Amra Pajalic

I first discovered Robert Fate via a Spinetingler review and have been enjoying the series since. In this latest installment Kristin and her partner Otis are at work on a strange case that seems to throw a curve ball at every turn.

In this latest installment Fate peels back the psychological layers. Kristin’s identity as Baby Shark was forged during a brutal rape and the murder of her father. Since then she’s taken revenge on her attackers and discovered a new life as a private investigator.

In her development as a private investigator she’s learnt many skills-most of them concerned with how to kill a man in different ways. What I enjoyed most was the personal conflict as she tries to reconcile the person she was with the person she has become. She questions if she is different to the people she is hunting. She is starting to realise that the choices she made means it is becoming impossible for her to live any sort of a normal life. Although I wonder if she would want to anyway. Normal is way overrated.

While the core of this latest installment has heart, Fate still keeps the thrills and spills coming as the action pumps across the page. Well worth reading and if you haven’t discovered Robert Fate before, go back to the beginning. Here’s what I had to say about the previous book.

The tag: (from http://josephinedamian.blogspot.com/)

1. The rules of the game get posted at the beginning.
2. Each player answers the questions about themselves.
3. At the end of the post, the player then tags 5-6 people and posts their names, then goes to their blogs and leaves them a comment, letting them know they’ve been tagged and asking them to read the player’s blog.
4. Let the person who tagged you know when you’ve posted your answer.

A Meme about Various Things

What were you doing ten years ago?

Ten years ago I was a newly wed and because I married at 19 everyone assumed I was braindead. I was working in some crappy office jobs (I still work in crappy office jobs so nothing’s changed there) and because I was unstimulated I decided to do further study. For some insane reason I thought shorthand was the way to go (I think my reasoning was that I’d further my administration career-mmm, maybe I was braindead) and it was awful. The only good thing that came out of it was that I decided to study something I liked and began the Diploma of Arts in Professional Writing and Editing which is directly responsible for my writing career taking off.

What are five things on your to-do list for today (not in any particular order)?

Weed my garden bed
Write a couple of pages of my next project
Do a blog post
Buy some groceries
Take my Mum to the hairdresser

What are some snacks you enjoy?

Tasty cheese in white bread, popcorn, chocolate biscuits, bakery goods, bread,

What are five places where you have lived?

St Albans, Melbourne, Australia
Bosanska Gradiska, Bosnia and Hercegovina
Northcote, Melbourne, Australia
Thornbury, Melbourne, Australia
Marrickville, Sydney

What are five jobs you have had?

Selling lollies door to door, waitress, secretary, administration officer, receptionist (if you think these last three are basically the same thing-you’d be right)

What were the last five books you read?

Like Water for Chocolate by Lara Esquivel

Before I Die by Jenny Downham

Marley and Me by John Grogan

Nine Letters Long by J.C. Burke

Grave Sight by Charlaine Harris

What are five web sites you visit daily (in no particular order)?

http://josephinedamian.blogspot.com/
http://pubrants.blogspot.com/
http://sandrablabber.blogspot.com/
http://www.megcabot.com/diary/
http://jakonrath.blogspot.com/

Tag 5 People
Nope-if you want to do it, go for it.

I attended a session with Neil Gaiman at the Children’s Council of Literature conference (for those of you who don’t know Neil Gaiman of the writer of Stardust Movie Fame). There were a few intersting things that came from this that keep circling my brain.

One of them was that he recently attended a Science Fiction and Horror Conference in China and that only recently China has approved of this type of literature. After realising that they are the biggest producer of items, but never the inventor of such items, they did a survey of all inventors in different countries. One of the things they discovered was that the thing that most they had in common was that they were readers of Science Fiction and Horror.

That is such an interesting fact that I haven’t been able to get it out of my mind. I can understand it. By reading this type of literature you’re literally stepping outside of your realm of experience and teaching your brain to do the same. It makes me think about the power of literature to influence and shape people.

As a writer I don’t feel comfortable sharing my lofty ideals with writing and you just have to focus on the entertainment factor otherwise you sound like a wanker, but in reality there are books that changed my life, that shifted my perspective and made me change. And I hope that my book can do that to someone. (See how wanky that sounds.)

Anyway the other thing he talked about was how readers influence the book. We insert all the little details between the lines on the page and make it come to life. This is why sometimes when we re-read a book that profoundly affected us as a child we’re confused because the words on the page don’t match up what’s in our head.

I had that experience with a book I re-read that I loved. The book was Easy Connections by Liz Berry. I feel embarrassed confessing this because I respect public libraries so much, but this was the book I stole from my high school library. Now when I think about this story as an adult it’s quite off. A 17 year old meets a rock star, who rapes her, she falls pregnant, hides out from him while he pursues and eventually blackmails/bullies her into a relationship.

But as a young adult that whole love angle was so enthralling. I think it’s because your idea of love are about that possessive/obsessive love that is bigger than oneself. That’s why I loved Wuthering Heights at this age too, and have wanted to re-read it for years but something has stopped me. As an adult we know that sort of love is unhealthy and gross, not something to aspire to, but as a teenager it’s what I dreamt about.

I think also the whole rape angle is about obsession with sex at that stage. You’re so curious and obsessed with it, while at the same time grossed out and scared by it, and this sort of expression of sex captures that conflict perfectly. Or maybe I’m just full of shit and it’s because I was a young idiot who didn’t know any better.

Anyway I thought about this book as an adult and felt the urge to re-read it. So I searched my whole house trying to find it and realised that somewhere along the way I’d purged it. This is when I vowed not to purge any books again. I was going to track it down and buy it when a friend said-Stop. Do a google search. You might be disappointed. So I did, and I was.

It still doesn’t change that this book served it’s purpose for me as a teenager, but it makes me wary about re-reading other books. I’ve got all of the Anne of Green Gables series and remember how much I loved her book. When I was re-reading my diary I found all this quotes attributed to LMM and it took me weeks to figure out that I was quoting Lucy Maud Montgomery.

I also remember reading Forever by Judy Blume and being so influenced by the book that I vowed to hold onto my virginity until after high school and not be desperate to grow up too fast. Kept the vow too. I’ve got Judy Blume, but I’ve been scared about re-reading her. Not wanting to spoil the images in my head for what is really there.

While intellectually I know that it won’t spoil it because those books served a purpose at a particular time in my life, it still does spoil it. You analyse the books as an adult and find them wanting. You critique the writing and cringe. And you lose some of the magic in life.

Has anyone else had this experience with a book from childhood? And should I re-read the other books on my list, or stay away?