Where Wildfires Glow

SUSPENSE/THRILLER:  State Trooper Elmer Reed captures a young boy fitting the description of a male figure reported as stalking and stealing from hikers and campers on the outskirts of Baybrook Woods. After taking the boy into custody and asking a few questions, the state trooper is shocked to learn the boy is 12 years old and claiming to be from the infamous Resnik Manor. This startling revelation would make the boy the lone survivor of an unspeakable tragedy. The story told by the boy is a horrific tale of abuse and psychological torture. His two-year ordeal is only surpassed by his resilient acts of survival.

Mr. Katsonga tells an interesting story in “Where Wildfires Glow” delivered from a young traumatized boy’s point of view. He inserts a tale of the abused boy who is never named into his philosophical musings about abuse and the human condition. It is a chronicle of horrendous mistreatment done in a writing style most readers may find confusing and a little disjointed. Readers may find his many musings, though poetically written, distracting from the story. Or readers may feel the story distracts from his musings, it’s really hard to tell. The world inhabited by the boy and his dysfunctional family is intensely described with a hint of inappropriate sex, a shot of mystery and a large dose of spirituality that makes the tale a little out of the ordinary. Mr. Mutch Katsonga manages to craft a story that includes all the cruelties of physical and mental abuse as well as the perseverance and resiliency of spirit found in the children who have suffered them.

Tonya Mathenia