carlyroth10's review against another edition
3.0
3.5
WHO THE HELL IS JULIE?! You think you know the answer until you don’t. I appreciated the constant questioning in this book and the continuous suspense, but at the end of the book I was still so fricken confused.
The story is organized by having Julie’s story going backwards and Anna’s going forwards which I liked but it just added to the confusion.
You first meet Anna a mourning mom and one with many issues, one being Jane
Jane is the youngest/only? Child and she hates her mother and loves her father. All her life she’s been neglected and that made her go to some “rebellious” lengths.
Tom is the husband, not much of a story but kinda the rock of the family
And then there’s Julie who I wish I could tell you about but I don’t know who she is... at all.
It earned its self a 3.5 because I still don’t understand what happened and the story took an... interesting turn.
WHO THE HELL IS JULIE?! You think you know the answer until you don’t. I appreciated the constant questioning in this book and the continuous suspense, but at the end of the book I was still so fricken confused.
The story is organized by having Julie’s story going backwards and Anna’s going forwards which I liked but it just added to the confusion.
You first meet Anna a mourning mom and one with many issues, one being Jane
Jane is the youngest/only? Child and she hates her mother and loves her father. All her life she’s been neglected and that made her go to some “rebellious” lengths.
Tom is the husband, not much of a story but kinda the rock of the family
And then there’s Julie who I wish I could tell you about but I don’t know who she is... at all.
It earned its self a 3.5 because I still don’t understand what happened and the story took an... interesting turn.
coverjudger's review against another edition
5.0
Woah! Such an intense book that pulls you in from start to finish. Definitely one of those books that has you flipping back a few pages to make sure you understand what’s happening. Loved it!
eemeelee's review against another edition
3.0
Not my favorite ever, but I really enjoyed how well fleshed out the mother’s character is. I also enjoy the authors writing style, a mix of easy-to-read accesible plainspeak mixed with more thoughtful metaphorical prose (eg the recurrence of the darkness in the halo of light). It’s my jam. I get to feel a little high brow while reading a page turner.
Schizoaffective disorder though, seriously? -_-
Schizoaffective disorder though, seriously? -_-
nerdyrev's review against another edition
4.0
I want to share the last few reactions I had to this book. They went something like this- "What!?! Wait! Noooooo! Oh yes! Oh no! Get out of here. Oh my..." and so on. This is one of those books that will keep you guessing until the very end of the book.
The story is about Julie, who was kidnapped in the middle of the night at knifepoint. Her mother, Anna, and her father as well as her sister who witnessed the crime, have had hope for years that Julie would be back.
As years begin to pass, the family starts moving on with their lives until one day, a barefooted 21 year old shows up on their doorstep claiming to be Julie. At first the family is thrilled to have their daughter back, but things start not adding up, such as Julie's story and some of her actions don't match up with their daughter. A private detective then calls and says that Julie may not be their daughter.
I will admit that the last sentence of the above paragraph seems like a spoiler, but I assure you it isn't and that is one of the things I loved about Gentry's book. From the beginning the reader will question whether or not Julie is really Julie and the detective is introduced fairly early in the book to help the reader remove this question. I loved that as it could have been drawn out for a long time, but instantly the doubt is introduced which frees up the story to explain who Julie is.
The other reason it is not a spoiler is the book itself is told from two perspectives- Anna and Julie's. We stick with Anna for about the first quarter or less of the book and jump instantly into Julie's story. Anna's story is told forward always, while Julie's begins with what we know and moves backward which really worked in this book. Julie's backward story will leave one questioning regularly as characters are introduced, but not explained who they are until the next chapter. While Anna's story keep moving along as the private eye gives more details as to who Julie might be. It isn't cut and dry though and I was left guessing until the end.
There were two minor critiques I had with the book- first the cover is ugly. I kept joking on Litsy how ugly the cover is- pink and yellow just clash together. The second was there is a character in the book that I wished was introduced just a little bit earlier. This character could have flowed with the story from the very beginning and it would have developed the story a bit more.
I had a lot of fun with this book. The writing is ok and Gentry kept the story moving along without too much drag. I loved the alternating chapters which kept the book going.
Overall, I gave this one 3.5 stars.
bunnieslikediamonds's review against another edition
2.0
An unnecessarily complicated story about a kid being kidnapped, or not, and then returning years later, or not. Didn't care for the characters, possibly because they insisted on acting obtusely in order to delay the unravelling of the mystery. I ended up skimming the last chapters and am now happily unaware of how it ends.
kiley_allen's review against another edition
dark
sad
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
1.0
beardedbarista's review against another edition
4.0
Lots of twists and turns!
This book was pretty gripping and had a great element of mystery and suspense. It was a quick read also which is nice.
I had a hard time at the begin and almost all the way to the end with two of the characters names Julie and Jane.. had to really concentrate on who was who and that was only made more difficult as one of them went by 5 other names through the rest of the book. The ever shifting name changes was really my only issue with the book. I liked the plot twist. It perhaps didn't need as much explanation towards the end but that's just me. I did have some chills though with how gritty the book got at times.
Pick this one up for a good weekend read. I did
Justin
This book was pretty gripping and had a great element of mystery and suspense. It was a quick read also which is nice.
I had a hard time at the begin and almost all the way to the end with two of the characters names Julie and Jane.. had to really concentrate on who was who and that was only made more difficult as one of them went by 5 other names through the rest of the book. The ever shifting name changes was really my only issue with the book. I liked the plot twist. It perhaps didn't need as much explanation towards the end but that's just me. I did have some chills though with how gritty the book got at times.
Pick this one up for a good weekend read. I did
Justin
sunflowerkingdom's review against another edition
3.0
80% of the time I was trying to figure out if I liked the book or not. It gave me just enough to keep reading, but not enough to feel hooked. The typical suspense twist was a really good idea and the plot had a lot of potential, but it just wasn't developed enough and the writing was mediocre at best.