The Lost Episodes of Beatie Scareli

By Ginnetta Correli

"The Lost Episodes of Beatie Scareli" is a novel written as a hybrid of a bizarre television script with prose resulting in quick, readable, deftly crafted scenes. This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0615213847
• ISBN13: 9780615213842
• Release Date: September 2008
• Publisher: Marshmallow Press
• Length: 238 Pages
• Weight: 0.99 lbs.
• Dimensions: 8.5" x 0.5" x 5.5"

Customer Reviews

Beatie'll Grab You Like It Or Not

When I began reading The Lost Episodes, I thought, "What is this?" In just a few pages I no longer cared to define what I was experiencing. Using an experimental narrative style that is a synthesis of a theater and a movie script, Beatie's experiences with her pyschotic mother and dumbly abusive father sear themselves into your consciousness. I'm a sixty year old male, yet I couldn't put the book down. Beatie's coming of age, through a series of kaleidoscpic scenes, pulls you like a magnet to the denoument. I'm looking forward to more of Beatie's episodes.

Chilling and Haunting yet Funny

This one of weirdest books I have ever read. The author seems to have the knack for understanding the attention span of a reader. This book took me only three hours to finish. It was that interesting and haunting. The Lost Episodes of Beatie Scareli unfolds as if the reader is watching television and also is part of a cast member of a strange movie. I could not turn away. What an artistic accomplishment.

Unique writing

The Lost Episodes of Beatie Scareli is a story about a girl who is trying to survive childhood with an abusive father and a schizophrenic mother. Sure, we've heard similar stories from other writers, but what makes Correli's writing unique is the screenplay format. This allows for vivid scenes that get straight to the point. We feel Beatie's pain without her telling us so and we come to understand why she has developed a thick skin and has separated herself from her emotions. As sad as the tale is, there are moments of humor as we watch her deal with normal tween anxieties--clothes, make-up and popularity. It makes us want to read every page, as quickly as possible, to see what happens to Beatie and how the final episode will turn out.

A haunting story

The writer really gets into the head of a teenager in the grip of reckless, incapable, damaged adults. The unapologetic and sometimes unemotional recounting of the most horrific parts of the story coupled with how Beattie's reactions to the events plays out in her friendships with other teenagers is brilliant. I frequently find myself thinking about the symbolism in the story as well as wondering if Beatie finds a better life after the story ends. This book deserves to be read by serious readers.

Slice of life, slowly sliding off the paper plate

The seemingly bizarre world of Beatie Scareli can easily sync with that of the girl who sits next to me on the bus, with a friend or coworker, it can be anyone's reality, fantasy and fiction, strange and every day, surreal and real at the same time. California in the seventies has never been familiar to me since it was before my time and I have never been to the west coast but Beatie and her family, her home, school and hang outs were bright and clear in my head. The story line seems to resemble something out of the Twilight Zone but it's really about the dark paths of life, obstacles and challenges that reality seems to line us up with on the web of dreams we weave. Sometimes the dreams aren't big; we just want a normal life, happiness, a warm dinner on the table, parents who make sure we grow up well, security and warmth, sometimes we get lucky and things are easy and rainbow colored and sometimes like in Beatie's case life is nothing but a whacky TV show that one seems to be stuck in with no way to get out of. The Italian father who lacks suaveness but not love, trapped somewhere in dark corners of his strange mind seems detached from the schizophrenic woman he married long ago, Frata. The red haired self proclaimed Lucy Ricardo, loving to her child but very much lost and gone upstairs, is standing at an edge of a mental cliff. She is barely holding on what is left of her memory and slowly sinking in phantasm of made up worlds, things she's seen on TV, people she thinks she is, accusing her husband of betrayal is losing grip on motherhood. Beatie, their young daughter appears to be the only sane person in the family, capable of making grown up decision, in reality taking care of both her parents, going to school and trying to survive extremely stressful and abusive situations that she just can't seem to avoid. She is the ethereal heroine, delicate but with an iron core. Her journey though two years of her early teens is nothing less than hair rising but while reading it one can see her story happening to any young girl given similar circumstances. For her to catch up to the reality would mean to break into the darkness of what her life has become instead of ignoring and pretending that mentally ill parents, custody battles, perversions, unfulfilled love and quest for happiness is easily obtained by day dreaming about it. I found this to be a surreal but fascinating read, finishing the story in one day. The writing is very witty and humorous at times, I felt like laughing and crying back and forth as this book seemed to cross raw boundaries rarely touched with most books. Even the font, reminiscent of a typewriter makes this read like a script to a show that one would like to watch on TV but turn off when it gets uncomfortable. No such option exists for Beatie as she grows up and learns that sometimes you don't have anyone to depend on but yourself. Dark, bight, full of despair but also hope this story will touch anyone and I only hope that t