When he was younger, Jace Witherspoon was the only member of his family who his father, a respected judge, did not beat. But when his brother, Christian, ran away from home to escape the beatings, Jace started to step up and redirect some of the beatings his mother suffered to himself. And then five years later, Jace couldn’t take it anymore, and he hit back, for which he got kicked out, and has shown up at Christian’s door broke, accurately looking like he was half-beaten to death, with secrets and memories Christian would rather leave behind at his heals.
Avasthi doesn’t take any easy roads here, focusing on the psychology of the victims of abuse, the different ways growing up in that environment can impact you, and why it can never be as easy as walking out the door to escape abuse. Neither Christian nor Jace is innocent-Christian ran away and pretended he didn’t know the abuse would switch to Jace once he was gone, and Jace maybe be more like his father than he wants to think about-and their father’s horrific abuse of their mother impacts their everyday interactions, and especially their own relationships with the women in their lives. The characterization is complex and what few answers there are aren’t easy ones.
The book is written in a very easy-to-read style. Actually, it’s written in first person present tense. If you are familiar with me and first person present tense narratives, you know that I hate that narrative choice rather passionately, and often find I almost impossible to read at times, so it’s rather significant for me that I actually didn’t notice it until I was almost halfway through the book.
Split is due to be released in March 2010, but can be preordered from Amazon.
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