Katya by Terri Peterson (transgender thriller)

For those who may not have been following along, Strange Little Girls is a dark saga that is full of dark deeds. It is a story of punishment, justice, and revenge . . . and one of friendships tested and oftentimes torn. What Terri Peterson has crafted here is a thriller that is daring, challenging, and oh-so-very edgy.

Picking up on the events of Alice and Billie, we find that Danni, Laura, and Fiona are safe, but are now largely in the background. Instead, Katya puts the focus squarely on Alice, Emma, and Stephanie - who faithful readers will know are one-and-the-same. The multiple personality aspect is a bit more . . . well, I hate to use the word normalized, but that is the best I can come up with. The shock value is gone, the surprise is gone, and we get to see the personalities swapping in and out to get the job done.

This third book is all about revenge, about tracking down the monsters responsible for the pedophilia and sex slavery, with some brutal executions in the early chapters to remind us of what we are dealing with. Those murders lack some of the erotic thrill of the first two books, coming across as a little more efficient and matter-of-fact, but that may just be familiarity . . . which probably says more about me than the story.

Interwoven into that revenge tale, however, is a powerful love story between Alice and Katya - also known as Di Polar, transsexual icon, and lead singer of The Slingback Sluts. Theirs is a love born of violence, but it is also one that shelters from that violence - even as they collaborate in trapping, drugging, seducing, and literally riding one of their victims to death. What starts as a crazy sort of European road trip to begin a new life, however, turns into a fight and a flight for their lives, with the evil they're fighting having long fingers and even longer memories.

Over the past year and a bit, Teri Peterson has made me shudder, she has made me laugh, and she has made me cheer - albeit with a guilty flutter in my stomach. What she has not done, at least until now, is make me cry . . . but, without spoilers, Katya made me cry tears both happy and ugly. I love her for this entire mad story, but I also find myself hating her at times for what she's putting these women through. Not that I can hold a grudge for long when friends are involved, but her writing is that passionate, that intense, that it makes you feel.

With an advance copy of Back in Black already open, I know a bit of what comes next, but I will hold off a bit before sharing my next review, which gives you time to catch up. Do it, please, because you do not want Alice coming for you next.

'Terri' Peterson, was born August 19th, 1969, and spent what she referred to as 'a miserably failed experiment in tyranny' at a typical secondary school, where she was bullied relentlessly and made fun of. She left with no regrets, a handful of qualifications for a career in banking, and bitter memories of time spent being the object of ridicule by her peers. Being myopic, gauche, skinny and flat-chested, sporting a head of rich auburn hair, made her a daily target for abuse, which she escaped by becoming immersed in the fantasy world of writing short stories.

Reviewed by Sally