This Is The Winter Of Psychosis!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

                                      No, darlings, it really is!!!!!!!!!!!!

                                      Each winter, in January, starts off a new reading year.  This being the coldest and darkest time of the year, most of my Winters have been Victorian--the Brontes, George Eliot, and the like.  Wilkie Collins--whether "The Moonstone," or "The Woman In White" makes fabulous Winter reading.

                                         This year, I did not know what to think.  I wasn't feeling in a Victorian mood, so I turned to something more contemporary, with Barbara Kingsolver, and "The Lacuna."  But now that I am reading "The Girl On The Train," Paula Hawkins--and I will not discuss that until I have finished the entire work--I think this is going to be the Winter Of Psychosis.  Let me explain why.

                                             Hawkins' book, without revealing things I don't even know for certain, yet, definitely touches upon mental illness.  Norw, remember a book I read last year, a British novel called "The Wicked Girls," by Alex Wicker?  It was about two little girls, named Jade and Bel, who murder a 4-year-old girl, then cross paths later.  There was a lot of the influence of "Heavenly Creatures," but I think the crime was more tailored after the James Bulger killing, back in 19993.

                                               Laura Lippman has been around for awhile, but I never read anything about her. But I want to read this above book. First, because it was made into a movie, which I am not sure got a theatrical release, starring the likes of Diane Lane, Elizabeth Banks, and Dakota Fanning.  Second, it bears a striking similarity to Wicker's book--the idea of two prepubescent girls murdering one younger than themselves; in this case, an infant. They do seven years time, cross paths again, then a three-year-old goes missing in the area.

                                                 Hmmmmmmmm...is Lippman plagiarizing?  To what degree, if any, was she influenced by the Wicker book?  It certainly seems like she was, but, having not read "Every Secret Thing," or seen the movie, I cannot rightly conclude.

                                                   But its more than pass similarity made me sit up, and take notice!
So, once again I turn to sociopathic children for entertainment. They get me every time!!!!!!!!!!!!!

                                                     It truly is a Winter Of Psychosis!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!