The De-evolution Of A Character-

Today I’m going to talk about Jubilee Savage’s trilogy, Dolly.

With a name like Jubilee savage, you know it’s going to be an extreme book. It’s really not as extreme as Amy Cross or Matt Shaw, but I’m not talking about it because of its extremes or lack thereof.

I’m talking about it because it has something rarely seen in stories; a reverse character arc.

And of course, spoilers.

If you’re a heavy reader or any kind of fiction writer, you’re familiar with what is called a character arc.

This is when a character must learn something and that advances the story.

They grow.

They change.

If they don’t change, they die.

Only this main character; a woman named April, doesn’t grow; she shrinks.

Yes, she changes alright, but not for the better.

When we first meet April, she’s a typical mom, worried about her kids, about paying bills, mourning her husband who died in the war.

Things we can relate to.

We feel bad for her. She has our sympathies.

However, by the end of the third book, with all the hell she was put through by the doll, she devolves into a murderer whom we can’t relate to at all.

This kind of character arc is known as a reverse character arc or a de-evolution; this is where the character starts out normal and becomes depraved by the end.

It’s not often seen, and it’s hard to pull off. This book sews the seeds for this de-evolution throughout. It starts with a stray thought, a sudden flash of temper, a secret wish that thankfully goes unfilled, worries about children and bills, desperation, an internal numbing.

Then, the next thing you know she’s carving up dogs, disposing of bodies, and torturing people without a second thought. Then she kills her daughter.

Wait, what?

How did we get here?

As was already stated, the clues were scattered through all the books, so when she changed, it wasn’t even a surprise.

It’s a beautiful piece of work with a character arc rarely seen. Though I’m not crazy about the ending, this book is definitely worth reading just to see the perfect de-evolution in action.