The Girl
by Victory Witherkeigh
GENRE: YA Horror
BLURB:
The parents knew it had been a mistake to have a girl. At birth, the girl’s long, elegant fingers wriggled and grasped forward, motioning to strangle the very air from her mother’s lungs. As she grew older, she grew more like her father, whose ancestors would dream of those soon to die. She walked and talked in her sleep, and her parents warded themselves, telling the girl that she was evil, unlovable, their burden to bear only until her eighteenth birthday released them.
The average person on the streets of Los Angeles would look at the girl and see a young woman with dark chocolate eyes, curly long hair, and tanned skin of her Filipina heritage. Her teachers praised her for her scholarly achievements and extracurricular activities, from academic decathlon to cheer.
The girl knew she was different, especially as she grew to accept that the other children’s parents didn’t despise them. Her parents whispered about their pact as odd and disturbing occurrences continued to happen around her. The girl thought being an evil demon should require the skies to bleed, the ground to tremble, an animal sacrifice to seal the bargain, or at least cause some general mayhem. Did other demons work so hard to find friends, do well on their homework, and protect their spoiled younger brother?
The demon was patient. It could afford to wait, to remind the girl when she was hurt that power was hers to take. She needed only embrace it. It could wait. The girl’s parents were doing much of its work already.
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Excerpt:
“— there are certain… misconceptions about me, pretty girl. I, and those I command, end life. That is our purpose, always has been. Our valley is its own land as we are our own kingdom. Death is the one act all living things will succumb to, whether good, evil, or in-between. We don’t have a stake in moral debates or questions, as your kind has called it, since we are a constant, an equalizer. We come for everything and everyone. But humanity has definitely found some of the most creative ways to end life over the centuries, and every so often in history, we’ve granted a request to aid them in doing so.”
Only then did he look over at the girl, his tongue darting out to lick the sugar off his lips. She had barely breathed as he had been speaking, her tongue building more saliva as she became wholly entranced with his words, almost as though she saw the visions of his brethren carrying out their jobs over the centuries. She found herself a little startled that the sound of her own heartbeat was thudding loudly in her ears as he seemed to hesitate to tell her the next part.
“Your ancestors are one such example,” he said, head tilting slightly and as she gasped, he continued. “You, my dear, are the descendent of not one but two who sacrificed to one of mine, my finest general, in fact. You learned the story of Lapulapu?”
My Review:
Before I even start to write my review for The Girl I must first warn you that it contains child abuse.
The Girl is a beautifully written story. It is about a girl with no name. If she has a name it is never revealed in the story. She is always referred to as The Girl. The same goes for her parents and little brother.
From the time of her birth, The Girl has been disliked by her parents. They are very cruel to her. They are always saying bad things to her. Like she will never amount to anything. She is bad and nothing she does is ever good.
I think her parents were afraid of her as they believed her to be a demon so they were always saying bad things to her. When I saw how abusive to The Girl they were I gave serious thought about not continuing the book. I was upset at the way they were talking to and treating a little girl. How could they treat her like that? How could you treat anyone like that?
All The Girl ever wanted was to be loved especially by her parents. She worked really hard in school to have good grades only to impress her parents something that never happened no matter how well she did.
As I said before I did give it serious thought about not finishing it but then I thought about how it was just a story and not real. I am not saying that it couldn’t be real as I know things like this happen every day. I am just saying this story is not real as it is written as fiction. I am glad that I kept reading as the story is very well written.
I would recommend The Girl to all young adult, horror fans. But be aware of my warning about child abuse. If you think you could read The Girl then grab your copy today!
AUTHOR Bio and Links:
Victory Witherkeigh is a female Filipino author originally from Los Angeles, CA, currently living in the Las Vegas area. Victory was a finalist for Wingless Dreamer’s 2020 Overcoming Fear Short Story award and a 2021 winner of the Two Sisters Writing and Publishing Short Story Contest.
She has print publications in the horror anthologies Supernatural Drabbles of Dread through Macabre Ladies Publishing, Bodies Full of Burning through Sliced Up Press, and In Filth It Shall Be Found through OutCast Press.
Her first novel, set to debut in Spring 2024 with Cinnabar Moth Publishing, has been a finalist for Killer Nashville’s 2020 Claymore Award, a 2020 Cinnamon Press Literature Award Honoree, and long-listed in the 2021 Voyage YA Book Pitch Contest.
Connect with Victory Witherkeigh
Instagram ~ Facebook ~ Website ~ Twitter
4 comments:
Great review
Sounds like a good read.
Thank you for sharing your review of The Girl, this really sounds like an excellent story despite the triggers and I am looking forward to reading it myself and to sharing it with my teen-aged granddaughters
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