Review by TheSeelieCourtJester -- Lara's Journal

[TheSeelieCourtJester]

[Following is a volunteer review of "Lara's Journal" by A. Gavazzoni.]

---

3 out of 4 stars

---

Share This Review

---

Lara's Journal, by A. Gavazzoni, is a psychological suspense about two women struggling to escape the demons from their past. 

Simone Bennet is a sex therapist who is trying to recover from her kidnapping at the hands of serial killer Peter Hay. One day, she is contacted by Carl, a lawyer who needs her help analyzing a series of journals written by a woman named Lara. As Simone unveils the horrors behind Lara's past, her patients begin to die one by one. With the body count growing with each passing day, Simone must balance out the monsters in her mind with the monsters in real life, all the while reading the tragedy of a woman she never knew.

When I read Lara’s story, it was as if I was reading a dark, disturbing fairytale only the Marquis de Sade could come up with. From being betrayed by both her mother and her friend, to being degraded by the sins of depraved strangers, I admired how strong Lara was. She was determined to get back her freedom, no matter what the cost. Simone was also persistent in dealing with her problems; from recovering from a kidnapping, to dealing with the death of her patients, to even confronting her overzealous lover, I was relieved to see her trying her best, however disturbed she was. Their character development definitely showed this as the plot continued, and was one of the finer aspects of the book.

This also led me to see the wonderful support system the two had. Simone and Lara were both doing whatever they could to lead their own lives, but they also had friends and family to rely on. From Lara’s father and grandmother, to Simone’s friends and patients, the two had loved ones they could rely on whenever they were in trouble, even if they didn’t first acknowledge it. Lara’s nightmarish situation wasn’t easy to recover from, and neither was Simone’s, but in the end they proved themselves unbreakable.

Nevertheless, the book was not perfect. There were a few mistakes here and there, but they didn’t take away from the story. Also, as much as I loved Simone’s character, I didn’t like the times she simply allowed herself to have sex with her lover. This was a case of her just encouraging him, even though she wanted nothing to do with him. He was incredibly annoying as well, and I felt like the story would’ve been better without him.

Overall, I would give this book a rating of a 3 out of 4 stars. I loved the parallels between Simone and Lara. They showed me that they can live their lives, despite the horrific things that’d happened to them. While I didn’t like how Gavazzoni dragged out the problem between Simone and her lover, it was an excellent read nonetheless. I would thus recommend this book to fans of Anne Rice and Stephen King’s Carrie.

******
Lara's Journal
View: on Bookshelves | on Amazon

Like TheSeelieCourtJester's review? Post a comment saying so!