book details

Book: He's Never Lied to Me Yet by B. A. Braxton

categories: Book, Burn Victims, Burn Survivors, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, Janitor, Physical Abuse, Sexual Abuse, Fiction, Drama, Disfigurement, Pittsburgh, High School, Child Abuse

B. A. Braxton

about this book: He's Never Lied to Me Yet is a sensitive account of an age-old problem: child abuse.

I used the "beauty and the beast" approach to tell this story. Carmen Polychronopoulos is the beautiful, young girl trapped in her father's life of crime and immorality, while Elliot Sharples is the man who lives nearby and wants to save her. Elliot represents the sympathetic and kindhearted "beast": he was disfigured and orphaned by a house fire thirteen years ago. Elliot is able to recognize and understand Carmen's pain unlike anyone else, and his stubborn insistence to make her life right again is very uplifting. But things don't always work out the way that we hope they will. Even so, the power of love shines through the pain and the tears.

The reason for the unusual cover of this book becomes apparent after you read the story, as it represents a sketch that Carmen had made as a child of she and her father during happier times. Perhaps it suggests that the line between sanity and madness is a very fine one, and Even a man we would all consider to be a monster has a story to tell. The line between sanity and madness is a fine one.