick Hornby. It was a light easy read, but it just wasn't anywhere near dark enough.
Without trying to be too negative there where a few interesting characters (which where stronger than the main character) and the ending felt fitting. Erm... struggling to find more positives...
The main character's name is never revealed, in fact very little is revealed about him. I get that the writer was trying to make a point that he's a normal guy hiding in plan sight, but it didn't do the story any favours. We get no insight into why he does what he does- for a book that's written from a serial killers perspective I feel that's a huge missed opportunity!
Overall I found Normal a disappointment, if you are looking for a decent dark thriller I would say look elsewhere!
You can find my other book reviews here.
Find me on Goodreads.
No comments:
Post a Comment
Note: only a member of this blog may post a comment.