AUTUMN VS. THE GIRL NEXT DOOR

Autumn Leaves Declares the Character Ruth a Mentally Ill Sadist as She Takes on The Girl Next Door by Jack Ketchum

TITLE: The Girl Next Door

AUTHORS: Jack Ketchum

GENRE: Splatterpunk

PAGES: 370

 PRICE: Ebook $4.99, Audiobook $17.43, Hardcover $33.19, Paperback $9.05, Audio CD $34.99

PUBLISHER: 47North

Firstly, a brief synopsis. The Girl Next Door is inspired by the true case of the torture and death of Sylvia Likens. It is not an exact retelling of the case. Characters’ names have been changed and elements of the story are fictional, along with some of the characters. I am not going to do an analysis of Jack Ketchum’s novel vs the actual case. In this book, the character Meg (inspired by Sylvia Likens) is abused, tormented, and killed under the supervision of, with the permission and participation of Ruth (inspired by Sylvia’s captor and torturer Gertrude Baniszewski). Ruth begins these violent torments herself, before involving her own children as well as other children from the neighborhood. Meg is imprisoned, bound, humiliated, beaten, raped, cut, burned, and eventually murdered at the hands of Ruth and her tribe of criminals-in-training. Only Meg’s injured younger sister, Susan, and one boy from the neighborhood, David, ever attempt to come to Meg’s rescue. However, nothing can save Meg from Ruth’s baseless wrath toward her.

What I would like to discuss is why Ruth chooses Meg to be her victim and why she sees Meg as a threat, an enemy worthy of the worst abuses one could imagine and worse. How could a peaceful, intelligent, and caring teenager earn so much hatred from the woman who has agreed to raise her after the death of her parents in a car accident? What could she possibly have done to earn such a fate? Did she hurt Ruth or deceive her in some way? Did she mistreat Ruth’s children? Did she refuse to help Ruth around the house?

This simple answer is nothing. Meg did none of these things. She did nothing harmful to anyone. In fact, she showed kindness and care for everyone around her, even to Ruth.

So, why the hatred from Ruth? Meg is helpful, compassionate, and obedient. What more could a foster mother ask for? Why would anyone in their right mind want to hurt her, especially after what she has been through in the accident and losing both of her parents?

Ruth is not the average foster mother. Ruth agrees to raise Meg and her little sister Susan after the death of their parents in a car crash. Susan has injured legs and requires braces to walk and Meg, though hurt much less physically, bears scars from the crash. Ruth seems to see this arrangement more as something financially beneficial and helpful with her workload of housework more than an act of love or compassion. Ruth appears threatened by Meg’s presence very early on, particularly by Meg’s beauty. Meg is young and strikingly beautiful. Ruth is depicted as being attractive, but past her prime. Gone are the days of suitors knocking on her door, Ruth seems to see herself as an aging beauty, now trapped in a life of servitude, cleaning and making meals for children after being left by her husband. There are no more names on Ruth’s dance card and this really gets to her. Early on, she starts to tell Meg that she is fat and denies her food.

Her hatred of Meg doesn’t stop at jealousy over Meg’s good looks. Ruth loathes Meg’s inherent goodness of character as well. She sees her compassion as weakness and uses her as a scapegoat for all of her personal issues with the concept of femininity. For example, Meg likes to paint water colors and makes one for her new friend David, the boy who lives next door. David, hoping to make amends between Meg and Ruth, gives the painting to Ruth, explaining that Meg had truly intended it for her. Instead of feeling touched by the gesture, Ruth seizes it as an opportunity to imply that Meg is secretly sleeping with David and that this is the real reason she made the painting for him. Since Meg has beauty and charm, Ruth refuses to accept her as anything but a “slut” based on her own experiences. It seems there is nothing Meg can do to please her. Ruth refuses to believe that Meg is anything but a source of trouble, and, somehow, a walking critique of herself and her choices.

When the abuse begins to escalate, Meg talks to a police officer out of desperation at a community event. When she explains that Ruth is abusing both her and Susan, the officer’s response is that Ruth has the authority to discipline Meg and Susan as she chooses and that they must have done something out of line to make Ruth treat them this way. No help from the police. Naturally, Ruth hears of this through the neighborhood kid grapevine and her acts of abuse toward Meg begin in earnest, believing that Meg betrayed her in order to damage her reputation by going to the police. Ruth is all about her reputation.

From there on, Ruth’s grasp on sanity slips significantly and her delusions take over. She accuses Meg of wasting and stealing food (so she must go without), of being untrustworthy (so she must remain bound in the basement), of being dirty and full of STIs (so she must be scolded with searing hot water), of being proudly promiscuous (so she must have the words “I F*CK, F*CK ME carved into her chest and she must be repeatedly sexually assaulted), and of being unworthy of life (so she must die).

Ruth obsesses over the fact that she was abandoned by her husband, left on her own to raise their sons without any help from their father. She sees her existence as unfairly limited and someone else is always to blame. It is always the ex or other community members. Ruth doesn’t seem to accept any ownership for her own decisions and actions. She must always have someone else to condemn for her own reality.

Meg came at just the right (and oh so very wrong – for her) time. Her arrival provided Ruth with the perfect target for her rage: a young, beautiful girl, loved by those she meets, with her whole life in front of her. Ruth cannot manage her rage and jealousy.

This story has affected me like no other that I have read so far. Though part of me wishes that this was a literal retelling of the Sylvia Likens case, I think that Ketchum’s partially fictionalized version, really drives home how shocking and cruel the case is.

If you like The Girl Next Door, check out the movie of the same name which is based on Jack Ketchum’s novel. If this piques your interest, also check out the movie An American Crime with Eli Page, also based on the Sylvia Likens case.

Autumn Leaves is a Canadian author and poet. Her poem “Siren’s Song” was published when she was 15. Autumn is in love with the dark and has an affinity for all things horrific and disturbing. Autumn is also an avid horror reader and book reviewer. Her favorite author is Jack Ketchum. She lives with her children and army of fur babies on a small island off the coast of Maine.

PLEASE NOTE: The views and opinions of the staff of Memento Mori Ink do not necessarily represent those of Memento Mori Ink or Crystal Lake Publishing. Thank you for understanding.