Journey for Justice

For Journalism class, I read Journey for Justice by Mike McIntyre. It's the story of a 13-year-old Winnipeg girl, who went missing on a Friday after school. She was found dead in a shack weeks later.


I have never really read true crime, and I don't think that I'm the type of person who can handle it. I have a stomach of steel when it comes to Stephen King, but even a news story can make me into an emotional wreck. True crime seems like a slow, painful horror story.


Reading Journey for Justice was an emotional roller coaster. I only read it on the bus so that I could walk off the baggage of each chapter. I was much too young to remember the case, but I knew the impending doom of sweet Candace. So, getting to know her was really hard. My reactions to Candace's story changed when the relationship between Candace and Heidi was described. It really fleshed out more of who Candace was.


I really liked how the novel was split up into chunks. I felt that there was nice transitions, as the time frame of the story spanned a few decades. It was really easy to move from section to section, without feeling lost.


What didn't work for this book was the dumbing down of the story. It's supposed to be an easy read for everyone, like a newspaper, but it was so simply written that you could skip paragraphs and still understand the story. It was good for the audience, which could be all of Winnipeg, but the narrative could have potentially been more bold for a more intense read.


Each section had a different tone and language. It was also a bit difficult reading the last section, because I don't really read about court cases. But, as a reader I am very curious and like hearing back stories, I enjoyed reading the section section. It was dark and very sad, but it makes Grant like a real person and not the monster I imagined. There is no excuse for him, and deserves every punishment and more, but it shows that in some ways he a victim.


This is perfect story for Mike to write because the media is almost its own character in the book. The journalists I feel brought the Derksons out of the darkness. In the light they were able to radiate their own truth of who they are and what that Friday did to them. All this commotion, showed the police what was really happening, beyond their judging eyes. It shows journalists the true power of an unbiased voice, letting anyone and everyone play their own part of solving crimes and mending the victims.


One thing I felt that was very different in reading this type of non fiction was that the main character is someone we never get to hear from. Candace was the story, yet she wasn't in it. She didn't change throughout the story, as most protagonists do, and the reader got to know her through different means. Also, I have never read local non fiction, so to read the street names and landmarks in the story made it a real, unique, and more frightening read.


The best part of the whole experience was seeing Wilma Derkson at the presentation. When you hear a story like hers it's hard not to imagine what one would do in such a situation. How can you bear such weight without falling down. Could a person really control such anger. When she spoke to the little crowd of CreCommers, she was so unbelievably joyous within her voice and her eyes. She is not at all what I imagined, and definitely did not look like she had the burden that she had. It was a lesson in being human seeing Wilma, and what she was capable of.


I did enjoying finding out all the specifics of a case that's so prominent in Winnipeg history. But, it showed the true evil of the world and how unfair life can be.