Rebecca Promitzer

This book's main character is a girl whose father is dead and mother institutionalized. Alongside the main character are a group including: a rich snotty kid, a computer nerd, two siblings who are constantly together because their parents can't afford a sitter, and a kid who lives in the bad side of town (his brother and father are convicts). The story starts when Bea; the main character and the bad kid Sam find and photograph a dead man who is missing an eye. This leads to a creepy surgeon dropping off a bag of intestines at Sam's house. Then the computer nerd analyzes the photos and finds that the body is that off a famous man who founded a huge pickle company. The man mysteriously disappeared some time ago and was never heard of again. He also figures out that the intestines are the same man's. He then finds that they have been used by another person. The kid's start looking for clues at the town dump ,a hand randomly pulls all of them into a subterranean city in the garbage. all of the people there are deformed(they have missing limbs eyes and organs) The man says that all of them have a mark on their back and none of them can remember how they got it. The mark is actually the logo of the factory that runs near the town. They bought the famous mans pickle and bottle factory when he mysteriously disappeared. Then the rich kid identify the mark as the logo of the secret clan her dad is a member of. The children decide to investigate by hiding in the rich father's trunk when he goes to a meeting. They sneak inside and see a secret entrance. Eventually they come upon a room where a skinless man is sitting on a throne. He has the arm of the man that pulled them into the garbage city. He says that he is the founder of the town and has been staying alive by using the organs of people who discover his lair. The ancient man shows them a freezer full of random bits and pieces of people. The one eye he has, is that of the famous pickle man. He then goes on that he is using the pickle company to get himself replacement organs. Furthermore the man explains that skin is impossible to replace, so he has to stay in his underground hideout. The story ends when his dead sister reappears as a ghost and says that she has missed him greatly and asks for him to join her in death. He agrees and the kids are let free.
I found this book very deep and enjoyable.… (mais)

Very quirky, black humour and the setting and subject matter reminded me a lot of Stephen King's novella, "The Body" which was made into the film "Stand by Me". This is the story of a group of misfit children forced to spend a rain-drenched Summer holidays together in the strange town of Elbow. There is Bea, whose mother is in a mental institution and whose father is dead. Her best friend Sam, whose alcoholic mother has run away, his father is in and out of prison, and he's looked after by his criminal older brother Jed who makes him stand lookout while he and his friends rob houses. Then there is the spoilt rich girl Madison who never sees her parents and steals things for attention; Eric, the nerdy inventor who has a mother that smothers him and finally long-suffering Butterfly who must drag her 6 year old brother Nelson everywhere because her parents can't afford a babysitter. The five are forced to meet up (school holiday project) and call themselves the Raintown Convicts; begrudgingly sharing two weeks of "forced" friendship (They normally would not talk to each other at school). The Pickle King's action starts when Sam takes Bea to a derelict house and shows her the body of a dead man with one eye. Bea takes a photo with her late father's camera and then things start to get really weird. Firstly, the image of the dead man disappears from the photos, things start to move on their own accord, the creepy surgeon from the local hospital gives Eric's strange neighbour a bag of intestines, there is a missing ring; a collection of scared adults in the town warning the kids but too frightened to do anything, a whole city of people living under the local garbage dump who are covered in scars and can't remember why and lots of other creepy comings and goings to put the gang on edge. What have all these happenings got to do with the founder of Elbow and why are the adults in the town too afraid to speak up and do anything?This novel is all about the loss of innocence and that moment when a child steps back and sees the world for what it is, and adults for who they really are. The main character Bea and her friend Sam are well-drawn, as the two struggle to survive and cope with life generally; and so the addition of some seemingly supernatural events are absorbed by both as just another hurdle to overcome. Great debut novel.… (mais)