Ordinary Mayhem by Victoria A. Brownworth

Ordinary Mayhem Reviews

• 
  Pippa D

  This was a very well written book. I read it in two days and felt compelled to continue reading it, which is always a good sign.
  
  We are introduced to the main character, Faye, when she is six years old, trying to come to grips with her parents being burnt alive in a car, and having to adjust to living with her grandparents. What she then struggles to comprehend, at six, is that her grandfather is a psychopath who loves killing and torturing women. The photographic trophies he keeps burn into her memory, and she is changed forever.
  
  This extraordinary start to life is rendered in full colour by the tight narrative written by Brownworth. Clearly writing from a life of experience of the evil that men do to women, Brownworth delivers an antidote to the standard psychopath-as-hero novel that has become so common. It is brutal in parts, but it is also a testament to the strength of women who survive this world of ours. This was not an easy read, as at times it verged on horror, and yet perhaps it was during this time that it was the clearest reflection of our world. This was a fascinating and compelling book.
  
  4.5 stars
• 
  Wisewebwoman

  I wanted to like this as my daughter passed it on to me as a "good read".
  
  I had a lot of difficulty with it as I thought it could have used a good edit. The overuse of the protagonist's name began to irritate. The loving convent seemed out of another time and place. Much useage of the unspecific "something" and "always" - one example of many, P61: "There was something strange for Faye about the secret."
  
  The dreams and much screaming were just bad writing. I was taken out of the story many times. Example, P150 - she ploughs around inside the drawers of her night-table IN THE DARK, and locates and finds everything, no matter how small as she's laid waste from a mickey finn.
  
  And why did the Mother Superior give her the box full of brutal police evidence when she was leaving the convent?
  
  I had many more questions but too many to list here.
  
  I found it an excruciating read and would have tossed it only for Daughter. Graphic imagery of brutality do not a story make. And short repetitive chapters do not engross.It all felt extraordinarily contrived down to the last chapter which really pushed the limits of my credibility.
• 
  Majanka

  Book Review originally published here:
  http://www.iheartreading.net/uncatego...
  
  I have nothing against blood-and-guts journalism. Somebody has to do it. Somebody has to show us the bad side of this world. And despite it being horrifying, someone has to report on it. The protagonist of this book works as a report who writes about women survivors in wars, their traumas, the horrible things they had to survive. The book is certainly creepy, in that it deals with real issues some women had to go through. It’s also horrifying and gruesome, but unfortunately, that’s just the way this world is. The book is raw and gripping, though, and it doesn’t mind being controversial and putting issues in the spotlight that should have never left it in the first place. It’s not generally what I’d expect from a horror book, but it’s disturbing all the same.
• 
  Claudia

  This is a hard story to read, it portrays the unending violence against women in a very graphic way, through the eyes of a very traumatized protagonist.
  
  The story itself is good, I was really engaged in it and then... it ended. No resolution at all. Which maybe was the point the author was trying to make: these horrors never have a nice and tidy bow that close them. But as a reader, I felt cheated. I'd have been able to deal with the open ending if the protagonist had had any kind of resolution, if her path was set in any way. But we left her in a worse situation than when we met it and... I felt like all that happen was for nothing :/
  
  Anyway, be aware that you'll be needing a strong stomach if you submerge yourself in this reading.
• 
  Orla Hegarty

  This is a disturbing but necessary book since it fictionalizes the actual violence against women (and it's horrific legacy) that occurs on a daily basis throughout the world. Ms. Brownworth uses her lived experience as a journalist for the settings in this book and it is the stuff of nightmares.
  
  I loved the ending for it portrays the unfinished and messy reality of all victims of violence - there is no such thing as closure if you have survived torture.
• 
  Ruben

  Reread. First read ten years ago, and I still thought about this book every once in a while. I wanted to read it again, but at one point I started regretting it, cause some of it is so gruesome that it made me feel sick to my stomach.
  Another reason was the borderline racism which I either must have forgotten about or hadn't considered as 'that bad' back then. Maybe I've just become too sensitive over the years. Here are some examples:
  
  "The boy's father had fled back to Mexico, clutching his rosary and the thick cross around his neck, hoping God would forgive him for whatever it was he had done to create a monster even the Chupacabras would be frightened of"
  
  "She even loved the Latina nun..."
  I'm sure none of this was intended as racism, but the wording is just bad, in my opinion.
  
  "'There's a lot of us black Irish girls here in New York', Morgan was saying to her, 'and we all look alike, with the black hair and blue eyes.'"
  We all look alike? Come on!
  
  I feel like a lot could have been written differently. It left me with a lot of unanswered questions, but none that I think were intentional. Which is too bad, cause I think the author was on to something important here. The brutality and "true horror" as an important theme was what drew me in and made me reread it
• 
  Aly

  This book did not engage me at all. I did not really understand the story behind this book and it did not make me want to keep reading. I believe I was a little "lost in translation" in this book. I did not understand why this character wanted to take these gross pictures even when the author explained it. * I received this book from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review*
  
• 
  Martha Miller

  I loved this book. It was horror on the level of Stephen King, as well as grotesque on the level of Faulkner's "A Rose for Emily," if you can imagine. Vocabulary has some respect for the reader's intelligence. My only complaint was the end seemed abrupt.
• 
  Julie

  Review coming in Sinister Wisdom 98, publishing in October 2015.