Official Review: The Sins of His Grandmother
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- Latest Review: "The Sins of His Grandmother" by Jeremy Francis
Official Review: The Sins of His Grandmother
[Following is the official OnlineBookClub.org review of "The Sins of His Grandmother" by Jeremy Francis.]
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The Sins of His Grandmother is a detailed and often painful story that follows the toxic and detrimental relationship between Amanda Sillow, her abusive husband Frederickstein, their drug-addicted daughter Sondra, and Sondra’s young son Presley. The story begins with a simple phone call to a secluded cottage in Yarmouth, Massachusetts. It is a phone call that occurs on the last day of every month between Sondra and Presley, who by this time is living with his grandmother Amanda. The story begins with an interesting twist however, because Sondra is not talking to her son but another young boy whom Amanda has hired to pretend to be Presley. It is after this occurrence that we come to find out that Sondra has a drug addiction problem and often thinks of suicide; and so because of the immense love she has for her son and the inability to stay sober, Sondra brings Presley back to her childhood home to stay with her mother Amanda, with whom her relationship has also deteriorated.
The story then begins backtracking and we learn about Amanda’s childhood and how she became an old, cold-hearted, wretched woman. Growing up, Amanda was raised and home-schooled by her parents in the same secluded cottage that Presley is now in. She was told and actually believed that her family consisted of the only humans to actually exist in the world. Until one day, Amanda ventures out into the world and meets a peculiar and ultimately very dangerous man at a county fair. It is at this pivotal moment when life would completely change for Amanda; and change for the absolute worse. This man is Fred Sillow.
The story then takes another turn and begins telling us about Fred’s childhood and how he became an old, abusive, selfish, money-hungry man. We learn that he came from a family consisting of a homosexual father and his lover and that Fred would often be teased and bullied at school. Unfortunately no one would do anything to help this young boy, who could not at that age comprehend why everyone was teasing him, and he ultimately runs away from home to live in the wilderness and surprisingly he survives, until winter comes. He realizes that he cannot live in the wilderness through winter because he does not have enough necessities to survive and is forced to go back home. However, he arrives to an empty, unlived-in home. Forced to seek out the truth about his father’s whereabouts, Fred heads to his neighbor’s home, Mr. Garrett, who ends up being a big help and a role model to Fred growing up. Fred learns the ins and outs of being an electrician and this eventually becomes his job. One day he is at a customer’s house and views a woman he becomes infatuated with. This woman ultimately becomes Fred’s first wife and they have nine children together.
It is here that the two stories collide and Fred sees Amanda at the county fair. Many people see them together and notice his odd behavior but no one bothers to do anything. When one person finally decides that it was not right for a young teenager to be talking intimately with a man more than double her age and is going to stop it, they are nowhere in sight. Fred takes Amanda to his second home (the now deceased Mr. Garrett’s home) and tries to tell her that he loves her. Being a young girl however, Amanda does not understand what he means. Fred brings her back home, but cannot stop thinking about her. Meanwhile a short time after, Fred is picked up by police detectives because he has now been identified as the man stalking a young girl. He is interrogated repeatedly for hours but won’t reveal any information. Without any evidence, the police are forced to let this man they refer to as a pedophile back onto the streets, and it is here when Fred decides to wait two months to be sure he is not being followed anymore before he goes to see Amanda again.
Because of the commotion that this caused throughout the town, Fred lost customers and was on a hiatus from his job. He eventually loses his job completely, cannot support his wife and children, and so is kicked out of the house. The time has now come when Fred makes his way to Amanda’s home. She immediately runs into his arms, but her parents threaten that if he comes near their daughter and their home, he will be locked in a jail cell for the rest of this life. Fred wants Amanda however, and decides that if he is to keep her he needs to find out how to make some money quick and how to get her out of her home. He learns about the underground black market and the illegal business being done in Boston and decides to dabble in it. He once again sneaks up to Amanda’s home, goes straight to her bedroom window and tells her to pack some clothes, enough for a week, and hurry outside. He plans to take her to Boston in order to make “business deals” with other fellow men.
Years later, Amanda’s parents have died and Fred moves into the cottage with her. They are spiritually married and get pregnant with Sondra. This however did not stop the abusing and tumultuous relationship between Amanda and Fred, and this ultimately leads to Sondra’s personal demise. They tried to raise Sondra in the same way that Amanda was raised; alone and secluded from the rest of the world. Once Sondra is let out into the open, she uncovers things that she never knew existed and gets hooked on drugs very early on in her life. By this time, she is no longer living at home but with a family that adopted her. Due to her drug habits however and the fact that she was disabled and unable to work as well as her adopted brothers and sisters, she is left alone with no one but a man she met who introduced her to drugs. Years go by and Sondra becomes pregnant with Presley and comes to the conclusion that she is an unfit mother, but does not want to give up her drugs. Therefore she leaves her son on her mother’s doorstep, unsure if she will ever see him again.
I am not sure if I would recommend this book to fellow readers. It is well written and has a good storyline. However, being a woman, I found the gory details and horrifying occurrences throughout the story very difficult to read and often cringe worthy. The details are explained very thoroughly and leave nothing for the imagination to block out or even side-step. The images that are placed in the reader’s mind while reading this story are so vivid that they unfortunately stick, and considering how disturbing the majority of the book is, I would rather not have it stick in my mind. The book is very well written as mentioned previously however and the author did a very good job with the details and imagery. I just wish it was on a lighter subject and an “easier to swallow” novel, but it does put life into perspective because things mentioned in this novel still happen in real-life today.
I rate this book 2 out of 4 stars.
***
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The story then begins backtracking and we learn about Amanda’s childhood and how she became an old, cold-hearted, wretched woman. Growing up, Amanda was raised and home-schooled by her parents in the same secluded cottage that Presley is now in. She was told and actually believed that her family consisted of the only humans to actually exist in the world. Until one day, Amanda ventures out into the world and meets a peculiar and ultimately very dangerous man at a county fair. It is at this pivotal moment when life would completely change for Amanda; and change for the absolute worse. This man is Fred Sillow.
The story then takes another turn and begins telling us about Fred’s childhood and how he became an old, abusive, selfish, money-hungry man. We learn that he came from a family consisting of a homosexual father and his lover and that Fred would often be teased and bullied at school. Unfortunately no one would do anything to help this young boy, who could not at that age comprehend why everyone was teasing him, and he ultimately runs away from home to live in the wilderness and surprisingly he survives, until winter comes. He realizes that he cannot live in the wilderness through winter because he does not have enough necessities to survive and is forced to go back home. However, he arrives to an empty, unlived-in home. Forced to seek out the truth about his father’s whereabouts, Fred heads to his neighbor’s home, Mr. Garrett, who ends up being a big help and a role model to Fred growing up. Fred learns the ins and outs of being an electrician and this eventually becomes his job. One day he is at a customer’s house and views a woman he becomes infatuated with. This woman ultimately becomes Fred’s first wife and they have nine children together.
It is here that the two stories collide and Fred sees Amanda at the county fair. Many people see them together and notice his odd behavior but no one bothers to do anything. When one person finally decides that it was not right for a young teenager to be talking intimately with a man more than double her age and is going to stop it, they are nowhere in sight. Fred takes Amanda to his second home (the now deceased Mr. Garrett’s home) and tries to tell her that he loves her. Being a young girl however, Amanda does not understand what he means. Fred brings her back home, but cannot stop thinking about her. Meanwhile a short time after, Fred is picked up by police detectives because he has now been identified as the man stalking a young girl. He is interrogated repeatedly for hours but won’t reveal any information. Without any evidence, the police are forced to let this man they refer to as a pedophile back onto the streets, and it is here when Fred decides to wait two months to be sure he is not being followed anymore before he goes to see Amanda again.
Because of the commotion that this caused throughout the town, Fred lost customers and was on a hiatus from his job. He eventually loses his job completely, cannot support his wife and children, and so is kicked out of the house. The time has now come when Fred makes his way to Amanda’s home. She immediately runs into his arms, but her parents threaten that if he comes near their daughter and their home, he will be locked in a jail cell for the rest of this life. Fred wants Amanda however, and decides that if he is to keep her he needs to find out how to make some money quick and how to get her out of her home. He learns about the underground black market and the illegal business being done in Boston and decides to dabble in it. He once again sneaks up to Amanda’s home, goes straight to her bedroom window and tells her to pack some clothes, enough for a week, and hurry outside. He plans to take her to Boston in order to make “business deals” with other fellow men.
Years later, Amanda’s parents have died and Fred moves into the cottage with her. They are spiritually married and get pregnant with Sondra. This however did not stop the abusing and tumultuous relationship between Amanda and Fred, and this ultimately leads to Sondra’s personal demise. They tried to raise Sondra in the same way that Amanda was raised; alone and secluded from the rest of the world. Once Sondra is let out into the open, she uncovers things that she never knew existed and gets hooked on drugs very early on in her life. By this time, she is no longer living at home but with a family that adopted her. Due to her drug habits however and the fact that she was disabled and unable to work as well as her adopted brothers and sisters, she is left alone with no one but a man she met who introduced her to drugs. Years go by and Sondra becomes pregnant with Presley and comes to the conclusion that she is an unfit mother, but does not want to give up her drugs. Therefore she leaves her son on her mother’s doorstep, unsure if she will ever see him again.
I am not sure if I would recommend this book to fellow readers. It is well written and has a good storyline. However, being a woman, I found the gory details and horrifying occurrences throughout the story very difficult to read and often cringe worthy. The details are explained very thoroughly and leave nothing for the imagination to block out or even side-step. The images that are placed in the reader’s mind while reading this story are so vivid that they unfortunately stick, and considering how disturbing the majority of the book is, I would rather not have it stick in my mind. The book is very well written as mentioned previously however and the author did a very good job with the details and imagery. I just wish it was on a lighter subject and an “easier to swallow” novel, but it does put life into perspective because things mentioned in this novel still happen in real-life today.
I rate this book 2 out of 4 stars.
***
Buy "The Sins of His Grandmother" on Amazon
Latest Review: "The Sins of His Grandmother" by Jeremy Francis
