2/07/02
"The Wicked Heart"
Despite my recent transition
into becoming a Star Wars fan, to the extent that I was willing to become a Jedi
(ha ha), I obviously don’t believe in “the force”, or the evil force, that
is mentioned in “The Wicked Heart”. Nevertheless,
I have found the plot of this book truly genius – Pike has taken what could
have been a typical murder story, and moulded it into that which incorporates a
chilling history, together with a haunting tale that delves into the mind of a
killer. Whilst reading the book, I
was drawn to consider the disturbing possibilities of what actually runs through
the mind of a serial killer, applying the idea to such monsters as Jack The
Ripper, and even those scenarios illustrated on Discovery Channel’s
“Forensic Scientists”, which never ceased to disturb the crap outta me.
Firstly, bravo to Pike for
actually using characters that aren’t perfect.
In fact, all of the characters used in “The Wicked Heart” are far
from being an idealistic figure. Matt,
well, I must say his ponytail and “black silk shirt with the top buttons
undone” to reveal “a tanned chest” just didn’t do it for me, which I was
relieved about because I tend to think “why can’t boys like that enter MY
life” when I read Pike books, thereby becoming blue.
As for the girls in Pike’s books, take Sita from “The Last Vampire
Series”, Jessica from “The Final Friends Series”, and even Jessa from
“Magic Fire”, and an envious pattern of incredibly attractive girls who are
capable of handling themselves better than the average girl emerges.
Of course, when I say “average girl”, I mean myself.
But Sheila conveys attributes of desperateness, pitiful behaviour, of
course, until she becomes Miss Brave and follows Dusty alone when he takes Dixie
for a ride in his “small car”. Even
the name, Sheila, makes me NOT want to be her (no offence to any Sheila’s out
there), and her refusal to let Matt go caused me to cringe.
I was thinking, “Oh gosh, please quit the desperateness”.
Something I never want to do so blatantly.
Pike even lets the reader know that Sheila isn’t an outwardly
attractive girl, she is described as being average looking… which is a relief,
if I come across any more beautiful girls who get the perfect boyfriends I’m
gonna puke. Or maybe grab a hammer and white towel and make a few late
night trips. Hehe.
Dusty Shame.
Love the name. It’s a
pretty in-your-face name when reflecting on his role in the book, and yet it
works, without any complex metaphorical reasons behind the use of such a name.
The only time I shed a few tears when reading this book was when Pike
writes:
“ I was afraid”.
He glanced around the cave, at the graves, Matt, and Gossick.
“I never had a friend in my life,” he said sadly.
“Can you imagine what that was like?”
His final question is cleverly
used; its placement forces one to FEEL Dusty’s loneliness.
Loneliness – it’s a word that anyone can feel, regardless of whether
one is lonely or not. The word
brings with it a sudden surge of sadness, which emphasises the sorrow of
Dusty’s speech being delivered “sadly”.
At that point, I both feared but more importantly pitied Dusty’s
character – not in the same way as I pitied Sheila when she went crawling back
to Matt time and time again, but more in a “your fate is too harsh” kinda
way. Of course it’s identifiable
that Dusty’s character fits the profile of a character that has to die –
he’s a murderer and he’ll get his justice, even if a Nazi Bitch from the
past was actually controlling him.
To sum up, “The Wicked Heart” is an excellent book. The one aspect that impressed me most of all is Pike’s approach to explaining the story using both Sheila and Dusty’s perspectives. Pike adopts an almost dogmatic style, forcing the reader to switch from one character’s viewpoint to another, exploiting the fact that the reader may be extremely captivated by a tense or interesting part of the book, only to be whisked away to another section of the plot. Of course, it is a technique that a lot of authors take advantage of, but Pike’s decision to use it in “The Wicked Heart” was a wise one. Ah yes, and as soon as Gossick mentioned Tania’s “brown hair and green eyes”, I KNEW she was Dusty’s mother or grandmother. A very obvious clue, which I think Pike shouldn’t have given away so easily and mentioned in a more subtle manner. Ha ha, and Sheila just HAD to become a desperado again at the end by asking if her and Matt were “over”… well at least it works for her, because surprise surprise, they end up back together… *pukes*