The Sculptor by Gina Fava
The Epilogue of the book, II particularly, when Stan Kiever was noted to have "cut his penis off before slitting his throat," reminded me of a video I happened across a few weeks ago. A man legally got off on a technicality for child assault. Sicario, or translation of the video, a hitman, got a hold of him. They had sliced off his male parts, and the video shows a dog eating the hole while the abuser is gagged and held down. I think it was more a mafia-type hit, vigilante thing. Anyway, there is a free visual of stuff I come across in my spare time or doing research.
First, this book had too many lies for me to enjoy it after a while. Mara's botched assumptions, "it's him, then no, HIM. Wait, it is that one," then everyone wears zebra-print snow gloves really took all the cake away. I felt hopeless as a reader finishing this. Now, I found the book decent, and unlike the previous book, this one dived right into brutal murders and chaos. Just after three-hundred pages, the same cycle gets old. Police work-wise, I think it was well done. We all know from history how long it takes to nail down and catch a killer.
All the undercover shit and mixing with ordinary people was a little bullshit to me. FBI and local police among inspectors all not knowing they are undercover? Granted, Utica being FBI, admitted he knew Jesse was undercover the whole time he was working on a separate case. However, his whole "being assigned to help" after his case had just closed, without even returning home seemed a little not likely. I had an uncle in the FBI. After every case, there was extensive paperwork and other things that had to be done. They wouldn't just throw you on another matter. BUT, Utica had a background with these people, meaning his reassignment would have benefited the Bureau in the long run. Hence, it makes sense, but I had to make a smartass comment, okay?
Again, I hate Prologues and Epilogues, just put them in the chapters of the fucking books, man. Make them matter. I am not going to lie, after the last chapter, I went to put it down and call it a day. Epilogues make me feel like what is in them doesn't matter enough to make it in the actual book, and as I said, this book lied to me too much as a reader and made me feel hopeless. I couldn't give two-shits about Fava's Epilogue when I got to it. However, had I not read it, I again wouldn't have gifted myself with even MORE hopelessness of a resolution. The Sculptor lives on. Granted, the repetition of "imitation is the sincerest form of flattery," gave enough foreshadowing for this, still angered me. Long books like these really just need to wrap up. Sorry, Fava, but after that, I have absolutely no desire to read another whopping 400+ page novel where you do the same shit, but this psychopath has a new hobby in it. Repetition gets old, fast.
Aside from the disappointment of the leading killer, the book revolved around, we had enough psychos alone. Jack, who was out for his family. Doing anything for family, including fucking his own daughter? Yeah, the man had problems. Here is where I will plug the famous lie that took me directly out of the book. Page 296, "He introduced Abigail to the now..." That is the start of the excerpt where we learn Abby, Mara's sister, who we watched get brutally murdered in Chapter 1, knew her birth mother. We knew she met her and that her real mother wanted Arturo and Abby to come back to Rome to start a new life with her. The following page, 297, " Your sister's birth mother died when Abby was in her teens, and the secret went with her."
We learn that Fava didn't give a fuck to link that properly. I felt cheated. I did try to read these two pages four separate times and got the same interpretation. Feel free to comment and clear that up for me if you can. But for now, my opinion stands that the jumble of information got past the writer and the editor. I, as a reader, wanted to instantly put it down and never touch it again. This type of flaw is the only thing my OCD will allow me to never finish a book for a reason, wise. However, I care about my grades and getting my degree, so I did go through the final 120+ pages left.
Stan was another psycho in his own right, imitating the real killer. But I am confused as to who he killed? He didn't have the particular thread, and I don't remember any victims being found without thread, except Kristen. Abby obviously, but with the way the book went, I seriously DOUBT Stan killed anyone, even her. But Jack was the one who axed Kristen thinking she was Mara. So aside from the attempted murder of Mara, who the fuck did Stan kill? LOL.
I will say, we got tiny amounts of the real psycho, The Sculptor. All I can tell is I enjoyed them a lot. Chapter 2 made me think it was gonna be some love bullshit, then he just slits the girl's throat seemingly out of nowhere. He was and still remains a real mystery. Did we ever encounter him through this book? Was he one of the various characters we followed or met? Or was he literally a stranger to us all and so under the radar, a stranger to everyone we knew? How did he get into Kiever's cell to do the deed without being noticed on camera's, logbooks, or by guards and other prisoners? How did he even get in the cell?
All honesty, this does not need to be a series. The long-ass book could've been great had it ended. I would not want to read another long book where the same killer just finds a new hobby and knack for killing people. Why were these people targeted? Everything logical was tainted when Jack and Stan came busting around murdering people. The only pattern was young women and special silk. What was the motive? How did he choose his victims? Who the hell was he? I have so many questions, but after how pissed off this novel made me, I won't even consider buying a sequel to answer them. I have no hope she would answer them after this one.
(Is there even a second book?) This should have been done better for the readers. Just throw the whole idea away. Don't bother to attempt the redemption. I doubt anyone would want to read it after this disaster.
First, this book had too many lies for me to enjoy it after a while. Mara's botched assumptions, "it's him, then no, HIM. Wait, it is that one," then everyone wears zebra-print snow gloves really took all the cake away. I felt hopeless as a reader finishing this. Now, I found the book decent, and unlike the previous book, this one dived right into brutal murders and chaos. Just after three-hundred pages, the same cycle gets old. Police work-wise, I think it was well done. We all know from history how long it takes to nail down and catch a killer.
All the undercover shit and mixing with ordinary people was a little bullshit to me. FBI and local police among inspectors all not knowing they are undercover? Granted, Utica being FBI, admitted he knew Jesse was undercover the whole time he was working on a separate case. However, his whole "being assigned to help" after his case had just closed, without even returning home seemed a little not likely. I had an uncle in the FBI. After every case, there was extensive paperwork and other things that had to be done. They wouldn't just throw you on another matter. BUT, Utica had a background with these people, meaning his reassignment would have benefited the Bureau in the long run. Hence, it makes sense, but I had to make a smartass comment, okay?
Again, I hate Prologues and Epilogues, just put them in the chapters of the fucking books, man. Make them matter. I am not going to lie, after the last chapter, I went to put it down and call it a day. Epilogues make me feel like what is in them doesn't matter enough to make it in the actual book, and as I said, this book lied to me too much as a reader and made me feel hopeless. I couldn't give two-shits about Fava's Epilogue when I got to it. However, had I not read it, I again wouldn't have gifted myself with even MORE hopelessness of a resolution. The Sculptor lives on. Granted, the repetition of "imitation is the sincerest form of flattery," gave enough foreshadowing for this, still angered me. Long books like these really just need to wrap up. Sorry, Fava, but after that, I have absolutely no desire to read another whopping 400+ page novel where you do the same shit, but this psychopath has a new hobby in it. Repetition gets old, fast.
Aside from the disappointment of the leading killer, the book revolved around, we had enough psychos alone. Jack, who was out for his family. Doing anything for family, including fucking his own daughter? Yeah, the man had problems. Here is where I will plug the famous lie that took me directly out of the book. Page 296, "He introduced Abigail to the now..." That is the start of the excerpt where we learn Abby, Mara's sister, who we watched get brutally murdered in Chapter 1, knew her birth mother. We knew she met her and that her real mother wanted Arturo and Abby to come back to Rome to start a new life with her. The following page, 297, " Your sister's birth mother died when Abby was in her teens, and the secret went with her."
We learn that Fava didn't give a fuck to link that properly. I felt cheated. I did try to read these two pages four separate times and got the same interpretation. Feel free to comment and clear that up for me if you can. But for now, my opinion stands that the jumble of information got past the writer and the editor. I, as a reader, wanted to instantly put it down and never touch it again. This type of flaw is the only thing my OCD will allow me to never finish a book for a reason, wise. However, I care about my grades and getting my degree, so I did go through the final 120+ pages left.
Stan was another psycho in his own right, imitating the real killer. But I am confused as to who he killed? He didn't have the particular thread, and I don't remember any victims being found without thread, except Kristen. Abby obviously, but with the way the book went, I seriously DOUBT Stan killed anyone, even her. But Jack was the one who axed Kristen thinking she was Mara. So aside from the attempted murder of Mara, who the fuck did Stan kill? LOL.
I will say, we got tiny amounts of the real psycho, The Sculptor. All I can tell is I enjoyed them a lot. Chapter 2 made me think it was gonna be some love bullshit, then he just slits the girl's throat seemingly out of nowhere. He was and still remains a real mystery. Did we ever encounter him through this book? Was he one of the various characters we followed or met? Or was he literally a stranger to us all and so under the radar, a stranger to everyone we knew? How did he get into Kiever's cell to do the deed without being noticed on camera's, logbooks, or by guards and other prisoners? How did he even get in the cell?
All honesty, this does not need to be a series. The long-ass book could've been great had it ended. I would not want to read another long book where the same killer just finds a new hobby and knack for killing people. Why were these people targeted? Everything logical was tainted when Jack and Stan came busting around murdering people. The only pattern was young women and special silk. What was the motive? How did he choose his victims? Who the hell was he? I have so many questions, but after how pissed off this novel made me, I won't even consider buying a sequel to answer them. I have no hope she would answer them after this one.
(Is there even a second book?) This should have been done better for the readers. Just throw the whole idea away. Don't bother to attempt the redemption. I doubt anyone would want to read it after this disaster.
I'm afraid I'm in the same boat as you regarding the sequel to this. There was no satisfaction for us as readers and fans of this medium of horror. Jack and Stan were two monkey wrenches to all of this, but ultimately the book was not called "The Jack and Stan Tale". It was called The Sculptor and after chapter two, which made me as optimistic as it made you, everyone else became superfluous and all I wanted was more of the killer. Not exactly more from his perspective, per se, but more of what he was doing, why he was doing it, how he managed to slip away and have every major character focus on the wrong person for so long.
ReplyDeleteUltimately, this book disappointed me on a different level than the Church of Dead Girls. CODG took the mound of potential built at the beginning and spread it so thin it was almost indiscernible. It was like the author forgot why we were there and tried to figure it out at the end, at the last minute. Fava had a mound of potential too after the second chapter, but then ignored it almost completely. We were distracted from it as if it were an elephant in the room.
Loved reading your review for this, by the way. I appreciate your insight on a lot of this.
Best,
HH
This definitely was one of those stories where you question if the author has done any research as to how investigations are really run. I feel like all that kind of convoluted undercover business resulted in a lot of what we're saying we don't like about the story. The focus has been taken away from what the story is supposedly about. To me, the lack of details pertaining to the Sculptor is why I didn't think of this story as horror, even though the idea of the fictional killer, the Sculptor is awesome--we weren't given enough.
ReplyDeleteI've never really read a "whodunit" mystery, but I assume this is a bad attempt at that type of questioning. As you point out, there are facts that just don't line up... Almost as if Fava peppered them in later to amp up suspense.