INNOCENCE LOST
Gracie Scott lives with her mother in a small north of England community adjusting to life after World War 2. She cherishes her friendship with Billy, her neighbour’s youngest son, and their fantasy world of dragons and princesses. Billy is the knight who shields Gracie from danger yet his “magic” cannot protect her from Joe, her twisted, psychopathic uncle.
Seas of Snow, by former BBC television journalist Kerensa Jennings, is a harrowing story of sexual abuse, innocence, and helplessness. It is a courageous subject for a debut writer to tackle, yet Jennings has approached it with intelligence and sensitivity. Gracie is the victim of a situation that she struggles to make sense of, even holding herself responsible. She has done nothing wrong yet like those who have lived through similar nightmares, she is caught in the scenario where the abuser succeeds in shifting the blame onto their victim.
Telling this harrowing story via the mechanism of the third person, allows the reader to connect with Gracie’s plight. In the opening chapter, when she is huddled in a bathtub with her knees pressed into her chest, our instinct is to protect her from the predatory uncle who watches over her. Yet like Gracie, we are helpless. The tragedy must play out towards its grim inevitability. Every aspect of the scene is captured with a bleak, chilling precision as if an invisible camera is silently filming the minutiae that feeds into the drama: raindrops are trickling down the window; the film of soap suds covering Gracie’s body are melting around her, while the smell of lemon soap is overlaid with Joe’s “ash-bitter” stench. Every detail magnifies Gracie’s vulnerability whereas for Joe they add to the thrill.
Gracie is not his only victim. Her mother, who is no match against Joe’s physical vastness, is afraid to seek help and she places herself on the receiving end of his violence to protect her daughter. Unlike Gracie, who retreats into poetry and Billy’s friendship, there is nowhere for her to go. Billy is the ray of hope in a narrative that weaves between the past of a troubled young girl and the present of a frail old woman whose memory has been fractured by tragedy.
This is a book that isn’t afraid to pull its punches. Jennings has a story to tell and she does it with clarity, force, and poignancy. She raises issues about guilt, the hiding of secrets and the existence of evil: is it inherited, or is it the product of environment? Why is Joe a vicious predator who stalks and terrifies his victims, unlike his sister who is kind, gentle, and inoffensive? To Gracie he is a raven with a “prickly face” and “hooded eyes” who brings darkness into a house that, before his invasion, was once a home.
Seas of Snow is a disturbing book that doesn’t flinch from confronting the reader with the ugliness of child sexual abuse. It is a crime that has always existed, although in the past society was slow to acknowledge its presence. The silence endangered the victims and Gracie is the tragic symbol of what amounted to a See Nothing/Say Nothing mentality. Yet despite Joe’s behaviour she never loses her dignity while her suffering imbues her with a wisdom beyond her years. Kerensa Jennings has given Gracie a voice that rings with purity, even beyond the final shocking story twist.
Reviewed by Juliette Foster
© Archant Community Media Limited used under limited licence
