"Method 15/33" by Shannon Kirk / Reviewed by Garrett Crowell
Killer Nashville Book of the Day
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Shannon Kirk
Method 15/33 by Shannon Kirk
Reviewed by Garrett Crowell
The female victim revenge fantasy is as old as male writers and artists splattering their misogyny across art. (Probably older.) Sometimes this is subtext and sometimes not, and the response to it from women artists ranges from simply cathartic to over-the-top violence.
From the classic movie I Spit on Your Grave to this book Method 15/33 as an endpoint (until someone moves the line further out), the tradition dictates that the woman at the heart of the situation be victimized before she can overcome, in order to provide motivation. Part of the suspense for the reader in these situations would presumably be hand-in-hand with wondering if our heroine's plan for revenge will be successful, but Kirk makes the unusual decision to reveal the “whether or not” right away
Her protagonist, whose name we do not learn until late in the game, is a sixteen-year-old pregnant genius, abducted from roadside. From the start, we are urged to look at her as an uncommon breed of girl who will attempt to triumph over what would, for anyone else, be a horrible situation. The book dovetails from her experiences in the hands of her captors to the activities of the FBI team investigating her disappearance, using the chapter divides to switch back and forth between the actions throughout.
Kirk’s protagonist’s mental lists of “assets” keep us abreast of the plan until its fully revealed, and the subsequent events then tumble into an arc of justice for the characters that unfolds until the final page. A lot of action is interspersed with the dynamic thinking of the main character, and the book will hold some charm for fans of James Patterson, MacGyver, and Silence of the Lambs.
Garrett C. Crowell is a Nashville native, Murfreesboro Librarian, husband, and father of two. He reads more than 100 books a year and likes some of them.
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