Cell Out

CELL OUT
C.J. Cannino
ISBN: 0-595-33311-7
June 2005
iUniverse
Trade Paperback
Thriller

Peter Golozzi is a scared, angry, nine-year-old boy who has been molested by a man he and his family trusted. When Father Patrick, the priest at their church takes an interest in Peter, his mother is pleased, and pushes Peter to get to know the older man. When Peter begins acting out and refuses to attend church or school, his mother blames his father’s absence from their lives. Little does she know the man she feels is his best influencer is harming the son she cherishes.

Peter comes into adulthood confused and angry. When he first encounters a woman he finds attractive, he does not know how to control his emotions and finds himself hurting them in the throes of passion. When he becomes involved with a seventeen year old, he is arrested and called a child molester. As a sexually violent predator Peter is institutionalized for years. Upon his release, he cannot deal with the stress of the outside world, and finds himself violating his parole by leaving the state.

Many years later, Marylynn Diego becomes acquainted with Peter and finds herself falling in love. ML does not know about Peter’s past, and she does not probe when he clams up. She does not realize she is harboring a fugitive until the FBI shows up at her door telling her that she and her children may be in danger. As the past two years come out to ML, Peter realizes he must share his entire past with her, and hope she can forgive his past sins.

CELL OUT is fast paced read focusing on the problems today’s society must face. As the stories about molestation by priests come out, more and more people realize the effect it has on society and the boys who are abused. C.J. Cannino has taken that emotion and channeled it into a fictional novel about what might happen to one of the children the church turned their back on.

CELL OUT is not a novel for the devout Catholic. Peter’s anger at the church might be offensive to some, but for this reviewer it was an eye-opener. Every book with controversy will offend some, but Ms. Cannino has mixed in enough emotion to make this a worthwhile read for all readers of fiction.

The plot leads the reader through the life of Peter from childhood to adulthood. His mistakes leave the reader reeling, while his past gives validity to the reasons for his offenses. He is great main character, full of flaws and quirks that make him jump from the pages to the heart of the reader. As Peter goes through the transformation of abused child to sexually violent predator and later to a hard-working man, the reader is taken through many layers of emotion. The reader will understand how Amy and later ML fall in love and want to help Peter overcome his past.

This reviewer highly recommends this novel to any reader, even with the controversial theme, readers will become engrossed and want to know more about what it means to overcome sexual abuse by a priest.

Reviewed by Angie
December 2005