beautiful soup reviewed Two-Step Devil by Jamie Quatro
"You cannot stand for the horrific and the beautiful to touch."
4 stars
Reading has been slow lately because the world is a lot. This was slow going for me for a while but it punched me in the gut by the end. Our main characters are The Prophet, a man who has received visions his entire life that he interprets as religious; Michael, the 15-year-old girl he rescues from her pimp; and of course, the cowboy-hat-wearing Two-Step Devil who torments him. The Prophet lives an isolated life in the mountains, estranged from his son, turning his visions into paintings and transforming his little cabin into a piece of art. (I swear that this is based on a real folk artist... I'll research that when I've had more coffee.) He doesn't rescue Michael so much as kidnap her, but she slowly learns to trust him and finds a temporary peace living with him. But no peace can last, and we already know how …
Reading has been slow lately because the world is a lot. This was slow going for me for a while but it punched me in the gut by the end. Our main characters are The Prophet, a man who has received visions his entire life that he interprets as religious; Michael, the 15-year-old girl he rescues from her pimp; and of course, the cowboy-hat-wearing Two-Step Devil who torments him. The Prophet lives an isolated life in the mountains, estranged from his son, turning his visions into paintings and transforming his little cabin into a piece of art. (I swear that this is based on a real folk artist... I'll research that when I've had more coffee.) He doesn't rescue Michael so much as kidnap her, but she slowly learns to trust him and finds a temporary peace living with him. But no peace can last, and we already know how their stories end. Towards the novel transforms into something between a tragedy and a religious revelation, beautiful, unique, and dark. As the Two-Step Devil says, "You fleshsacks will want to look away. You must bear witness."