Customer Reviews

Portrait of the Psychopath as a Young Woman

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

"Portrait" has many things going for it; deep and likeable characterizations, intense suspense, unfathomable torture, unbearable suffering, unspeakable acts of mutilation, bloody kisses and homicidal mania.....and buried in all of this is a rather beautiful love story.

Kathleen Shade is a writer, producing an "Answers" column for a modern woman's magazine, mostly consisting of women writing in with their love woes and misadventures. While her writing is tough and no-nonsense, Kathleen is a scarred and insecure soul, fixed into a daily ritual that both calms and annoys her. Until the day she opens her mail and finds a grisly morsel within, along with a fan letter asking her "Would you like to write my story?"

Kathleen goes to the police with the ghastly evidence and macabre letter, and her case is assigned to Lt. Jeffrey Spence, a man hardened and insensate from his own inability to love not only those who have cared for him, but also himself. In his questioning of Kathleen, he is predatory and ruthless, peeling away all of her layers of privacy and exposing her painful past while attacking her fragile sense of self-worth. He uncovers the scars left on her psyche from years of sexual abuse from her own uncle, loosening her tenuous hold on her own lucidity.

Though Kathleen is a virtual well of emotions, and Spence a virtual void; veritably opposite poles of empty souls, I found myself liking each character immediately, so well fleshed out were they at the very beginning of this story. After tossing empty threats at each other during her interview, Spence gives Kathleen a dire warning to notify him immediately if she receives any more mail, either letters or body parts, from her newest fan.

When Kathleen appears for a speaking engagement, she meets a poet named Maxwell Platt, who was the speaker before her. Her mind is in a whirl after another confrontation with Spence, and they go out for drinks where she proceeds to get drunk. Finding herself at Platt's apartment, she decides to up the level of intimacy with him and sleeps with him.

Platt came across as a man who was overly mellow and a mild push-over; a man too placid to be of interest under normal circumstances. But with Lee & Steffen's amazing ability to flesh out the characters in this book, I actually found myself caring deeply for a person who in real life I would normally overlook. His easy going manner against Kathleen's often harsh behavior, his acceptance of her nervous and tactless mannerisms, only made him a more likeable character rather than sinking him into the role of pansy. Lee & Steffen managed to make this character strong in his gentleness.

Our killer, meanwhile, is very busy. She has more letters to write to Kathleen, and needs the subjects in which to tell her tales. She finds her victims by cruising the bars, and picking up the most hateful men you can imagine. I'm not talking bad looking or anything like that, I am talking about men who are truly hateful human beings. The authors delve into these personalities also, despicable men with callous and brutal thoughts that under normal circumstances you would love to see tortured. It is almost unimaginable that you will find yourself feeling sorry for these pathetic excuses for men; but trust me, you will.

So brutal is our psychopath, so thorough and devoid of empathy as she literally tears the men apart, making sure that they remain conscious as long as possible in order that they feel the punishment she metes out to them, you will actually pity the monsters being tortured. Of course, there is also a great deal of empathy for our lovely psychopath herself as she unwinds her story in the letters to Kathleen Shade; commentaries on the most brutal, horrific sexual and physical abuse she suffered as a child at the hands of both strangers and her own parents.

Life is a snake pit, especially when you can find yourself feeling compassion towards the sickest of the human collective. Pay particular attention to the psychopath's letter to Kathleen entitled "Manburger", where one of the most vile of men meets an extensively gruesome ending at under the tender administrations of an authentic, veritable psychopath.

This book has many fine points to it, amongst which is the ability to immediately identify with and like the characters despite their obvious behavior flaws; not to mention the blood and the guts and the mindless torture. And don't be afraid if you find a tender spot in your own heart for the blooming relationship between Kathleen and Platt, as I did. I found it to be a warm and human thread in an otherwise brutal story.

Do not miss out on this book! I cannot stress that enough. Lee and Steffen have truly created a monster of unfathomable proportions here, and I guarantee that your own twisted need to read the bloodiest of scenes will be utterly satisfied here; finger lickin good even. If you are not an aficionado of horror and grotesqueries, don't pick it up or you will find yourself barfing out your lunch.

Enjoy!

I bought this book as a guilty pleasure hoping that I would expose my mind to images and ideas so unsettling and shocking that the memory of the story would stay with me like a stain on my soul. That's what the other reviews suggested would happen, as well as the back of the book. Indeed, the first account of the young lady torturing and killing her helpless male victim was slightly unsettling, and I revised my expectations for the book from a soul stainer to more of an opportunity to dig that cellar in my mind I have always wanted. What really began to derail the story, however, was when I met the other characters in the book who are drawn into the world of the killer.

In addition to the characters being dull and unbelievable, the dialog was laughable and ridiculous. For example, Kathleen, one of three "good guy" characters in the book is having a drink with Platt, another good guy, who is also a poet, and the conversation includes the following exchange: "'I've written better,' Platt said, 'and I've written worse, a lot worse. Poetry's weird; it never succeeds unless the poet realizes its utter failure.'[to which Kathleen replies]'That sounds like something a poet would say.' [...] 'I guess none of us succeed as real people,' she theorized, 'unless we realize all our own failures.'" Others may like this kind of stuff; I didn't. Unfortunately, it is these three characters' experiences (the third character is the obligatory hard boiled cop who is on the trail of the killer) that take up almost all of the book. Of the book's 287 pages, only 53 of them contain descriptions of the actual tortures and murders.

The killer thankfully doesn't have much to say other than her internal monologue describing how she feels as she tortures and dismembers her victims. One recurrent device in the book is the detailed description of the instruments being used to torture and kill her victims. It's like Tom Clancy writing about torture and murder. It's okay at first, but after hearing about "Bruns serrated plaster shears" several times, it would be no less scary to just describe them as "the shears". Don't get me wrong, there are a couple of scenes that are disturbing, but it is basically the same scene over and over: she captures an idiot male who deserves to die, she tortures him while he is awake by sewing his lips shut, gluing his eyes closed, sticking needles in his ears and other places, then cutting off body parts. Pretty disturbing, but only the first couple of times. After that, I felt like I had already read that part of the book and wanted something different. Not necessarily something worse, but just something to keep my interest and move the story forward.

There were a few misspellings in the book. There were many grammatical errors. There was information about the characters that didn't seem relevant. For example, the cop's homosexuality added nothing to the story, but the way it was presented suggested that it was relevant to something that would happen later in the story. It wasn't.

This book cost about $20, and I was hoping to obtain for myself a twisted and sick literary jewel that I could enjoy from time to time when I wanted to really offend my sense of decency. What I got was a poorly edited book with dull characters and a clunky plot. I may check out another of Lee's work to see if he is any better when he works alone rather than with Elizabeth Steffen.

If I were asked for constructive criticism, I would say to make the characters either truly hip and cool, or make them completely outside of society, but somewhere in between is boring. Focus less on the hardware used to torture and kill people, and focus more on other details that are just as morbidly fascinating such as the sounds of bones breaking, the smells in the air, and just paint a little more detailed picture in general of these gruesome episodes. Find an editor who can help with the dialog, or use a lot less of it. Spell and grammar check thoroughly. Read and re-read to make sure that it is technically sound. The outline of this story is good, and parts of the execution are good, but I am not a professional and I could go through this book with a red pen and in about 12 hours I could improve it tremendously by correcting the spelling and grammar problems, and tweaking the dialog to make it a little less dumb. I'm surprised that someone didn't do this before the book got to me. I gave the book two stars because, as another reviewer noted, writing is hard, and I appreciate writers who are exploring such taboo and twisted subject matter. But if the gory subject matter were removed, the glaring flaws with this book would be very obvious. The fact that it deals with torture and murder serves to hide many of these flaws because the book is so shocking to some people. As I read the book, however, I became more and more exhausted trying to maintain the illusion of the story while trying to overlook problem after problem in the way the book was put together. This old saying crossed my mind often as I read the book: easy to write, hard to read.

Wow! This has to be one of the best horrors I've read for quite a while. Nothing is spared, the killer so chilling and perfect. I liked every character, every change through the chapters, the pace of the plot. Edward Lee took great pains to learn about medical instruments and he must have studied at length on the male human body. I'm still reeling from the impact. Yes, it is very graphic and shocking, but that's the whole reason of reading this type of horror. The only one negative I can comment on is - I'm not sure whether I'll read another Lee book again, it may be disappointing after this wild ride. Utterly brilliant.

I am an Edward Lee fan. Although I have only read a few of his novels, the smorgasbord of unsettling violence, intense erotica, and whiplash prose make his writings enormous fun for a dedicated horror fan. The biggest problem facing a potential reader is how to acquire many of his books and short stories. Nearly all of his old mass-market efforts are out of print, many other novels and collections are available only through wallet crushing small press editions, and the subject matter of a majority of his tales virtually insures much of his work will remain in obscurity. In other words, I am an Ed Lee fan insofar as my meager funds allow. It does appear a ray of hope is about to break on the horizon: Lee now writes novels for mass market Leisure press, and a few of his earlier works are starting to reappear in slightly more affordable trade paperbacks. "Portrait of the Psychopath as a Young Woman" is one of these cheaper trade copies. You will still pay a nice chunk of change if you want to read this book, but at least you don't need to take out a second mortgage on the homestead to do so.

Written in conjunction with crime expert Elizabeth Steffen, "Portrait" tells the chilling tale of an abused woman lashing out at society. Men frequenting bars in our nation's capitol are disappearing, with their bodies turning up later in the most awful of conditions. A madman--or madwoman, as the case may be--is performing dreadful mutilations on the victims before disposing of their bodies. The only thing detectives know for sure is that the criminal has an immense knowledge of medical procedures and access to surgical equipment. A potential break in the case comes when the killer contacts a columnist for a feminist magazine by the name of Kathleen Shade. Shade, who has her own devastating history of sexual abuse at the hands of an uncle to deal with, begins receiving packages in the mail containing written accounts of the crimes committed by this murderer. These accounts--the most appalling descriptions of torture and murder imaginable--lead the tortured columnist to report her findings to the police. It is here that Shade meets the rude Lieutenant Jeffrey Spence, a beefy cop in charge of the unfolding investigation. Complicating matters is Kathleen's burgeoning relationship with Maxwell Platt, a poet she meets at a lecture hall, and the release of her abusive uncle from prison. More murders described in intricate detail and big twists and turns at the conclusion of the story bring "Portrait" to its shocking close.

It is difficult to label one Ed Lee book as more shocking and violent than any other, but "Portrait" manages to wallow in descriptions of the most taboo of human behaviors. Child abuse of the worst types, torture, and murder all appear with grotesque frequency in the pages of this book. Elizabeth Steffen must have contributed all of the psychological jargon and theories seen throughout the story since every character bears some type of mental scar from some area of their life. Shade often listens to one of those obnoxious radio psychologists in an effort to cope with her own problems. Lieutenant Spence has issues with his deceased mother and his sexuality. The killer, obviously, is a seething mass of psychopathologies who would probably benefit from two or three thousand years of intensive therapy if she wasn't so busy killing off all the male bar hoppers in a three state area. The only major character that doesn't seem bothered by his deficiencies but who probably should seek immediate help is Uncle Sammy, Kathleen's depraved abuser. I'm not going to go into specifics about what this guy does for a living, but he wasn't bothered by his crimes in the least. Sammy erases any hint of conscience by simply believing what he did in the outside world was a case of "supply and demand." Sickening.

There are a few problems with "Portrait." The authors outline Lieutenant Spence's psychological issues without really giving them any resolution. A reader soon wonders why we need to know anything at all about the man because it never fits into the larger story. Moreover, while I enjoyed the twist conclusion and never saw it coming, I thought the authors copped out with the happy fate of one of the principal characters. More problematic is the killer and her victims. On two occasions we get a chapter or two describing in depth the dregs the killer will soon dispatch. It is difficult in the extreme to feel any sort of compassion for these men. One guy in particular is such a monster that seeing him bow out of this mortal coil becomes a pleasure. It really shouldn't be this way, though, because the killer is far from an admirable person. No matter the depth of abuse faced by the killer when she was a child or how despicable her victims are, I resented empathizing with her actions.

"Portrait of the Psychopath as a Young Woman" will give you everything you expect from an Ed Lee extravaganza, but it isn't his best effort. Look instead to "The Bighead," "Teratologist," or his short story collection "The Ushers" for the best that Ed can be. Fans of the man will want to eventually read this story, but all others should start somewhere else and work their way to this place in increments. In fact, start with "City Infernal." That novel is a more restrained, more accessible work targeted at a mass audience. Once you get through that one, then you might be ready to dive into the depths of despair found here and in his darker works.

PORTRAIT is about, ultimately, 2 women dealing (in very different ways) w/ childhood sex abuse. One becomes the psycho the title refers to; the other is a feminist advice column writer. But what both have in common will join them together in infamy.

After she receives a "fan letter" and gift from an admirer, Kathleen Shade is thrown into a hunt for a serial killer. Also investigating the case is officer Jeffrey Spence, a self proclaimed "solipsist and celibate gay". These 2 opposites don't exactly attract as magnify the tenseness in the story. Eventually that stress is turned into Spence using Shade as bait for the killer.

The killer sews the mouths shut, punctures the ear drums, glues their eyes closed and cuffs them to the a bed before torturing them in ways never dreamed of...except by Lee & Steffen, and you know how that is...stomach churning.

Along the way we meet Sammy Shade, Kathleen's uncle and molester, who just got paroled from jail. After turning stool pigeon on his mob bosses for a lesser term on trafficking child porn, he's out and looking to get out of the country before Vinchetti, the mob boss from Lee's novella "The Pig", caps him. Also thrown into the insaneness is Maxwell Platt, a poet and Kathleen's love interest.

All of these characters are well fleshed-out and the dialogue, specifically between Kathleen and Spence, is hilarious and edged with sarcasm and bitter wit.

Lee has written his best novel to date. The moral questions his characters raise, Sam Shade in particular, will have you challenging your own rules of life. This novel has important topics that question your beliefs in many things. Not to be forgotten, a late `90's classic horror novel w/ much more going on then the sum of its parts. It's as thought-provoking as it is gut-wrenching. Most highest recommendation.

I'm surprised. I really am. I expected what one usually gets from a novel such as this: gratuitous violence, gratuitous sex, a sicko psychopath and an author with little or no idea of the actual workings of police, detective and forensic operations.

What I found was a very deep and gripping book, fully researched down to the most basic of details, and full, deep, finely-honed characters. I found myself liking each and every character, even the psychopath, for distinct and different reasons.

If I admit to skimming some of the more graphic details of the removal of body parts, it is only because I couldn't put the book down and was eager to see how it ended. And what an ending it was!

I wasn't aware that there was a genre dedicated to books of this type, but I do know that this has got to be the best of the lot.

Besides from the brilliant writing, captivating plot and extremely well-written characters, this book's best feature is the amazing amount of detail and forensics knowledge displayed throughout its pages. The authors obviously have a very strong grasp of the most current investigative techniques and medical information, and the crisp clarity that knowledge lends the book makes it stand out head-and-shoulders above the rest.

However, men should be warned that they may find this book extremely uncomfortable to read. The authors spare nothing in their descriptions of the violence, and several male friends of mine refused to read it on the basis of just a one-page excerpt I read to them.

Be that as it may, I still cannot recommend this book highly enough -- it belongs on the shelf of any horror or thriller fan's library. Buy it; read it; tell someone else about it.

Kathleen SHADE is a Washington DC based writer for a feminist magazine. She was sexually abused during her childhood by her criminal uncle (who also was involved in a mob operated underground porn production and distribution ring) and still suffers tremendously from her horrible past. One day she receives a letter from a female serial killer (included is a severed penis), who asks her whether she is interested in writing her story. The cop in charge of the investigation, lieutenant SPENCE, uses the writer as a bait to catch the killer. Lots of horribly mutilated corpses turn up throughout the city... Another thing Kathleen has to seriously worry about is her uncle Sammy, who had been released from jail on probation...

Another entry in the already well filled ranks of the serial killer genre, PORTRAIT OF THE PSYCHOPATH AS A YOUNG WOMAN by well known writer of extreme horror novels Edward LEE excells in my view only in the gore and shock department. Well, nothing bad at all with over the top gore and sadism (at least as far as I am concerned) but personally I found the book a bit disappointing, most of all because of the characters. With the exception of Kathleen SHADE's boy friend MAXWELL PLATT (and some supporting characters like a police psychiatrist) there is almost no likeable character in the book, so it is really difficult to relate to them. Lieutenant SPENCE, a homosexual loner, is unlikeable due to his manipulativeness. Even the victims of the killer are portrayed as real scumbags and almost laughable sexist caricatures (one even gets a special kick out of intentionally transmitting his herpes disease to his one-night-stands). It goes without saying that this "they had it coming"-attitude of writer Ed LEE is rather mean spirited - no one deserves it to have his lips sewn shut with surgical suture, his eyes glued shut and his penis being cut off with serrated plaster shears! Low depths are reached when the reader has to witness Uncle Sammy visiting a drug addict "mother" of a small child, who sells her daughter to paying "customers" (the act itself is thankfully left undescribed.)
Storywise PORTRAIT... is not exactly groundbreaking. While I did not see the final twist regarding the killer's identity and her relation to Kathleen coming (do not worry, I won't spoil it here), it is not inventive either. Earlier there is a thrilling but rather conventional scene (which in my view is the highlight of the book) with SPENCE in a police helicopter in hot pursuit of the killer, while the maniacal murderess talks to Kathleen over the car phone and police communication HQ tries to track the killer's car. I also liked the police procedural parts, with tech talk like in the CSI TV series. The pacing of the story is good and the showdown is cool. However I strongly disliked the happy ending, which is out of tone with what happened before and unfitting for a grim and sick serial killer story.
As I have already mentioned, the book's saving grace is the gore. A stomach of steel is required for the prolonged scenes of detailed torture and atrocity (including genital mutilation, which had me more than once cringing.) Most of the mayhem is dealt out with surgical instruments - autopsy needles, scalpels, plaster shears, suture, you name it (all of which are lovingly descriped so that you in your imagination can see and almost feel the tools of terror while reading ), but one particular nasty scene has a black pimp being tortured to death with pepper (!). Gross and sick - I kidd you not!

many reveiwers didn't like this novel from Edward Lee but I thought it was one of his best. The characters were not one dimensional and for a change the story out weighed the gore. The book has plenty of gore but it's more pyschological than graphic. The link between the characters at the end was a bit too far-fetched but the final confrontation made up for it. Now that this novel is available on kindle it's definitely worth a read. Previously you had to spend 30+ dollars on the paperback. I'm glad I didn't rush to buy the paperback because even though it's a good novel it's not worth 30 or 40 dollars.

This is my second book by this author. I was interested in this book because while there are numerous movies and books and documentaries about male psychopathic killers, there are very few about the female of the species and since the title implies some examination of how she got to be that way, I was intrigued enough to buy the book. I am still glad that I did, the portrait of the killer was as intriguing as it was uncomfortable to read. Many similar depictions of male killers by well known authors are just a disgusting bath of evil act upon evil act. I was just as revolted by this serial killer's prowess and desire to cause pain but I was also interested enough to keep turning the pages to try to learn more about her, what makes her tick, what is she after. And, of course, the price I pay is to live through more of her crimes. Thats good writing I think. But the rest of the characters, especially the protagonist, were worse than shallow to me, they were annoying and served as just another pain I had to endure to get more into the story. Really, when the story line for the killer ended, I stopped reading the book.