Beyond The Pale Motel by Francesca Lia Block
Release Date - September 16, 2014 Publisher Website - St Martin's Press/Raincoast
Social Media - Twitter
Pages - 224 pages
My Rating - 4/5
**received in exchange for an honest review from the publisher**
**Adult Novel**
Here is the Goodreads synopsis
Maternal, sexy Catt and her beautiful, daring best friend Bree are hairdressers at an L.A. salon called Head Hunter, and work out at a gym called Body Farm. They have over a decade of sobriety behind them and are getting close to living the lives they've always wanted.Sensual and dangerous. Haunting and chilling. Beyond The Pale Motel is the literary equivalent of watching one of your best friends spiral so wildly down a dark path and yet being unable to do anything about it. A modern look at the dangers of dating, and the risks we, perhaps, unknowingly take when we let someone into our lives, and beds.
But when Catt's husband, Dash, leaves her, and then her neighbor is brutally murdered, possibly by a man being called the Hollywood Serial Killer, Catt's world begins to come crashing down. The murdered victims all seem to bear a chilling resemblance to Bree. Catt suspects that Bree is the next target of the Hollywood Serial Killer...is she losing touch with reality or simply coming to terms with the truth?
In Beyond the Pale Motel, a terrifying and intensely erotic novel, Francesca Lia Block explores the dangers of modern living, loving and dying with lyrical edge and sensational attitude.
Catt is a hot mess. She's desperate, and spiraling. Seeing her make unfortunate choices made me feel protective of her. I wanted to shake her and tell her that she mattered. That she was loved. Catt, for all her flaws, is guilty of nothing more than wanting love. She's tempting fate by looking for all forms of love in the absolute wrong places. She uses the love of others to feel validated, rather than finding that love within herself. Self worth is something everyone struggles with, and someone like Catt is, sadly, not that hard to find in real life. Her addictive personality has her latching on to unhealthy things, this time it just happens to be people. Something makes her feel good, and she craves it. The blending of this aspect of her personality into the story was effortlessly done. The fight to remain sober, the impact the addiction has on the people around them, and most importantly, how the craving never really leaves.
The serial killer storyline is almost a background story. This is a story of a women struggling with her demons. It's a character study and Catt is focus. We get to see every single inch of who she is, even if it's uncomfortable at times. Francesca's writing is raw, abrasive and cutting. She pulls your emotions taunt to the breaking point, and keeps pulling until you snap. The elements of the mystery, and who the killer is are well done. There are plenty of viable suspects, and Catt's increasing paranoia helps the murkiness.
A chilling commentary about the risks that, women especially, take in the modern dating world. It's message of never quite knowing who you're meeting, particularly with the introduction of online dating, is timely, and on point. It's a metaphor for the risk of giving your heart away. There is always a chance it'll get broken, and in this case it could cost you more than some heartache.
An explicit, unflinching look at searching for love in the all the most dangerous places. A novel that reminded me a little of Looking For Mr Goodbar, it left me chilled, and more than a little unsettled. It's as sexy as it is scary, and the danger is all part of it's allure.
