Paul Petillo

Scourge of Princes Paul Petillo

Santo Aretino, like so many kids, was a blank slate. But then one day, he saw something he should not have seen, doing something he should not have been doing. As a result of that experience, the murder of a stranger in the parking lot of a local bowling alley, his life compass was reset and the story follows the years after that event. That journey takes us into a dark world where things that should make sense, or do so for the rest of the world around, are shrouded in ambiguities. He learns to allow his reaction to everything he encounters to be guided by his intuition. He finds himself becoming a savior for those that are bullied, becoming the scourge of these self-appointed princes and in turn, becomes the target of others who don't share his crusade. He searches for love, delves into the world of drugs, and questions everything around him in the process, from his lineage to his beliefs. He simply grows up too fast and too soon. His world becomes populated by adults, who mistake his maturity, both physically and mentally, welcoming him into places most normal kids would never venture. This is a book about his selective memories, a cognitive disconnect with the world he was born into, poor choices that lead to interesting enlightenments, all while he suffers from the painful inability to see himself as the world does. He becomes a self-educated boy who turns to books to help him understand the world around him. While it focuses on the life of a young man in his high school years, it is a novel for adults. Santo's experiences are anything but normal, at least compared to the other kids he knows growing up in the early seventies. This is the first of three books on the quest to be normal. Can he come to grips with his past and his present and find a future worth pursuing?