By Julie Sara Porter
Bookworm Reviews
Spoilers: There is something more genuinely threatening in a Psychological Thriller when the victims are kids and teenagers than when they are adults.
There is always a terrifying edge when such a book goes into the mind of an assailant and their traumatized victim. Many characters and readers wonder why this happened and what in their youth could have happened that created this situation. Somehow the wondering becomes sharper when this situation happens to a young character who hasn't even reached their twenties.
That is what happens in Where The Sweet Vines Grow, Sadie Sloan’s ominous and plutonian psychological thriller about a series of kidnapped teen girls, the perpetrators behind the abductions, and the trauma that is inflicted.
Willow Alves moves from her mother's home to her father's dairy farm in Modesto. She is introduced to Julian and Roman Sullivan, heirs to the Sweet Vine Winery and the wealthiest family in the area. She is attracted to the charming Roman Sullivan who has had an active love life. While out on a date with Roman, Willow becomes the victim of a serious crime.
The book pulls no punches in describing how a young girl can be made vulnerable by the manipulations and intentions of those around her. The conflict between Willow and her perpetrators are that of appearance and reality, deception and truth, maturity and innocence, predator and victim. It's also a metaphor of the conflicts between men and women and how they are shaped by the society around them.
The teen years are a time of experimentation and raw emotions because brains haven't fully developed. That doesn't occur until they reach their early twenties. This is among the many reasons that 18 and 21 are considered the legal adult age.
They are hormonal, emotional, argumentative, surly, vulnerable, arrogant, self-centered, immature and hopelessly naive. This age span makes them easily susceptible to manipulative tactics that predators use. The tactics could be used to turn them into predators, prey, or both.
Willow is an example of such a teen. She has had a difficult home life: divorced parents, an alcoholic mother abdicating responsibility, and a loving but distant and overwhelmed father. She also had a previous relationship with a 22 year old at age 16, so her history of toxic relationships is apparent. She is the type of kid who is stressed and looking to belong and be accepted.
Willow makes some new friends like Craig, a nice guy who flirts with her but accepts the friend zone and Tangy, a saucy mouthy girl who has her own reasons for disliking the Sullivans. Willow feels safe around them but she is drawn to Roman Sullivan.
Roman is charming, charismatic, and the typical popular rich athletic kid. He is somewhat full of himself but is the type of guy that girls can't resist. He has had several girlfriends in the past and while that is a source of gossip, no one pays much attention to his love life.
There is the difference between Willow and Roman that is found all over the book. Willow had one previous relationship when she was certainly too young to weigh options to give serious informed consent. This aftermath leads to a rupture in her family and separation. It becomes part of her identity and is the source of gossip at her new home and school.
Roman however has had several romances, some with girls who no longer live in Modesto. Something serious must have happened to them since they are no longer here to defend themselves. While he is considered suspicious particularly by Tangie and Willow's father, nothing happens to him except the occasional rumor and gossip.
In fact, Roman’s reputation makes him more alluring while Willow’s wards people off. Willow and Roman’s reputations are microcosms of how men can get away with being open about their sexuality but women are held under scrutiny if they are not as pure as the driven snow.
One of the eeriest things that occur throughout the book is that Willow is left unprepared when she is a victim of a serious crime. She is told what to wear, how to behave, not to drink too much, not to be too open, not to reveal too much, and who to stay away from. The type of advice that many women are told and then victim blamed for if they are attacked.
What this advice fails to recognize is that many perpetrators don't need or require such patterns to attack. If they want someone, they will take them. It won't matter what their victims wear or how they behave. If the perpetrator is skilled just like in this book, they will find a way in. Also as long as the victim is blamed for their behavior, the perpetrator or perpetrators will find other means to capture them and probably get away with it too.
The book has some interesting twists that challenge the perceptions in this book over who is guilty and who is innocent, how involved people are in crime, what is often condemned and what is ignored. The final chapters make some chilling observations.
If these crimes continue with other faces and other names without condemnation is the whole system corrupt and complicit in allowing them to continue? Are our perceptions of males and females to blame in creating predators and prey and are they shaped by the exposure towards those perceptions in our youth?
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