28 Boys By Ashleigh Giannoccaro

Underneath these gang tattoos beats a heart three times a year. I’m a slow puncture death, a murderer, a rapist, and a number. I killed my best friend. Death doesn’t stalk me, it walks ahead of me by twenty-eight paces.

I went home after I sold my soul to the devils. I thought life would begin, I was a free man, instead within days the bullets fly and my last hope dies with the slain. There is nothing left to live for in this world. I belong to the 28s, I’ll always belong to the 28s.

The woman across the road judges me, she hates me, and takes every opportunity to let me know it.
Yet, somehow, when grief etched our names down in the book of the dead, we dared be bold enough to find love.

I’m not a good man, and I’m not pretty. I come from the Cape Flats where my life was reduced to a prison cell number. In all this ugliness I found beauty, innocence, and forgiveness. I can’t forgive myself for the crimes I’ve committed, but I’ll die trying to earn hers.

In a world where nothing matters, she does.

Giannoccaro brings to life a book unlike any other. Whether you are a local to South Africa or international; this is a book that resonates with a person deep in their core. This was a story that Giannoccaro says she needed to write; and it is a story that everyone needs to read. The story is an honest one about forgiveness; love and loss and the choices that we are forced to make in life. The choices in this book are divided between those you make for survival and those that are made for you and the love and loss that are a result of those choices.

Giannoccaro doesn’t just tell a story. As with all her books she takes you into a world in its entirety and you not only get to live through the hardships that Francis and Engela face but you also experience all their emotions. This level of writing is hard to come by in this day and age and Giannoccaro has just proven, with this book, that it doesn’t matter the genre that she takes on – she is a highly accomplished writer who can take a reader on a whirlwind story regardless of what it is; where it is set or whether or not you want to go on the journey.

This story gave me a lot to think about and while I am aware that it may carry a different message for different readers – the main message I took home from this story is that forgiveness is both obtainable and easily given. It is our choice to hang onto our own pain and to not move forward in life when the opportunity arises.

I highly recommend this story.

Review Rating: 5/5

More Information:

Published By: CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform

Published Date:  March 19, 2017

Genre:  Romance / Suspense