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Sinners Circle
Enter the twisted mind of Amanda Troy, antisocial porn shop employee by day, sadistic serial killer by night. Haunted by her past and uncertain of her future, Amanda inhabits a savage world of drug use, sexual abandon, and violence, perpetually careening between apathy and hope. All this changes as a stabilizing force enters her life in the form of a young woman, but will it be enough to save her from the past?
180 pages, Kindle Edition
First published June 22, 2014
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
July 14, 2016
A serial killer who really enjoys what she does. But it’s not enough to fill the emptiness inside her.
While I enjoyed the tone and the pace, a few problems right from the start made it difficult for me to get carried away by this story. Firstly, poor editing. A strange aversion to the hyphen, consistently writing “whose” for “who’s”. Sloppy.
It’s first-person, present-tense narration. That’s a tough sell on me.
While I did find the protagonist interesting, and I was curious to hear her story, I was constantly distracted by the poor editing, the occasional ‘preachy’ tangents on lesbian sex, or the excessive obtuseness that runs through much of the dialogue.
The author does show promise. I’d be curious to see what she can do with more rigorous editing.
While I enjoyed the tone and the pace, a few problems right from the start made it difficult for me to get carried away by this story. Firstly, poor editing. A strange aversion to the hyphen, consistently writing “whose” for “who’s”. Sloppy.
It’s first-person, present-tense narration. That’s a tough sell on me.
While I did find the protagonist interesting, and I was curious to hear her story, I was constantly distracted by the poor editing, the occasional ‘preachy’ tangents on lesbian sex, or the excessive obtuseness that runs through much of the dialogue.
The author does show promise. I’d be curious to see what she can do with more rigorous editing.
April 4, 2020
SINNERS CIRCLE by Karina Sims
Review by Trevor Kennedy for Phantasmagoria Magazine.
Statistically, serial killers are predominantly male, many people even believing (perhaps understandably) that all multiple murderers are men. According to some credible reports, however, around seventeen per cent of serial homicides in the USA are committed by women.
Meet Amanda Troy. She has a seriously messed up past, one that has turned her into… well… a hardcore, unrelenting sociopath. When she’s not being creeped out by the pervs who frequent the sex shop where she works, musing on life’s little idiosyncrasies and listening to classic rock music, she has other hobbies, such as hanging out at psychiatric wards, and the torturing, killing and eating of women. In Sinners Circle, we follow Amanda’s day-to-day toils, as she deals with her relationships with her friends Karl and Alison, caring for her handicapped aunt Marcy, and, of course, her murderous, depraved impulses. The bastard love child of apex misanthropy and nihilism, Amanda is eventually presented with a glimmer of hope and potential escape from her life of psychopathy when she appears to find love. But her past is destined to catch up with her in the most uncompromising of manners.
The serial killer trope is one that has been used countless times over the decades in both literature and film, however author Sims (who really doesn’t hold back in her writing) manages to put something of a unique spin on this sub-genre by not only making her protagonist female, but also in her delivery of the story. There are shades of Bret Easton Ellis’s American Psycho here, yes, but the world in which Amanda Troy and her friends (and victims) inhabit feels somewhat much more real and less surreal than the one in which Patrick Bateman resides. The characters come across as real people, the sort we probably all know, as do their interactions (serial killing aside, I hope). And I think that’s one of the most unsettling things about serial killers - they are real people, living out ordinary lives (for the most part anyhow), working regular jobs and dealing with the more mundane aspects of everyday life. Jeffrey Dahmer, Ted Bundy and Aileen Wuornos were real living, breathing human beings. There is some deadpan (pun intended) comedy in there as well, along with a fair amount of cutting religious references and satire. It all feels quite authentic though.
In what is essentially a character study, and at the risk of going full-on amateur psychologist here with this, while Amanda commits some absolutely shocking and horrific acts, writer Karina Sims, at the same time, asks us to maybe not empathise with her lead character, but to at least understand her and the reasons why she is the way she is. And it’s morbidly fascinating at the same time. You can’t help but become intrigued by proceedings, no matter how brutal and crazy things get. A glimpse into the window of human behaviour at its most shocking, perhaps.
If you have an interest in serial killers and human psychology then I would definitely recommend that you take a look at Sinners Circle. Be warned though, it is very extreme at times and certainly not one for the squeamish or easily offended.
Sinners Circle is available to purchase from Amazon.
Review by Trevor Kennedy for Phantasmagoria Magazine.
Statistically, serial killers are predominantly male, many people even believing (perhaps understandably) that all multiple murderers are men. According to some credible reports, however, around seventeen per cent of serial homicides in the USA are committed by women.
Meet Amanda Troy. She has a seriously messed up past, one that has turned her into… well… a hardcore, unrelenting sociopath. When she’s not being creeped out by the pervs who frequent the sex shop where she works, musing on life’s little idiosyncrasies and listening to classic rock music, she has other hobbies, such as hanging out at psychiatric wards, and the torturing, killing and eating of women. In Sinners Circle, we follow Amanda’s day-to-day toils, as she deals with her relationships with her friends Karl and Alison, caring for her handicapped aunt Marcy, and, of course, her murderous, depraved impulses. The bastard love child of apex misanthropy and nihilism, Amanda is eventually presented with a glimmer of hope and potential escape from her life of psychopathy when she appears to find love. But her past is destined to catch up with her in the most uncompromising of manners.
The serial killer trope is one that has been used countless times over the decades in both literature and film, however author Sims (who really doesn’t hold back in her writing) manages to put something of a unique spin on this sub-genre by not only making her protagonist female, but also in her delivery of the story. There are shades of Bret Easton Ellis’s American Psycho here, yes, but the world in which Amanda Troy and her friends (and victims) inhabit feels somewhat much more real and less surreal than the one in which Patrick Bateman resides. The characters come across as real people, the sort we probably all know, as do their interactions (serial killing aside, I hope). And I think that’s one of the most unsettling things about serial killers - they are real people, living out ordinary lives (for the most part anyhow), working regular jobs and dealing with the more mundane aspects of everyday life. Jeffrey Dahmer, Ted Bundy and Aileen Wuornos were real living, breathing human beings. There is some deadpan (pun intended) comedy in there as well, along with a fair amount of cutting religious references and satire. It all feels quite authentic though.
In what is essentially a character study, and at the risk of going full-on amateur psychologist here with this, while Amanda commits some absolutely shocking and horrific acts, writer Karina Sims, at the same time, asks us to maybe not empathise with her lead character, but to at least understand her and the reasons why she is the way she is. And it’s morbidly fascinating at the same time. You can’t help but become intrigued by proceedings, no matter how brutal and crazy things get. A glimpse into the window of human behaviour at its most shocking, perhaps.
If you have an interest in serial killers and human psychology then I would definitely recommend that you take a look at Sinners Circle. Be warned though, it is very extreme at times and certainly not one for the squeamish or easily offended.
Sinners Circle is available to purchase from Amazon.
September 2, 2014
The writing was well done. The story definitely makes you uncomfortable. Some people might not like this level of depraved brutality but even if you don't, it says something that the book evokes some sort of emotion. A lot of books don't make you feel anything at all, so the author is obviously doing something right.
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews