Fiction Review

Out of Innocence
by Dan Skelton
ISBN-10: 1413772730
Review by Heather Froeschl

Dan Skelton's, "Out of Innocence" will stay within your mind for a very long time. With raw power and imagery Skelton drags the reader in and doesn't let go until the bittersweet end.

Ten-year-old Chris Curry and his siblings have to deal with more horror and grim circumstance than any child ever should. Their mother, Audie Curry, is a pathetic excuse for a person and could hardly be called anyone's mother save for the fact that she bore the children, each to a different father. With every new man in her life comes a new set of rules for existence, none of them what anyone could call a normal childhood. With every new man also comes a new "home" for a while, and then a new time of leaving that home until eventually the five of them end up living in the car more than any place else. What happens in between is a nomadic scramble to stay alive. Day by day, minute by minute, meal by meal.

Through it all Chris is the voice of reason; he is an old soul likely sent to take care of this bunch of younger ones. One night, he takes the ultimate step in saving them all. Things change drastically, yet for the better, after that, at least for some of them. New people enter their lives and for some it means a new lease on life, while others fall willingly through the cracks.

Dan Skelton takes the lives of four children and their mama and exposes every dirty little secret. Here is where he weaves magic in his words. The lowest depths of humanity are seen through his characters, and also, the very basics of strength, and love. Some moments will rip readers raw, cut to the bone, and leave you wanting to cry. Others will make you laugh out loud, read faster with excitement, and finally close the book with closure and a sense of having learned something about the human existence, like it or not.

This book is a must read, but for adults only. It will touch you and you may just never be the same.