Uncle Vampire

Uncle Vampire


Author: Cynthia D. Grant
First published: 1993

Characters:

Carolyn: She is a sixteen year - old girl with a terrible secret. She wants to talk about her secret, but nobody is listening. She is very unhappy and feels a little bit jealous of her twin sister because everyone likes Honey better than her.

Honey: She is the twin sister of Carolyn and she always wants to be happy. She wipes the secret away and she pretends that everything is alright. She is the opposite of Carolyn.

Uncle Toddy: He lives with Carolyn's family. He has no work but everyone thinks he is a good help for the family.

Message: Sometimes the evil is very close.

Quotations: "Honey," she says, "you don't have another sister.", p.141

Personal statement: It is a very sad story but it is an interesting written book. When I started reading this book I never thought that Carolyn and Honey are one and the same person. I was really surprised when I found it out.

Short summary: It is about two girls who are raped by their own uncle.

Carolyn lives together with her family and her uncle Toddy. She and her twin sister are very close to each other although they have different characters. Carolyn is jealous of Honey because she always tries to be happy and everyone likes her better than Carolyn. But the two girls have a dark secret. Her uncle Toddy comes to them in the night and rapes the girls. Carolyn wants to tell somebody about that but Honey pretends everyone that everything is alright and she does not want to face the problem.
Carolyne gets more and more depressed and she thinks her unle is a vampire who drinks her blood but Honey always says that her sister is crazy. Carolyne needs somebody to talk about to but she has no one. Her brother Richie knows about their uncle Toddy. But he is no help, he resignated and cannot handle the situation. She also does not want to speak with her parents about her terrible situation because she is sure that they think she is crazy. Honey says to her that they should keep quiet. The only person to whom Carolyn could reveal the secret of her uncle's awful night visits is her older sister Maggie. Maggie loves Carolyn more than the rest of the family but she lives in Boston more than three thousand miles away from home. Carolyn continue to copy the life but she cannot. She is sad and her marks at school are bad and she is losing weight. So her parents allow her to visit Maggie. When she is together with Maggie she gets better and better and she can laugh. Maggie is like a medicine for her. But her bad dreams about uncle Toddy are still there. He says to her that if she tells about his raping, everybody would be disappointed of her, especially her grandmother. He is threating her with grandmother's death, because of the shock. Carolyn loves her grandmother so she is too afraid to talk with somebody about her uncle.
She gets more depressed about her grades and she has to see the counsellor. Honey does not want to go to the counsellor and she says she would never speak again with Carolyn and nobody would believe her. But Carolyn cannot bear the secret longer. Ms. Johnson, the counsellor, is very kind and wants to help Carolyn. Carolyn cannot speak about her problem so she writes it down. While Carolyn is writing Honey shouts to her not to tell anything. Finally Carolyn says "He fucks us!". Ms. Johnson is shocked and asks Carolyn why Maggie does not say a word. But Carolyn is not talking about Maggie. She is talking about Honey, about Honey and herself. Ms. Johnson says to Carolyn "Honey, you don't have another sister...." "I know" says Carolyn "That is another problem". Carolyn has been alone for a long time. So she starts to with her mirror picture. But one day the girl in the mirror has got real. From that time point Honey has been always with her. Honey is the part of her life who wants to be perfect. She wants to forget all the awful night visits.
At the end uncle Toddy has been arrested and Carolyn starts a new life with her sister Maggie in Boston.

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