Quits - A Review

Quits
by
M.E. Ellis

Wayne is not a monster, although at first glance he fits the bill. Unhappy with the attitudes of modern women, he decides to conduct a grotesque “experiment.” Wayne chooses a teenaged girl as his test subject and kidnaps her, intent on finding out how long it will take to break her. What he didn’t count on was how the experiment would end up changing him.

M. E. Ellis delivers a complex character that I would love to hate, but can’t. Wayne takes us on a journey through the torments of his childhood and into the darker regions of his adult psyche. And yet…hope and humor and compassion shine through, in spite of the horror. I never would have guessed that I would end up almost liking this mother hating, bunny loving, cliché quoting, kidnapping madman. But I do, and I bet I’m not alone on this one.

Quits is an honest-to-god creepfest, guaranteed to keep you up well past your bedtime turning the pages. After racing through it, I found myself flipping back to reread sections of the book to see how the author worked in the clues leading up to the killer twist near the end of the story. Quits stays with you, much like Wayne’s description of the lingering stains of childhood fears, “Everything you’ve ever feared as a kid is supposed to vanish with the arrival of adulthood. It’s like washing powder cleans those stubborn stains and they’re gone, but I bet if you put the material under the microscope it’s still there.” Consider yourself warned.

Want your own copy? You can get it here at Wildchild Publishing.