2-3-4 Challenge Book Discussions #2 discussion

Evan Patterson began stalking Ellie when she was an eleven-year-old child, and he was seventeen, attacking her at least five different times. The last time he kidnapped her, he nearly beat her to death and left her for dead and yet he repeatedly beats the system thanks to his wealthy parent’s influence and money. Are they enablers? Are they really blind to his demons or just refuse to believe their son is a monster? Did you feel any sympathy for the parents? Do you believe Patterson is a sociopath? Why or why not?

His parents are absolutely enablers. They refused to see his acts as the evil they were. I have no sympathy for them. I am sorry they have a sociopath for a son, but they refused acknowledge he was the problem and Ellie was his victim.

The vicious comments the parents made to Max show that they have put their gifted son on a pedestal and blame law enforcement for acting on Ellie's behalf. I think that their wealth early on showed that they could throw their weight around and deny Evan's obsession with a child. Instead of truly wanting to help him when he was seventeen, they turned their concerns into blaming an eleven year old girl as causing him trouble. It was awful to read this part of the book -- they were something else....

Yes, this part was awful to read. I suppose it is possible for parents to have their head in the sand about their kids but this seemed pretty extreme.

I was flabbergasted that a 17-year-old like him could get away with stalking, kidnapping & assaulting an 11-year-old child. Having it condoned or excused by his parents was unexcusable.