In the near fourteen years that I have been writing stories, few have grown into something like Crow. I consider it an anomaly compared to my usual style. And the reason lies in the themes I use. Yes, I have used sexual violence and abuse as driving character points in my previous books, but Crow… romanticizes several crimes in a perverse way.
Take for instance the crime of Murder. It carries a heavy sentence in the real world, yet in Crow such an act, which plays a pivotal role in the story goes largely unhindered by anything. And that is the point I am trying to make as I write the sequences which feature such heinous acts. I paint a vivid picture of murder as something anyone could do, but to do it well requires a special someone.
However, I must say I do not condone murder in any forms and even though writing about it does not make me feel uncomfortable, I am no sociopath. I understand the gravity of the situation that I am presenting and think of what I am doing as more of a warning than anything else. The world of Crow, while not too different from our own, has issues within in it that allows the focus character of the story, Ashley, to get away with increasingly horrible acts of crime.
To fully grasp the situation and the character of Ashley, in chronological order, this is a list of her crimes:
- Sexual Assault
- Arson
- Theft
- Assault
- Breaking and Entering
- Trespassing
- Resisting Arrest
- Homicide
So, it is easy to why I must add a disclaimer to the start of Crow. All of those crimes are played as the horrific things that they are, yet no real consequence comes down upon Ashley, which is why I no longer like to refer to her as a protagonist but as a focus character. In my mind, Protagonist carries too many connotations of someone being good and righteous, which are two things Ashley Hudson is not.
But once again, I do not condone the crimes Ashley commits, as they are more to advance her character and not for the sheer shock value. As I have stated in the past, Crow is a novel that focuses on a character and their “Start of Darkness” that every villain has. In a way, Crow is the antithesis of a novel, being that it is all about the precursor story of a villain.
And that is God damn interesting.
Fenrir's Lair 