Along the Path of Torment by Chandler Morrison REVIEW

Summary:

Ty Seward is a sick man. Anorexic, sexually aberrant, and haunted by a ghostly apparition residing in his closet. Living in the shadow of an in-remission cancer he fully expects to return, Ty bitterly earns his meager living by working as an assistant to his uncle, a business-and-media mogul who runs a lucrative child prostitution ring catering to the Hollywood elite. When Ty's line of work introduces him to a precocious teenage girl who seems to possess a shrewdly keen insight into his inner machinations, he is forced to confront his hidden demons and repressed trauma, embarking on a bleak and harrowing odyssey of self-discovery in the decomposing City of Angels.

My Thoughts:

One of the reasons why I love Chandler Morrison's works is his willingness to write sick and twisted characters that are generally taboo for other writers. Ty is a bad person, and Morrison doesn't mask that or try to get the reader to sympathize with him. He is just horrible, period.

Ty is complacent toward the horrors that his uncle inflicts upon minors, as he used to do the same. Now he doesn't do everything he used to, but he still does things with underage girls. The further in the book, the more we learn about Ty's childhood trauma and how the ghost is a reflection of it. When Ty was a child, he was sexually abused by his aunt and uncle, but those memories only surface when he confronts the ghost in the yellow dress. This is more of an explanation of why he did it, not an excuse.

Beatrice/Dolly is the teenager he meets while working for his uncle. She is kind towards Ty, and they slowly become friends. She is, to me, a representation of what a lot of child stars had to go through to get fame. Beatrice doesn't really want to be a star, it is her mother who pushes her to do it and is okay with her daughter being assaulted by older men in order for Beatrice to be casted as an actress.

This is a bleak novel that includes heavily realistic content about the entertainment industry. So if that is something you can't handle, skip this book. Otherwise, I would recommend it. It is not for everyone though.

My Rating: 4 stars