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horfhorfhorf's review against another edition
3.0
Fun book to stroll your way through over the course of an afternoon.
justlily's review against another edition
DNF at like...page 30. The only thing I hate more than plot holes are plot holes that an author acknowledges but doesn't fix. The author here basically outright states that none of this makes any sense or has any reasoning... But it happens anyway because *Jazz hands*
Too much rambling and nonsensical navel gazing for me to make myself sit through the next 300 pages to cure my mild curiosity about the point of it all.
Too much rambling and nonsensical navel gazing for me to make myself sit through the next 300 pages to cure my mild curiosity about the point of it all.
gertrude314's review against another edition
2.0
I couldn't put this book down in the beginning. The story is told from the perspective of two girls who were kidnapped at twelve by a mystery man who did nothing threatening to them. Lois becomes the quiet writer and Carly May is the outspoken actress. They trade off telling about their lives in the present and it drags you in, wanting to know how they escape. However, the last third of the book was super dull and kind of killed everything I liked about the book. So I guess this was a murder mystery after all!
asurges's review against another edition
5.0
Loved this story within a story within a story. This isn't about a kidnapping. This is about what happens when only one person in the world can possibly understand a life-changing experience that occurred when you were both at an impressionable age.
Maggie Mitchell's ability to capture voice is particularly impressive, and I like how she took on a story that has a dramatic appeal but chooses to look at the deeper issues: what does it mean when the person you both defined your lives by is dead? What does beauty mean? What does being a girl/woman mean? And why does Mitchell make the ending a seeming ripped-from-the-headlines type of ending? It's funny and smart.
Maggie Mitchell's ability to capture voice is particularly impressive, and I like how she took on a story that has a dramatic appeal but chooses to look at the deeper issues: what does it mean when the person you both defined your lives by is dead? What does beauty mean? What does being a girl/woman mean? And why does Mitchell make the ending a seeming ripped-from-the-headlines type of ending? It's funny and smart.
lisawreading's review against another edition
DNF at 42%. There's nothing exactly wrong, but the story and characters just didn't grab me at all, and I realized that I didn't care enough to keep going.
mellabella's review against another edition
2.0
I don't know. I think that this book had the potential to be a better read for me. The premise, etc. Are good...
Lois and Carly Mae are abducted when they are 12. Lois's parents are distant. Carly's dad is fine. If not a little cowed by her step mom. Or maybe he just can't deal with raising a girl since her mom died. Whatever the case, her stepmom Gail runs the show.
Enter Zed. He is described as young and handsome. He abducts Carly first by telling her he'll give her a ride. Then Lois by asking for directions and, telling her to get into the car out of the rain.
I'm not going to question why the girls got into the car. They're 12. Or, the Stockholm Syndrome that follows. They are with Zed for 2 months. They are under heavy surveillance. He doesn't do anything to them physically. He watches and gets angry from time to time (especially when Carly asks him questions about himself). But no abuse, molestation, or anything like that. Just good old manipulation and taking their freedom.
As adults Carly is an actress and Lois is a professor. They are both kind of living their lives the way Zed would have wanted them to.
I think I got a little irritated with the whole Sean story line.
Sean is a student of Lois's that come across her childhood trauma and becomes creepy. Pestering her to give him information for a book he is going to write? Except Lois already wrote a fictionalized account of her past experience. It's being made into a movie that Carly (now named Chloe) is going to star in.
Except the way Lois handles Sean is not the way most would.
Also, most people-upon realizing a creepy student/stalker that had threatened them with a knife had remotely accessed their computer (and their calendar and personal info) would have done way more.
I liked Carly/Chloe's parts more. Those, and the flashbacks to when they were kidnapped. Neither character was very likable. They don't HAVE to be. But whatever.
Lois and Carly Mae are abducted when they are 12. Lois's parents are distant. Carly's dad is fine. If not a little cowed by her step mom. Or maybe he just can't deal with raising a girl since her mom died. Whatever the case, her stepmom Gail runs the show.
Enter Zed. He is described as young and handsome. He abducts Carly first by telling her he'll give her a ride. Then Lois by asking for directions and, telling her to get into the car out of the rain.
I'm not going to question why the girls got into the car. They're 12. Or, the Stockholm Syndrome that follows. They are with Zed for 2 months. They are under heavy surveillance. He doesn't do anything to them physically. He watches and gets angry from time to time (especially when Carly asks him questions about himself). But no abuse, molestation, or anything like that. Just good old manipulation and taking their freedom.
As adults Carly is an actress and Lois is a professor. They are both kind of living their lives the way Zed would have wanted them to.
I think I got a little irritated with the whole Sean story line.
Sean is a student of Lois's that come across her childhood trauma and becomes creepy. Pestering her to give him information for a book he is going to write? Except Lois already wrote a fictionalized account of her past experience. It's being made into a movie that Carly (now named Chloe) is going to star in.
Except the way Lois handles Sean is not the way most would.
Also, most people-upon realizing a creepy student/stalker that had threatened them with a knife had remotely accessed their computer (and their calendar and personal info) would have done way more.
I liked Carly/Chloe's parts more. Those, and the flashbacks to when they were kidnapped. Neither character was very likable. They don't HAVE to be. But whatever.
nattyg's review against another edition
1.0
I read this in its entirety - it was (to me) a book about two girls who don't know why they were abducted. They get rescued two months later. They spend the rest of their lives trying to find meaning. There is no meaning.
That's it. Save yourself the 300 odd pages. There was no meaning to their lives. Nor their abduction. Nor their adult lives because they didn't DO anything of meaning with them. They are no better or worse than hundreds of thousands of people who were NOT abducted. The other plot points were distracting and, to repeat a phrase, meaningless. A bunch of random things, throw in a blender and that is this book.
That's it. Save yourself the 300 odd pages. There was no meaning to their lives. Nor their abduction. Nor their adult lives because they didn't DO anything of meaning with them. They are no better or worse than hundreds of thousands of people who were NOT abducted. The other plot points were distracting and, to repeat a phrase, meaningless. A bunch of random things, throw in a blender and that is this book.
chillawesome's review against another edition
challenging
dark
emotional
mysterious
reflective
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.75
sophiedavenport's review against another edition
3.0
History repeating itself is the only way two formerly abducted women can come to terms with their feelings for their heavily illusive kidnapper.
Never read a story of abduction that isn't violent or laced with hate. A totally new perspective of the genre and an insight into a child's need to feel loved. Possibly also of Stockholm syndrome.
It concluded way too suddenly and was kind of anti climatic, which is why it gets the low score from me. There is also a lot of the story still to be told. I'd like to learn more about Sean, his character added to the undertones of madness in characters but seemed like an easy plot device, eg he's made because he just is. could have added a little back story, seemed a bit lazy to add him as a plot device almost casually.
still, an interesting story. **
Never read a story of abduction that isn't violent or laced with hate. A totally new perspective of the genre and an insight into a child's need to feel loved. Possibly also of Stockholm syndrome.
It concluded way too suddenly and was kind of anti climatic, which is why it gets the low score from me. There is also a lot of the story still to be told. I'd like to learn more about Sean, his character added to the undertones of madness in characters but seemed like an easy plot device, eg he's made because he just is. could have added a little back story, seemed a bit lazy to add him as a plot device almost casually.
still, an interesting story. **
amberhayward's review against another edition
4.0
This was very different than anything I've read in awhile. Not on the surface, I suppose, but the fact that a lot is left unspoken or unrevealed for a fictional book. I'm pretty sure that I really liked it. I usually can't tell for a few days, though, how much I've liked a book. This is a book that I'll be thinking about for a few days, I think.