The heroine’s journey in E.M. Jones’s THE READER’S RESORT is kicked off by shame: her secret guilt over accidental involvement in her best friend’s death, and her try at conjuring her friend’s ghost to apologize at the famous reading resort they imagined visiting together.
The villain’s journey is incited by obsession with the heroine, but then ratchets up to psychotic level as he blames others for every bump in his twisted road.
And the ghost’s journey – yes, the ghost! – is fueled by the need to avenge a decades-old crime the heroine is pulled into solving.
Heroine and villain sound like opposites, as might guilt aimed at self and blame cast on others. But THE READER’S RESORT provoked this thought for Dr. Deadly: any extreme emotion raises the risk for trouble, regardless of whether the intention behind it is good or hateful, or justified or not.
Isn’t this an identifier of good crime fiction, or any fiction? When we understand that a character wants something intensely – and why – we care more about the story, usually in direct proportion. And the more that character wants – or believes they need – something, the more likely they’ll be to take bold action to get it. And awareness of danger, and often the needs of others, gets lost in the wind.
It’s a truth shared by the heroine, the villain, and the ghost in THE READER’S RESORT: the more powerfully they feel their shame, their anger, and their vengefulness, they more they head off down isolated paths to dangerous places.
In the case of the heroine – and this is part of what makes her the heroine! – the more she can examine her shame from all angles, and share it with others, and let it commingle with other emotions and realities, the better she learns to live with it.
I can see so many fictional characters through this lens: the more intense their emotions get, the more likely they are to step into trouble. It’s what makes stories so human and so compelling, isn’t it, dear reader? Can you consider your own favorite novels and characters in this light? Now, I’m off to the emotional storms and tribulations of my next read…
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