Author: David Cristofano
Publisher: Grand Central Publishing, The Hachette Book Group
ISBN, Pub. Date: 978-0-446-58221-6, March 2010
Format: Paperback
The publicists at Author Exposure provided me with a complimentary copy of The Girl She Used To Be by David Cristofano after I chose it from a selection of over fifty other titles to review.
When Melody Grace McCartney was six years old, she and her parents witnessed an act of violence so brutal that it changed their lives forever. The federal government lured them into the Witness Protection Program with the promise of safety, and they went gratefully. But the program took Melody's name, her home, her innocence, and, ultimately, her family. She's been May Adams, Karen Smith, Anne Johnson, and countless others--everyone but the one person she longs to be: herself. So when the feds spirit her off to begin yet another new life in another town, she's stunned when a man confronts her and calls her by her real name. Jonathan Bovaro, the mafioso sent to hunt her down, knows her, the real her, and it's a dangerous thrill that Melody can't resist. He's insistent that she's just a pawn in the government's war against the Bovaro family. But can she trust her life and her identity to this vicious stranger whose acts of violence are legendary?
The short synopsis sounded appealing enough and the title struck a chord with my own morphing sense of female identity, but the real grabber for me was that the author is male. Written in the first person from the viewpoint of the main female character, the story presented an intrinsic challenge and I was curious to see how well the author could rise to it.
The story starts with a twenty-six-year-old woman who has lived a series of identities after having been witness to a murder at the age of six. At that time she was Melody Grace McCartney, but through the Witness Protection Program, she has lived her life revolving in and out of eight other identities, complete with new names, social security numbers, geographical locations and occupations. Along the way, she has lost her family, her childhood and the roots that nurture a human being, and now as an adult it would appear that she will have to forgo the joys of human bonds, relationship, motherhood, all the simple pleasures of everyday life with family and love—she is alone in the deepest sense of the word.
Her true original sense of identity lays buried beneath the impossibility of living a normal life while constantly on the run. And yet, she is pleasantly surprised to find it alive and kicking when she comes up against Jonathan Bovaro, the son of the mafioso responsible for the murder she and her family had witnessed. He knows the real her, even calls her by her real name, so long forbidden and yet somehow now mesmerizing. He represents the ultimate danger to her but he presents to her an interesting proposition, the opportunity to clear the way for a chance to live her own life. His intentions toward her are slightly askew from the job he has been appointed to do—to kill her—and in this we are privy to the morality and inner psychology that can temper writing, the type of crafting that shifts the reader’s attention into the higher gears of true excellent literary entertainment.
But what makes the story so incredibly compelling is the true chords the author achieves with the female character’s inner conflicts. The fact that he is a male writer immediately evaporates from page one with the opening: “Name me. Gaze into my eyes, study my smile and my dimples and tell me who you see. I look like an Emma. I look like an Amy. I look like a Katherine. I look like a Kathryn. I look like your best friend’s sister, your sister’s best friend.” From then on it is Melody’s story, told so tightly and compactly that one can’t help but turn page after page as we become truly invested in her outcome. The author masterfully crafts a twisting, turning tale of romance, intrique and human drama and does so without falling into any trite stereotypical or tired themes.
The nuances he provides to the reader in both the narrative main female character and Jonathan Bovaro are refreshing. Picture a youthful mafia man wearing glasses, or one who corrects himself when he’s about to swear in front of the woman he loves and you begin to get the picture. The characters are so viable you can almost touch them. Indeed, the author has developed an extremely palpable love scenario, but even more the sense of danger and impending confrontation with “the girls” nemesis, the Bavaro Crime family, provide enervating anticipation for the final conclusion.
Anyone who enjoys the combination of mystery and romance, or intrigue and thriller or even chick lit with a deeper literary bent will love The Girl She Used To Be. I give it five out of a possible five magic books!
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