Award-winning filmmaker Samantha Kolesnik (Mama’s Boy) makes her debut as an author with the upcoming novel True Crime. Published by Grindhouse Press, True Crime is told from the point-of-view of Suzy, a teenage girl with an unhealthy obsession with all things macabre and graphic true crime magazines. After enduring years of abuse suffered at home, Suzy finally snaps and embarks on a cross-country journey with her brother to find a new life elsewhere, but as violence is all they know, they’re unable to leave it behind them.
While we only see things from Suzy’s viewpoint, we are introduced to a handful of very interesting characters along the way. As we know Suzy and her brother are not “good” people, it’s hard not to immediately feel for the others they meet, fearing which random acts of violence might come next. Still, it’s also clear that somewhere deep down in Suzy’s brain, she longs for a shred of normalcy, and in another life, she could have been just your “average” teenage girl. While True Crime doesn’t necessarily make Suzy empathetic, it really does feel like it takes us into the mind of a truly disturbed individual, offering some explanation as to how someone’s mind could have gotten to this point of no return.
To say the least, the story is very unsettling on multiple levels. This is a theme that begins with the very first page, continuing throughout by touching on murder, torture, sexual abuse, and other heinous forms of depravity. Still, while the subject matter is incredibly dark, it’s made all the more unsettling by Kolesnik’s detailed storytelling, which can paint some truly grotesque imagery in your imagination. In other words, this is not a recommended read for the easily offended.
I’ve taken in a lot of rather dark literature over the years, but I can unequivocally say True Crime is the most disturbing book I’ve ever read. I almost grew to fear turning from one page to the next as I progressed through each chapter and things only became increasingly vile. Is our narrator truly a monster or a victim of circumstance? I really don’t know, but as macabre as her story is, it’s certainly compelling, and it’s definitely going to stick with me for a long, long time.
Samantha Kolesnik’s True Crime will be released by Grindhouse Press on Jan. 15, 2020. You can also pre-order the Kindle version right now for $3.99 over at Amazon.

Synopsis: Suzy and her brother, Lim, live with their abusive mother in a town where the stars don’t shine at night. Once the abuse becomes too much to handle the two siblings embark on a sordid cross-country murder spree beginning with their mom. As the murder tally rises, Suzy’s mental state spirals into irredeemable madness.
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