Unraveling Charlie (Paperback)

In 1967 Donald McLean was 12 years old when he's targeted by a pedophile named Charlie Schoeler. Over the next three years his life becomes split between the normal world of any young boy and the secret world Charlie draws him towards. A deceptively plausible one he falls further and further into until it becomes his life. The novel takes you back to a time and place before society was fully aware there were predators like him. It tells the story of the planned and calculated way a child molester goes about selecting his victims and how he views and treats them once they become dependent on him. Charlie Schoeler seemed to have everything. He's a well thought of teacher who has the respect of his community and a close circle of friends he's known since childhood. To all outward appearances his life is satisfying and fulfilling. He takes care of his mother and tutors children who need help after school. Nobody suspects what he really is. Charlie is able to hide behind the strictures and mores that still govern society at that time. The sexual revolution is just beginning in America and most people aren't aware men like him exist. Even his closest friends and colleagues see his "mentoring" of young boys as something laudable. Donald McLean is an average student and good athlete. Like most children of that time he's been bought up to be polite and obedient. When Mr. Schoeler asks if he'd like to go to the beach he jumps at the chance. His parents like Mr. Schoeler, he'd taught Donald's older sister and put a lot of effort into helping make her a better student. Teachers were trusted in those days and his mother gives him permission to go. What follows is at turns heartbreaking and horrifying, disturbing and sometimes humorous. An always insightful look into the world of an abused child told from his point of view. The years he spends with Charlie and the damage done to him. His struggle to get away at the age of 15 and the subsequent problems he has adjusting to normal life. It follows him into his mid-twenties when he decides he needs to have answers to what really happened. Donald goes back to talk to Charlie understanding confrontation will never get him what he needs, information. In the same way Charlie built a bridge of trust to seduce him as a child, Donald does the same. He becomes Charlie's confidant and eventually learns what he needs in order to close that chapter on his life and make what peace he can with it.