The Guilt We Carry
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3.7 • 6 Ratings
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- $3.99
Publisher Description
Perfect for readers of The Girl on the Train and Winter's Bone, Publishers Weekly praises The Guilt We Carry as "a gripping tale of redemption" and New York Journal of Books declares it "the Breaking Bad of the book world."
Since the tragic accident that brutally ended her childhood, Alice O'Farrell has been haunted by her past. Unable to bear the guilt of negligence that led to the death of her younger brother, fifteen-year-old Alice runs away from home. She lives on the streets, makes one bad decision after another, and drowns her guilt in alcohol. But, everything changes when she stumbles upon a startling scene: a dead drug dealer and a duffel bag full of ninety-one thousand dollars in cash. Recognizing this as an opportunity for a fresh start, Alice takes the money and runs. However, she soon finds herself fleeing from more than her own past—the dead dealer's drug supplier wants his money back and will destroy her to get it. A merciless manhunt ensues, headed by Sinclair—a formidable opponent—relentless, shrewd, and brutal. As blood is spilled all around her, Alice is eventually faced with her day of reckoning. In the end, The Guilt We Carry is a story about redemption and forgiveness, but at what cost?
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
One evening in 2005, the parents of 15-year-old Alice O'Farrell, the heroine of this gripping tale of redemption from Gailey (Deep Winter), leave her in charge of her bratty four-year-old brother, Jason, at their home in Wilmington, N.C. After Jason paints her bedroom walls with her fingernail polish, Alice yells at him. While she tries to clean the walls, Jason traps himself in the basement dryer and dies. Six years later, the guilt-ridden Alice is an alcoholic reduced to working as a bartender at a strip joint in Harrisburg, Pa. One morning, she wakes up next to the corpse of her boss, who has overdosed, in his trailer. Next to the bed is a duffel bag containing $91,000 in cash. Alice flees with the loot in search of refuge in Wilmington with an old friend, but on the train ride south she can't help intervening when she spots a teenage girl being abused. The plot unfolds logically, and Gailey does a superior job of making his flawed lead sympathetic.
