Beautiful Evil Winter – Responding to the Critics Part 4

Okay, so she doesn’t think I’m a skilled writer. Understood. So proud that my professionally-supported, Award-Winnnig, debut novel has earned many accolades including an Eric Hoffer Award.

Now, reviewer cringes at the reactions of a harassed enraged woman who scoops vomit off the floor with her bare hand and smears it on her assailant. Horrors! For someone like Sophia who chooses to rise above a near fatal horseback riding accident handling gooey, gritty, even bloody – not a problem but a way of life. Maybe, the feisty woman should’ve shouted, “Stop, you bugger! You’re a horrible person!” That packs a punch! Not really.

Next, in a chapter titled “Do or Die Trying”, feisty lady fights for her life or risks rape and a brutal death.   A feisty lady will not surrender. She has a chance for a tomorrow if she finds a way out. And sadly, the incident involving initials has been based on a true story involving a surgeon. This grisly scene shows that these men fall under the classification of unflinching killers with a cause, self gratification. They look human, but they’re Mafia humanoids. Maybe, feisty lady should’ve threatened to tell the police or screamed and bolted for the exit. Not happening in this setting. The police and the Mafia are one in the same in corrupt Russia, then and now. In fact, I recently asked my globe-trotting father, who worked in Russia for decades about Putin’s murderous rampage. He said, “Sadly, it’s business as usual. Life is cheap there.”

Reviewer complains about two rapes followed by torture. While I realize she’s probably never traveled to Russia nor does she realize Russia has been overrun and ruled by the Mafia for decades. In light of the recent unprovoked  invasion by Russian forces of a liberty-loving, peaceful, productive country, the bar scene referenced only hints at what vicious, tyrannical, psychopaths like Putin can and will do in their own country and beyond, to their fellow countrymen and innocent civilians. For perspective on nihilism in Russia, I suggest reading about Russian history including The White Terror, Red Terror or the Second Chechen War that claimed the lives of 60,000 people or the Circassian Genocide during which 800,000 to 1,500,000 people died.

And since I write fiction with meaning, not only did the bar scene showcase the brutal parasitic behavior of the aggressors, but maybe for someone, rape will be re-defined as a crime involving innocent hapless victims.

Also, I don’t wallow like a pig. What a colossal misinterpretation! I don’t write violence gratuitously. See Author Interview Questions in the book. I state that I loathed writing the barroom scene, but it spotlights the barbaric mentality of the assailants.  On a superficial level, it may be too indelicate or too profound for this reviewer to comprehend. Oh, well. Many well-read judges decided the novel deserved recognition. And it has achieved Best-selling status on Amazon not for days not for weeks but for years now.

Finally, she writes, “..Maybe the story of the adoption was intriguing and even heart-warming. I’ll never know.To me, it’s not worth it.” While some scenes can be described as poignant and uplifting, the hostile setting in this Russian Suspense Thriller hasn’t been sugar-coated. It’s neither a Hallmark story nor a slow, tame, sleepy time Disney narrative.