Como bestias 2 - The End (Pages 18 - end)

 

RATING: VERY GOOD

SPOILERS!!!

I found the book very original in the way it is told. Little by little we discover that a girl of about six or seven years old was found in the company of the Bear when a family who have a house nearby saw them together. The police sent a helicopter and arrested the Bear and took the girl, who they realised had been living in the cave where the legend says the fairies took children.

Different people give their testimony and what they knew. Martin, a farmer, revealed that the Bear has a gift; he can cure animals just by touching them. He discovered it when he cured one of his cows when he was a child. Then the farmer took animals to him, but he never told anyone about the Bear.

There is also Luc, who usually jogs, and he stated that he often saw the Bear and the child together, and he always assumed that they were father and daughter. Contrary to what the family who reported the Bear and said that the girl was naked, Luc says that the girl was always dressed.

The mother, Mariette, is passionate and desperate when she is questioned. She claims that she never saw the girl and her son never told her. Mariette says that her son is a good man, and even though he can't speak, she knows what he needs or what he wants to express. What she admits is that something changed a few years ago as he started to spend more and more time near the cave.

One of the last testimonies is that of a woman who explains that she is not the girl's mother, but she can imagine who the woman was. She says that it must have been like her, a woman who was abused and betrayed. She fell pregnant and keeps saying that she should have left the baby with the fairies like the little girl's mother, but she didn't. We imagine that she gave the baby away in adoption.

And the last chapter is a conversation between the policemen. It seems that the Bear tried to escape, and one of the policemen shot him, claiming that he was in a violent mood and wanted to come and find the other policeman.

I really loved the book! Very sad and hard, but beautifully written.