Wire Mesh Mothers

Kate McDolen is a grade school teacher in the town of Pippins, Virginia. One fateful day she finally gets fed up with the worst kid in the school and crosses the line in dealing with him. Facing the almost certain loss of her job and probably legal action as well, she decides to run. She isn't that happy with her life, anyway. She takes with her an eight year-old girl named Mistie, whom everybody knows is being abused at home. Kate knows people, and plans to take Mistie someplace far away where she can grow up safely. It isn't the most well thought out plan, and control is taken out of Kate's hands almost immediately anyway by a bitter, cruel teenaged girl named Tony. Tony is running also - from a botched convenience store holdup and also from her deadbeat mother and pathetic home life. She intends to go to Texas where her wealthy, connected father can give her the life she feels she deserves. Kate's road trip to salvation suddenly takes a sharp u-turn into hell. While a lesser writer would have piled on horror after horror out of pure sadism, Massie provides a story in which there is much cruelty, but never any without reason. Intense but not to gratuitous excess, it rises above the crop of horror novels that seek only to disgust the reader. She also keeps her antagonist from becoming a cartoon villain by telling one third of the story from her perspective. Tony commits horrific acts and while you certainly never like her, you actually do feel for her. She is a product of her environment as much as anyone else, and she has intriguing psychological motivations for her behavior. This, too, sets it apart from more common works. This is a fast-paced, compulsively readable thriller about life on the dark side of the Mason-Dixon Line.

Great novel about a terrifying kidnapping and a woman's ordeal in learning not only to survive but to gain something from the situation. Realistic plot, heart-pounding scenes running one into another, and characters I could understand and care about, especially Mistie. I read it in two nights; couldn't put it down! Check it out!

Wire Mesh Mothers might not be typical "horror" as suggested by several other reviewers, but then horror comes in many forms, not only ghosts or vampires. They come in the form of fears, weaknesses, anger, and missteps in life. Maybe it should have been labeled a thiller instead, but thrillers can be horror stories, too. The characters in Wire Mesh Mothers are realistic in their motives and in the circumstances those motives sweep them into as the story progresses. One reviewer seemed off-put that Kate was spoiled and rich. That seemed to me to be the point of her character from the outset, and the story brought her through some terrifying and painful moments that taught her about her own shallowness and her own, at long last, innate strength to change. I recommend this book for its fast-paced tale of power struggles and human flaws, as well as for its finely crafted prose. I've read two other Massie novels and even though my favorite remains Welcome Back to the Night, this one ranks up there.

This is a strong, well-written story about three people trapped together on the road and the terror they encounter in and from themselves and each other. It gives the reader a view from each of the main characters' minds, and the three are all very different from each other. Mistie is the troubled and silent child, Tony is the angry and violent teenager, and Kate is the desperate and terrified adult. The author goes back and forth between the characters, giving a full spectrum to what is happening and helping the reader understand bits and pieces of why each person acts and reacts the way they do. Not only is this book a quick read full of action and tension, but it is also a great character study of people in the throes of their worst fears, dashed hopes, and failures. The threads begin to weave together, and the story grows and builds to the conclusion. Highly recommended!

I discovered Elizabeth Massie because Bentley Little, my favorite author, mentioned in an interview that he really admired her work. I can see why. This novel isn't exactly horror, more like suspense, but it kept me glued to the pages all the way through and is filled with some interesting characters and powerful images. This is one fine book.