The Mad Girl

 The main reason that I love books is because they take us on a journey and allow us to simply escape reality with every page we turn. I can confidently say that The mad Girl did not fail to do this. I was so hooked and with every single page I read. 

Before I continue I would like to take the opportunity to thank Andrew Colvin (Dave) for kindly gifting me his new book The Mad Girl! The book itself focuses on young Cee Stark who has had a traumatic childhood and has now potentially made the biggest most deadly mistake(s) of her life. However, following on from her traumatic childhood, she has turned to Father Benkovsky a priest in which Cee will believe anything he says to the point it is dangerous... can Cee break free?

I had such mixed feelings about Cee. Part of me had an immense amount of sympathy for her going by the abuse she faced from her father and as the book goes on it becomes more and more clear that Cee is not in a good mental state. It is obvious that there are many parts to play in this, the priest being one of them. He brainwashed Cee into thinking that she had to follow his rules and orders or she is a failure. I would personally believe that it was Father Benkovsky's actions that lead Cee to insanity. This is very ironic as Father Benkovsky also shows elements of insanity. Although it is evident from the beginning that Cee has mental health issues, as the novel continues it becomes more and more evident, transparent and progressive. Arguably it is due to Cee and her trauma yet also due to her actions which she carries out within the story...Cee is definitely a controversial character. Do you feel sympathy for her due to her past? Are you disgusted at her thoughts and behaviour? 

Andrew (Dave) is an extremely talented writer, as a reader and reviewer his talent was shown throughout every single page however I really admired how he portrayed Father Benkovsky. At the beginning he is seen as a saint. Someone who cares for Cee. A father figure. As the novel continues there are subtle illusions to the fact that he is a spiteful character. As previously mention, he ironically shows elements of insanity and insane thoughts like Cee. The character change that Andrew (Dave) cleverly shows makes the novel much more engaging it also emphasised that people really can change. You could trust someone with your entire life yet that might not stop them from betraying you for their own benefit. However, is Andrew (Dave) saying people can change or is he trying to say that as humans we mask up or create an act in order to make people believe what we want them to believe. There are many aspects in the novel where this happens as lies unfold amongst the characters. Although people can change as shown in the novel, sometimes people simply have an act on and when that act falls through you see the real them therefore it may not be a matter of people changed but people have failed at pretending to be someone or something they are not...

As I draw this post to a close I would like to say that I have definitely not covered all the characters or points however I had to narrow it down to what stood out to me the most! On that note I would like to end this post reiterating my gratefulness to Andrew Colvin (Dave) for gifting me this five star read!