Official Description: Loss, greed, unfulfilled ambitions, and a ticking clock. Bella finds herself in the middle of another family’s drama and while on the mission to help, she loses the track of what’s right and what’s wrong. Canon, AH, OOC
–
I don’t normally become interested in a fic based solely on its title, but when I came across a banner for a little story called Sinnerman, it caught my eye instantly. First, the song by the same name is sung by the amazing Jazz vocalist Nina Simone and is amazing. Second, the song is featured during a brilliantly suspenseful sequence in the remake of The Thomas Crown Affair. I’m sure most of you are familiar with the movie and how the impeccably charming Pierce Brosnan plays the lead character, portraying a suave, sophisticated and extremely intelligent art thief.
Let’s see here. I’m gonna compose a list of all the things the title alone brought to mind for me:
- hot, charming guy
- brilliant criminal mind
- does bad things but is essentially a good person
- reminiscent of a song where a sinner runs for refuge, but only the devil takes him in, because thinks even God has casted him aside
Hmmm. Edward the Sinnerman. Yeah, not exactly a hard sell for me.
The story itself is crafted in very well-thought out layers that skip time between present and past. We don’t always know the POV for the chapters that occur in the past, and you feel very much as if the story is not unlike its main character: full of seemingly incongruent contradiction and mystery.
The prologue, in EPOV, gives a glimpse into the future, and starts the story off with a bang:
“What’s wrong, baby? Are you holding on okay?” I glance at Bella when she doesn’t respond to my request. I need her to move to my right and open the bag for me. We are in a hurry. Our task here is very time sensitive. In fact, the only luxury that we do not have right now is time.
I notice how Bella tries to say something, but nothing comes out of her mouth. In shock, I watch how she is starting to shake–tremors moving through her body. Bella’s rosy lips turn deathly blue. Her eyes become dim and roll back into her head as she flails her hands around her torso, turns completely slack, and then silently drops to her side.
You get the very real impression right from the start that Edward is up to some serious no good, and Bella is going to suffer for it. As you read the ensuing chapters, you get a very real sense for Bella’s personality—that because of her recent move to Forks, she’s lonely, and that small town life doesn’t offer much for someone who’s used to be a big city dweller. She doesn’t feel emotionally or intellectually stimulated. So when she meets Edward, this seemingly bad boy with a very literate mind and gift for good conversation, it ignites a spark of curiosity in her that she tries to resist, but can’t.
I don’t want to spoil too much and give away any more detail than that. Just suffice it to say that the mystery pulls you in, while the writing is so engaging and vivid that the characters seem so very real and well-rounded.
Sinnerman, you can run to me anytime.
Recent Comments