Restart by Gordon Korman

Chase Ambrose, star of the football team was the most feared kid at Hiawasse Middle School. Chase along with his buddies, Aaron Haikiman and Bear Bratsky, terrorized just about everyone in the school and in their town. Their prime target was Joel Weber, a gifted pianist.

But Chase's life changes drastically when he falls off the roof of his house. The fall results in a separated shoulder,  a severe concussion and acute-retrograde amnesia.  He doesn't remember his mother or father or his older brother Johnny who's a college student home for the summer, and he can't quite remember his name. The only memory he has is of a little girl. Chase, who's also star of the Hiawasse football team, is told by Dr. Cooperman that he is out for the year. 

When Chase returns home, he meets his father's new wife Corinne and his four-year-old half sister Helene, both of whom seem wary of him. "They look at me like I'm a time bomb about to go off in their faces. What did I ever do to them?" This is Chase's first hint that he's not been a very nice person.

Chase's mother doesn't fill him in on his life before his accident. At school Chase is accosted by Aaron and Bear who are eager for him to return to the football team. Chase also meets with the school principal, Dr. Fitzwallace who urges him to see this as a "chance to rebuild yourself from the ground up, to make a completely fresh start." Chase wonders "What was so wrong about the old me that now I have to be somebody else?" At lunch Brendan Espinoza is terrified when Chase sits down at his table. He is immediately bullied by Chase's friends who force Chase to sit with them.

More incidents reveal to Chase that he was just not well liked, but in fact most people were terrified of him. When he first meets his half- sister Helene, she is completely terrified of Chase. At school when Chase tries to help a girl, she flees in terror. Students act odd, conversations end when he walks by, and people turn away from him as he walks down the hall. From Aaron and Bear, Chase learns they are assigned community service at the Graybeard Motel on Portland Street, helping the elderly residents. They were arrested and assigned community service for planting several cherry bombs in the piano at open house. Aaron and Bear dismiss what happened, telling Chase they do what they want and the adults can't do much. Their conversation leaves Chase doubting his removal from the football team for the season. This leads Chase to confront his mother about not telling him he was assigned community service. When he tries to downplay what happened, his mother's account at the school open house makes Chase feel ashamed.

Meanwhile Brendan Espinoza can't get anyone from the video club to help him make his video. Brendan is a nerd, honor roll student, president of the video club, and Academic Decathlon champ. With Joel Weber gone, Brendan is certain Chase and his friends will target him now. But Chase seems friendly and different. So when he sees Chase in the hallway, Brendan invites Chase to help him shoot his video. Brendan's video of him riding a tricycle through the Shiny Bumper car wash almost gets Chase in trouble again. But Brendan diffuses the situation and Chase acknowledges that it was Brendan's good reputation and not his bad one that saves him. Because they had so much fun together, Brendan invites Chase to join the video club. Shoshanna Weber and the other members of the club are horrified when they hear this. Shoshanna's brother Joel was the victim of Chase and his friends cherry bomb prank. It was the reason he has left Hiawassee to attend another school. But Brendan insists Chase is not the same person as he tells the group, "...He was helpful. He had good ideas. He was even nice. He's different."

Ms. DeLeo tells they club they must accept Chase. At the meeting, they discuss working on entries for the National Video Journalism Contest which will feature profiling a senior citizen. They are also working on producing a video yearbook which includes student interviews and information on school clubs and teams. Chase is assigned to cover the football team. Shoshanna refuses to believe that Chase is a different person. "No. Amnesia can wipe out the details of your past, but it can't change the kind of person you are. "

Chase decides to accompany Aaron and Bear to the Portland Street Assisted Living Residence where they  are assigned to take snacks to the residents. Chase watches as his two buddies eat most of the cookies  on the cart and refer to the residents in disrespectful ways. Chase is upset by how his friends behave and starts to really help, adjusting beds and helping find TV remotes.At the home Chase meets Julius Solway who was awarded a Medal of Honor for his service during the Korean War. Chase finds Julius to be a "cool" guy and begins to develop a relationship with him. His interest in  Julius's medal leads the elderly man to admit he can't find his medal. At a meeting of the video club, Chase suggests to Shoshanna that she video Mr. Solway for her entry in to the video contest.

Chase joins Shoshanna as she interviews Mr. Solway. As time passes, Chase finds himself struggling against being pulled back into his old bullying ways by Aaron and Bear. The choice to be a new person means gaining new friends and losing old ones. And it offers Chase the unexpected opportunity to confront and right a wrong that the old Chase did.

Discussion

Restart is a thoroughly enjoyable account of a thirteen-year-old boy who gets a chance to change his life as a result of an accident. Korman deftly weaves his story using multiple narrators; Chase Ambrose, Shoshanna Weber. Brendan Espinoza, Kimberly Tooley, Aaron Hakimian, and Joel Weber.  Chase's memory is wiped clean, offering him a second chance. The old Chase was a bully who terrorized Joel Weber so much that his family was forced to send him to another school after a terrible prank. That prank resulted in Chase and his friends Aaron and Bear being arrested and assigned community service. But even there Chase and his friends continued their bad behaviour, treating the residents disrespectfully with Chase stealing Mr. Solway's medal. Besides Chase's story, Korman also includes a subplot involving Brendan Espinoza who attempts to attract the interest of Kimberly Tooley who only has eyes for Chase.

Following his accident, everything the new Chase uncovers about the old Chase is unsettling. He remembers how he gleefully ripped the head off of his half-sister Helene's teddy bear and when his brother Johnny left for college, Chase remembers the scorn he felt for his brother who's terrified and his mother who is sad. He learns that he seriously hurt Brendan by pushing his head into a drinking fountain, causing him to need three stitches. His friends Aaron and Bear tell Chase that he was the one who chose Joel to bully.

The new Chase is completely different, friendly, kind and helpful. He enjoys his visits to the assisted living center. "But I find the residents kind of interesting. They remember stuff in real life that you can only read about in history books." He is horrified when Bear takes twenty dollars from Mrs. Swanson who "isn't all there" and when Bear refuses to return the money, Chase uses his own money to right this wrong. He helps Shoshanna complete her video project for the competition partly out of interest and partly to repay what he did to her family and he apologizes to both the Weber family and to Brendan.

Chase's transformation from bully to good guy isn't without mistakes. Korman presents his journey as a process that Chase undertakes and that involves conflict and some mistakes. Chase experiences conflict over who he was then and who he is now. He wants to believe there was some good in him. Chase has flashbacks of what he describes as his "wonderful toughness -- punching and shoving kids, kicking their heels out from under them in the halls," Chase also remembers "feeling important and confident and powerful. Maybe some of that came from what a jerk I was, but surely not all of it...I was a somebody in this town." Chase makes mistakes as when he accidentally hurts Joel while trying to stop Aaron and Bear as they vandalize the music room,  and he lies to the principal about what happened, backing up his friends' lie. But he also looks outside of himself to see how what has happened affects those around him, his friends, the teachers and the principal.

Eventually Chase has to choose who he's going to be - the bully or the nice guy, and who he wants as his friends. After the incident with Joel, Chase realizes that he'd rather have the new Chase's life rather than his old one back. This is shown when Aaron and Bear reveal to Chase that he was the one who stole Mr. Solway's medal.  "As I run, hot tears of shame are streaming down my face. Since my accident, I've heard a lot about the person I used to be. Never did I imagine this." His shame and desire to do the right thing overcome the threats of his friends and Chase tries to return the medal. When his attempt results in a brawl, he comes clean, accepting sole responsibility for the theft. Although the consequences maybe be severe, Chase doesn't want to go back to being the person he was before the accident. His father recognizes his attempts to be a better person. "...It takes strength to eat the blame and not rat out Aaron and Bear, especially when they more than deserve it. Or to try to make things right with Solway or even the Weber kid, whether they appreciate it or not. You're strong, all right. And stupid. But everybody has stupid moments. The trick is not to let a few bad moments cost you the game."

Chase recognizes how angry and self-absorbed he was prior to his accident, in contrast to the shame and disgust he now feels. "Back then I had such a high opinion of the great Chase Ambrose that I considered myself untouchable. Now it's the opposite. I hate myself so much that there's no way any judge could hate me more." But Chase is in for a surprise from the very people he spent years tormenting, demonstrating the importance of forgiveness and the need to recognize that people can change.

Mr. Solway, the crotchety resident of the nursing home is a mirror character to Chase. He is disliked by almost everyone there; he's rude and mean. He has his own table in the dining room and his nickname is Mr. Happy Face. He is like Chase before his head injury.  Chase thinks Mr. Solway is the coolest person he's ever met. They are "memory-loss buddies" and this leads Chase to wonder "if I blocked out what a jerk I used to be because I can't face it." As the two become good friends, Mr. Solway undergoes a remarkable transformation, moving about again and showing an interest in life and even making the difficult journey in to the court to speak up for Chase. Like Chase, he's become less self-absorbed and focuses on doing what's right.

Restart is classic Gordon Korman, with a likeable main character and a great cast of supporting characters, particularly the witty Shoshanna Weber and the nerdy Brendan Espinoza. The novel has a strong plot that's well executed with a dash of Korman humour. The novel is chock full of themes; forgiveness, redemption, the meaning of friendship, identity and how change is possible. Restart would have made more sense set in high school and the characters a bit older. Overall, Restart is a spectacular novel and highly recommended. It's nice to see good, solid fiction for younger readers and one that will especially appeal to boys.

Book Details:

Restart by Gordon Korman
New York: Scholastic Press    2017
243 pp.

The Memory of Things by Gae Polisner

On the morning of September 11, 2001, sixteen year old Kyle Donohue watches the first Twin Tower collapse from his classroom in Stuyvesant High School. As he is evacuated across the Brooklyn Bridge, Kyle spots what he first thinks is a bird, but soon discovers is a girl wearing a pair of giant white wings that look like part of a costume. She appears ready to jump but Kyle pulls her up and makes her run with him across the bridge. Kyle's father is back in Manhattan, where two planes have been flown into buildings like bombs. He's part of the Joint Terrorist Task Force, the first sent into crisis situations like this. At this point, Kyle has no idea if his father is alive or dead.

Kyle takes the girl who is covered from head to toe in white ash to their four bedroom apartment in Brooklyn Heights. He tells her that his mom and sister are in Los Angeles and that his uncle lives with them. Kyle is unable to reach his father or his mother by phone. At home, Kyle finds another message on his phone from his father, filled with sounds of crashing, sirens and chaos. His father asks him to contact his mom but also to get to somewhere safe. 

Kyle tells the girl to shower and gives her clean clothes and tells her she can rest in his sister Kerri's room. He then attempts to call his mom and Kerri at Chase Knolls Garden Apartments where they have been staying over the summer in Los Angeles. Kerri has been attending acting camp and her departure was delayed by a week when she got a callback for an audition. He is not able to get his call through though.

Meanwhile the girl gets cleaned up and Kyle notes that she's quite pretty with all the ash cleaned off. He informs her that he will wash her clothing, that he needs to reach his mom and tell his Uncle Matt about her presence. When he asks her her name, she tells Kyle she doesn't know which only puzzles and upsets Kyle more.

He decides to check up on his Uncle Matt who is in the guest room and finds him asleep in his wheelchair. Kyle's Uncle Matt was a lieutenant in the Emergency Services Unit before his motorcycle accident. A kind and very smart man he now lives with Kyle's family. Uncle Matt would defend Kyle from the criticisms of his Uncle Paul and his dad who believe all Donohue men are cops. It was especially bad after Kyle transferred to Stuyvesant. Now Kyle misses the old Uncle Matt. 

The scenes on the television screen confuse Kyle because they are saying that the North Tower collapsed when he knows he saw the South Tower fall. From the television Kyle learns that both towers have collapsed, that a plane was flown into the Pentagon and that a fourth plane believed to be hijacked, crashed into a field in Pennsylvania. Military jets have been scrambled and it is unknown how many other attacks might happen.

Eventually Kyle does receive a message from his mother who is not able to work a cell phone properly and keeps hanging up. She does let him know however that their flight has been cancelled and that they are going to try to find a place to stay in Los Angeles. In the guest room his uncle is watching coverage of the disaster in disbelief. Kyle fills him in on what happened to him that morning and on what he knows so far about the attack, and his mom and dad. 

Later on he also tells his uncle about finding the girl around his age on the bridge and that he has brought her to their apartment. He tells him that based on the amount of ash on her she must have been at the towers when they collapsed. His uncle suggests that Kyle call "Missing Persons" but Kyle tells him it's unlikely he will get through. As the day wears on and Kyle tries to carry on as much as possible, making pizza, taking care of his uncle and trying to reach his mother. What should he do with the girl who doesn't remember her name? Is his father safe? Will his mom and Kerri be able to return home soon? When will it be safe to go outside? Over the next several days Kyle will find himself falling for this mysterious, captivating girl. And he will discover his act of kindness in saving a girl in a moment of despair, gives her a second chance to make things right. In saving her, Kyle saves himself too.

Discussion

The Memory of Things is a poignant story about how,in the face of the incomprehensible, we struggle to continue on with our lives. The terrorist acts of 9-11 certainly can be described in this manner. How do we comprehend the act of hijacking two fully fueled planes, using them as bombs to bring down two iconic buildings trapping and pulverizing to death thousands of innocent people. Polisner was inspired to write The Memory of Things in the years after 9-11 but waited because she required time to process the depth of the tragedy.

To tell her story, Polisner uses the two main characters of Kyle and a girl whom readers eventually know as Hannah. Kyle's narrative is the principle one, written in prose because his memory is intact. Hannah's narrative is inserted into Kyle's and is in free verse. Initially Hannah's narrative consists of simple broken verse, representing her broken memory;
"Wait to fall
but don't
Am tethered here.
Turn.
A boy shouts,
eyes full of terror.
He grabs hold of me...

In the day following the terror attack, Hannah makes many references in her narrative that seem random and meaningless. For example,
(Words slip in, echoing and distant:
emboite,
attitude devant...)

emboite and devant being ballet terms. As Hannah spends time at Kyle's family's apartment, her memory begins to return and her narrative is more fluid and coherent.

The tears come so hard I can't catch my breath,
can't stop my body from shaking.
Kyle hugs me, and I fight him off.
I'm so angry and broken, I can't even bear to be hugged,
don't deserve to be hugged.
But then I give in, because I'm
so
lonely and
scared"

Eventually Hannah's story becomes coherent, revealing a heartbreaking story filled with grief and regret but not without hope.

As the tragedy unfolds, two people who would otherwise never have met, come together and briefly find comfort in each other, helping each other to cope and to begin healing. Their budding relationship is temporary though as Kyle suspects. "Besides I have this aching sense that what Hannah and I have is one of those things that happens in a vacuum, that can't be sustained under normal conditions. Under the pressures of school, and life, and parents, and siblings, and distance. It's something quiet and possessive, that will fall apart once it's diluted." Despite that both Kyle and Hannah have each other's contact information - she his email, he her phone number.

A major theme in the novel revolves around memories and how they are an important part of our lives, defining who we are and even the choices we make. This is demonstrated in the novel especially through the characters of Uncle Matt and Hannah Marconi. Kyle's Uncle Matt was badly injured in an accident, breaking his neck, jaw and fracturing his skull. His speech is slurred and he is partially paralyzed. Uncle Matt has been reciting things that appear to be random but Kyle knows he's working on a "practical skill called the method of loci, a memory trick in which certain types of data get stored in story like sequences." According to Kyle, his uncle "is a genius and a memory expert." Although he's been a cop, the other part of his life has revolved around competing in memory competitions. Before his accident, he was planning to attend the U.S. Memory Championships for the third time with the intention of winning. The fact that Uncle Matt is able to still practice the method of loci demonstrates to Kyle that despite his physical limitations his mind is still very sharp. When Hannah shows an interest in Uncle Matt and talks to him like he's present, she motivates him to practice his memory trick, leading Kyle to recognize that his uncle is healing and to tell his father that Uncle Matt needs to stay with them.

While Uncle Matt still has his memories, the girl Kyle rescues does not. She doesn't remember her name, is suicidal and dazed when he pulls her off the bridge. After a day or so, she tells Kyle "I keep remembering little things. Bits and pieces. Like those things that flash at the end of a movie reel when the film runs out..." She remembers voices, faces, music and dance steps. Her broken memory is reflected in her broken poetry narrative. Eventually Hannah recovers her memory after spending a few days in a safe place. Her memory of her last conversation with her father haunts her. Hannah's father, John Marconi is the lawyer for Harrison Highfront who is accused of raping a girl. Eventually Hannah's memory is restored when she sees a magazine article about her father and the case in Kyle's apartment. She tells Kyle that the last conversation she had with her father was an argument. The memory of those last words haunts Hannah.

For Kyle, the presence of Hannah helps him forget the reality of what is happening. When Kyle and Hannah are practicing Uncle Matt's memory trick, Kyle forgets the attacks, about Uncle Matt's accident, about Jenny Lynch's dad and Bangor's uncle dying in the terrorist attack on the Twin Towers. "I forget that this day isn't normal, that yesterday wasn't normal, that the whole world as we know it has stopped...But then she sits down and sighs, and like that, I'm slammed with the memory of things. The cold hard truth that she doesn't belong here with me, that this is just temporary..." Kyle notes working on the memory trick to remember ten insignificant things makes them happy because for a moment they forget what they can't or don't want to remember.

It's interesting how Polisner has her characters carrying on with seemingly mundane chores and the regular business of living. People need the familiar in times of stress to help them cope. While waiting to hear from his father and his mother, Kyle does laundry and cooks. His father returns home after several days of working at Ground Zero and Kyle wakes in the morning to him making a batch of pancakes. His father explains "It's been tough, Kyle, I won't lie. Brutal. Which is why I needed to get home. See you guys, do something normal. Sit and eat a few pancakes with you and my brother, here." People find comfort in the routine of daily tasks when times are difficult. They also need something to tether them to reality. Kyle is the tether that Hannah needs while she struggles to remember. "Well, it feels like that, Kyle, back there. Like I'm adrift, in soaking wet clothes that are too heavy with the weight of things I don't even know...It's like I'm here, solid, but I'm not connected to anything. I'm completely untethered. I know that makes no sense," she says. It does, I say, 'I think I get it. but you're wrong. You're tethered to me.' "

The Memory of Things is tender, a delicate story about two people who come together unexpectedly and help each other in a time of great distress - the terrorist attacks of 9-11. It is a story about fear, loss, struggle, love and hope. And a brilliant piece of writing by Gae Polisner.

Book Details:

The Memory of Things by Gae Polisner
New York: St. Martin's Griffin    2016
279 pp. 

Blank by Trina St. Jean

Blank is a novel about a young girl's attempt to come to terms with her life after a brain-altering injury leaves her unable to remember who she is.

Fifteen-year-old Jessica Grenier wakes from a coma having no memory of who she is or how she happened to be in the hospital. Jessica describes her parents as the Woman and the Man and her younger brother, ten year old Stephen, as the Boy or  Little Man. Jessica refers to herself as the Girl. The day of Jessica's accident, April 26, is designated as the Very Bad Day, the day she was attacked by a bison bull named Ramses on her family's bison farm. She spent eleven days in a coma and has been awake now for nine days.

In the hospital Jessica looks at the pictures her mother brings in but they stir no emotion in her. She states, "...my old life is a long blank that my brain no longer fills for me." She understands what she is told but she feels nothing. "I may finally be awake, but I am hollow."

Jessica's doctor, Dr. Lavoie whom she nicknames Super Doc because he saved her, tells her although most people with her type of injury regain their memories, but he has no way to be certain this will happen to her. Dr. Lavoie encourages Jessica to continue on with her rehabilitation. A day or so later Jessica does have a few memories of the accident but these upset her so much that she becomes enraged, breaking a cup and stamping on the pieces. As a result of this, Dr. Lavoie arranges for Jessica to see a neuroscientist, Dr. Kirshbaum, who will help her manage her impulses and her anger. She's already receiving physical therapy from Ruby, who is teaching her to walk again. Super Doc encourages Jessica to give herself time to heal.

One day Jessica decides to pay a visit to the TV lounge at the end of the hospital wing. There she meets a girl with dark purple hair and a nose ring whom she dubbs Nose Ring. When she returns to the lounge, she and Nose Ring watch a soap opera about a woman who has amnesia and doesn't remember her fiance. When Nose Ring asks Jessica the reason for her stay in the hospital, she doesn't tell her about the accident. On another visit, as they are watching the soap opera, Nose Ring remarks that it would be nice to have amnesia. "Think about it. How many people get a chance to start fresh like that?" This leads Jessica to ask what she's done in her life that she would want her "whole miserable past erased". At this point Nose Ring tells Jessica her name is Tarin and she is visiting her grandmother who had a stroke.

Jessica gets a visit from her three best friends whom she knows are called the Pink Posse from their get well card. The visit is awkward though because although Jessica can remember their names, Cybil, Kerry and Megan, she cannot really remember her friendship with them. All of this makes Jessica feel deeply lonely. After another CT scan, Dr. Lavoie announces that Jessica is ready to go home. He tells her and her parents that her memory loss is not only due to emotional trauma but also due to some physical damage to her brain and that it might be permanent. Although this makes Jessica feel relief, her mother seems to have difficulty with the fact that Jessica might not return to her old self some day.

When Jessica returns home she struggles to come to terms with the person she is now compared to who she was before her injury. Her room is filled with her collection of porcelain frog figurines which she hates and eventually breaks. None of this feels familiar to Jessica who wonders, "If I lie here long enough, ... will her soul slip back into this empty shell I'm walking around in?" As Jessica struggles to put her life back together she wonders about the person she was and the person she is now. Can she come to terms with the fact that her past is gone but more importantly can she learn to live in the present, accepting who she now is?

Discussion

Blank focuses on the very personal struggle of the main character, Jessica, to restart her life after a serious head injury.  Admittedly,  Jessica's accident seems a somewhat strange and readers picking up the novel might conclude that this is a story about a gunshot injury given the cover and the title. When Jessica returns home, her room feels like that of a stranger. This leads her to try to understand who the Girl was by going through her cell phone texts and facebook posts. But although this leads Jessica to determine that the Girl was someone who liked animals, artsy photographs and motivational sayings, she finds the Girl's life remarkably bland. To Jessica, a picture emerges of the Girl as a "goody-two-shoes" and this annoys her. Jessica is also worried that as she learns more about who she was, she may not like that person. It is because of this fear that she delays looking at a personal journal her mother gives her.

It is obvious though to Jessica that her behaviour is different from before her accident; she's more impulsive and is interested in different things. She's rude towards others and she misses the comfort of having her life figured out. "I want to be her little girl again, have her take care of me and tell me everything is going to be all right. But the sad truth is, I am not her daughter at all. I'm a rude, crazy stranger who is posing as her darling Jessica."

With the help of Dr. Kirschbaum, Jessica is asked to focus on the positive things in her life. Jessica also begins to tackle certain things head on - she goes to visit Ramses, she meets Tarin again and tells her the truth about what happened to her, and she also asks her father to tell her about the accident. Ultimately it is Jessica's desire to understand what happened to her that is the impetus for her coming to accept her life as it is now. Part of that acceptance comes from learning what really happened during the accident and coming to realize that she needs to give herself a chance to make a good life for herself.

St. Jean realistically portrays Jessica's journey towards understanding what happened to her and her struggles to cope. The story feels realistic as to the effects of the injury on Jessica, her family and her relationship with her friends. Jessica also realizes that although there are some things from her past she no longer likes, she is willing to restart her friendship with her best Megan and to reconsider going to a support group.

Blank is part of the extensive canon of young adult literature on teens with amnesia that seems so popular these days. At times the pacing is slow but the mystery of Jessica's accident and her determination to discover why the seemingly good Girl did such a stupid thing are what keep the reader engaged. Overall, Blank is a good debut novel for Trina St. Jean, who hails from the lovely hamlet of Wandering River in northern Alberta. Look for more well written stories from this bright, new Canadian author!

Book Details:

Blank by Trina St. Jean
Victoria, BC: Orca Book Publishers    2015
301 pp.

We Were Liars by E. Lockhart

We Were Liars is a story about a girl whose privileged life is turned upside down by an unspeakable tragedy.

Cadence (Cady) Eastman lives with her mother, Penny, and their dogs in a house in Burlington, Vermont. The year before her fifteenth summer, Cady's father left  her mother for another woman. Cady and her mother are part of the fabulously wealthy Sinclair family of Boston, headed by her grandparents, Harris and Tipper Sinclair. Harris and Tipper have three beautiful, tall, blonde daughters, Penny - who is Cady's mother, Bess Sheffield and Carrie Dennis.

Every summer Harris and Tipper along with their daughters and their families would travel to the family's private island, Beechwood Island, where Harris had built homes for each of his daughters. Penny and Cady lived at Windemere, the Sheffields at Cuddledown and the Dennises at Red Gate. Harris and Tipper resided at the largest home, Clairmont with its family portraits, expensive artwork.

The older cousins, Cadence Eastman, Johnny Dennis, Mirren Sheffield along with Gatwick Patil were eventually nicknamed the Four Liars by their aunts. Cadence, Mirren and Johnny were cousins, their mothers - Penny Eastman, Bess Sheffield and Carrie Dennis respectively.

 For eight summers, three of the cousins who were closest in age, Cady Eastman, Johnny Dennis and Mirren Sheffield hung out together on Beechwood Island. During summer eight, Aunt Carrie (Dennis) arrived on Beechwood with Johnny and baby Will and her new partner, Ed, a dark skinned man of Indian heritage. Her marriage to her husband has broken down and she was now divorced. Ed brought along his nephew, Gat, who immediately seemed to fit in with the three cousins. Gat and Johnny grew close and Gat began coming to Beechwood every summer after that. From this point on the three cousins and Gat became known as the Liars.

When Cadence's father left, Cady was heartbroken. After the break-up, her mother told Cadence to ignore her feelings and to pretend like nothing had happened. They proceeded to redecorate the house, throw out anything her father left behind and retreat to Beechwood Island. That summer was also different because Cady's grandmother, Tipper Sinclair had died eight months earlier and Granddad was struggling. As with the divorce, Cady's mother refused to allow her to mourn the loss of her beloved grandmother.  "She made me act normal. Because I was. Because I could. She told me to breathe and sit up."

However, Cady was very broken over the loss of these two people from her life. Gat comforted Cady and tried to get her to talk about what had happened " as if talking about something could make it better. As if wounds needed attention." That summer Cady found herself forming a deepening friendship with Gat that began to blossom into a first love. While her cousins Johnny and Mirren did their usual swimming and snorkeling and minding the "littles", Gat and Cady spent time together. Until one night Cady apparently went swimming alone, was found in her underwear on the beach by her aunts and was taken to a hospital on Martha's Vineyard. Cady remembered nothing about what happened that night.

Back home in Burlington, Vermont, after the accident, Cady wrote Gat and then Johnny but got no response from either. She began experiencing terrible migraines and blackouts six weeks after her accident. In the year after her accident, Cady missed classes and eventually failed her junior year. She tried calling both Mirren and Johnny but was unable to get an answer. During the next summer, Cady went to Europe with her father. Since Beechwood doesn't have cell reception, Cady sent Johnny and Mirren emails which were also are ignored.

After the trip to Europe, Cady mailed each of her cousins something she owned; Mirren received an old Barbie doll and Johnny a striped scarf. Cady only remembers certain things from the summer of the accident and when she asks her mother, she tells Cady that she keeps telling her the truth but that she keeps forgetting what she's been told. The doctors now think it's better that Cady remember on her own.

For summer seventeen her father plans to take her to Australia and New Zealand, but Cady wants to return to Beechwood. She wants to see Mirren and Johnny. She wants to remember the accident and to know why Gat disappeared.  Her parents eventually decide that she will go to Beechwood for four weeks and then spend the rest of the summer with her father.

In what will be her first trip back to Beechwood Island since her accident, Cady can't wait to catch up with the Liars. But the memories Cady uncovers will be more devastating than she could ever have imagined.

Discussion

We Were Liars is an engaging novel with a truly heart-wrenching conclusion. Although Lockhart gives her readers clues along the way, the twist at the end is shocking and unbearable to the reader. But the truth, when faced by Cady, allows her to begin the path to healing.

At the center of the story is the dysfunctional Sinclair family with its wealth, its concern for a carefully crafted public image of beauty and strength, and its inability to confront failure, death and conflict. Cady describes the Sinclairs as "athletic, tall, and handsome" and as "old-money Democrats" with "wide smiles, square chins.." The three daughters, Cady's mother and her aunts are tall and blond. Appearance is everything to the Sinclair family and especially so to Cady's mother, Penny who does not allow her daughter to express any emotional pain. "It doesn't matter if divorce shreds the muscles of our hearts so that they will hardly beat without a struggle. It doesn't matter if trust-fund money is running out....We are Sinclairs. No one is needy. No one is wrong." Later on Cady describes "the beautiful Sinclair family" as believing in outdoor exercise, prescription drugs and cocktail hour. "We do not believe in displays of distress. Our upper lips are stiff,..."

When Cady arrives on Beechwood during Summer Seventeen and she sees that the beautiful maple tree with the swing gone she feels immensely sad. Her mother's reaction, even after all Cady has been through, is one that does not acknowledge in any way what Cady is feeling. She is to pretend all is well. "Be normal now," she whispers. "Right now."..."Don't cause a scene," whispers Mummy. "Breathe and sit up." I do what she asks as soon as I am able, just as I have always done."

The three sisters, Penny, Carrie and Bess have failed marriages and are struggling financially. Their aging father, the patriarch of the family, has a vast fortune to leave to them. But the three sisters are grasping and manipulative. Their fighting and back-biting begins to take a toll on the older grandchildren, Cady, Johnny and Mirren as they are drawn into the feud between the three sisters. They decide they've had enough and it is this decision the sets up the terrible tragedy which befalls the Sinclair family.

One of the strengths of this novel is the exquisite descriptive writing that allows the reader to deeply feel Cady's pain. For example, Lockhart uses an extended metaphor to portray the depth of Cady's pain when she speaks about her father leaving.
"Then he pulled out a handgun and shot me in the chest. I was standing on the lawn and I fell. The bullet hole opened wide and my heart rolled out of my rib cage and down into a flower bed. Blood gushed rhythmically from my open wound,
then from my eyes,
my ears,
my mouth.
It tasted like salt and failure. The bright red shame of being unloved soaked on the grass in front of our house...My heart spasmed among the peonies like a trout."

Later on when Gat talks about Gran's death, Cady describes her reaction in a way that metaphorically compares her to slitting her wrists:
"Everytime Gat said these things, so casual and truthful, so oblivious -- my veins opened. My wrists split. I bled down my palms. I went light-headed....When blood dripped on my bare feet or poured over the book I was reading, he was kind. He wrapped my wrists in soft white gauze..."

Only Gat allows acknowledges Cady's pain and allows her to express what she feels. He also attempts to make the Sinclairs confront the frayed areas that are common to all families but which the Sinclairs habitually ignore. For example, during Summer Fifteen, when Gran was gone, Gat makes a comment about Tipper and how he misses her. Instead of acknowledging their own loss, Johnny attempts to cover up what Gat has said. It is this willingness to acknowledge the unseen difficult parts of life, whether it be death of a beloved grandmother or poverty in India that makes Gat so special to Cady and yet as she says "a stranger, even after all those years." "He asked about Dad and about Gran-- as if talking about something could make it better. As if wounds needed attention."

The novel's story is told from the perspective of Cady who, because of her amnesia, will be gradually seen to be an unreliable narrator. Her narration is broken and at times disjointed, reflecting her fragile state of mind; first dwelling on the Sinclair family, then her father, then "her Gat", the boy she loves, then life on Beechwood and back to the elder Sinclairs. 

The novel is divided into four parts. The backstory is provided by flashbacks in Part One Welcome, where Cady sets the tone and also provides readers with an understanding of the family structure and how the Sinclair family function. To help with this, Emily Lockhart has included a map of Beechwood Island as well as a Sinclair family tree. Part Two Vermont, tells of Cady's attempts to recover her memory and her struggles after her accident. Part Three Summer Seventeen, relates her return to Beechwood and what happens that summer. Lockhart gives subtle hints at what is really going on; although Taft, Mirren's younger brother called to tell Cady they are already at  Beechwood, the Liars do not meet her at the dock when she arrives, Taft is afraid of the noises in Cuddledown which he believes in haunted and so his family abandons their home to stay with Granddad at the new Clairmont home, the Liars have Cuddledown to themselves and they never show up for meals at Clairmont. Gradually Cady begins to remember events from that summer. Part Four Look, A Fire, reveals the truth about that summer and how the family conflicts led to the unspeakable tragedy.

We Were Liars is a brilliant novel with a shocking truth revealed at the end. Emily Lockhart has written a "must read" novel for teens. The author had many well published authors comment on the early drafts of the novel including Sarah Mlynowksi, Justine Larbalestier, Lauren Myracle, Scott Westerfeld and Robin Wasserman. The result: a beautifully crafted story that readers will remember for some time to come.

Book Details:
We Were Liars by Emily Lockhart
New York: Delacorte Press      2013
227 pp.

Blackbird by Anna Carey

Blackbird is the first book in Anna Carey's duology about a girl involved in a deadly cat and mouse game that sees her being hunted by a series of unknown assassins.

The novel opens with a girl, who awakens to find herself on the subway tracks at the Vermont/Sunset Station, hearing the screeching of the train as it stops over her. "At first it is all sound, the grinding of the wheels in the metal track, the rush of air as the train barrels forward. Its hot breath musses your hair. You stare into the train's underbelly, metal and pipe and wire. As the train finally slows, stopping in the station, it takes you a few seconds to process it: You are still lying there, just inches below the train. You're still alive."

She finds herself just lying there, "specifically positioned, arms crossed over her chest, shoulders just inside the tracks." After the ambulance arrives, they back the train up and the girl sits up. When they try to place her on the board, asking her her name and and what happened, she doesn't know, gets up and runs out of the station.

The first thing she notices about herself is that there is a mysterious tattoo on the inside of her write wrist; FNV02198. In her backpack she finds a notepad, mace, a pocketknife, a map and one thousand dollars.  Inside a supermarket, where she's fled, she bumps into a guy who notices the gash on her forearm. The boy lets her use his phone to call the number on her notepad. When she calls the number, an unknown man tells her to meet him at the building marked on her map. She then asks Ben, the guy she's met, to give her a ride to the area where the building is located, which he does. When Ben asks her her name, she makes up the name "Sunny". Ben drops her at the building, giving her his phone number. In the building Sunny goes to Garner Consulting on the 9th floor. When no one meets her there, she decides to break in to the office, only to find the safe forced open and money spilled over the floor. Terrified and suspecting she's been set up, Sunny flees the scene. After spending the night in a playground, she finds a hotel room, changes into new clothing and then experiences a flashback about attending a funeral.

Soon Sunny begins to realize that she is being followed. She notices a man at the diner and when she attempts to lose him, he gets into a silver car and follows her. Trying to outrun him, she ducks into a huge music store and seems to lose him. Meanwhile the narrative switches to a wealthy woman who is attending a dinner reception and who receives a cryptic message that happens to identify Sunny's location - the Greyhound bus station on Hollywood Boulevard.  Meanwhile Sunny's second person narrative reveals that she is now at the bus station intending to travel to San Francisco, hoping to lose whoever is following her. However, Sunny never makes her bus because she is attacked by a woman wearing a unique medallion. This woman chases Sunny and tries to kill her. Sunny is saved at the last minute by the same man who was tracking her earlier, when he shoots and kills the woman.


When Sunny returns to the scene of the murder very soon after, she finds almost no evidence of the life and death struggle that took place between her and the woman; her body and the gun are both gone. Back in the hotel and having difficult sleeping, Sunny dreams about a boy in a forest and how they are being hunted. Remembering Ben, Sunny decides to call him and they meet at the diner. She tells Ben what has been going on and decides to return with him to his house where he lives with his mother. Searches on Ben's computer reveal no information about a missing girl nor about a woman killed by the 101 Freeway. Sunny also meets Ben's next door neighbour, Izzy who seems friendly.

After taking her to a party Ben and Sunny spend time at the beach relaxing. Sunny continues making notes in her notepad and then realizes that the man who was following her found her twice, only a day apart. This seems too coincidental to Sunny who now believes she's being tracked. She searches her backpack and discovers a hidden tracking device. She decides to set up a third meeting with this man, on her own terms by hiding the tracking device in a park where she can ambush him.

When Sunny does take him down she learns that his name is Ivan Petrovski and that he was paid to track her. Ivan tells her he was paid to make it look like she robbed Garner Consulting and that he doesn't know the identity of the woman who tried to kill her nor who has hired him. He also reveals to Sunny that he told them that she killed the woman. Using Ivan's phone, Sunny calls a number on Ivan's phone, telling them that she has Ivan. This sends them after both Ivan and Sunny. Sunny manages to escape and follows Ivan's captors to a house where he is interrogated and beaten.

After leaving Ivan to the mercy of his captors, Sunny is once again being followed and finds herself cornered in the washroom of a fast food joint where the man tries to kill her. Again Sunny barely escapes due to luck. Sunny begins to sense that these people are hunting her because they don't actually want to use the tracking device. Instead they want clues to her whereabouts. She is part of an elaborate game. Realizing that she is in over her head, Sunny reaches out to the police. Can anyone save her in this elaborate cat and mouse game, where she is the prey and others are the hunters?

Discussion

Readers will find the point of view in  Blackbird different because it is written in second person using "you" pronouns. It's unusual to have a book written from the second person narrative because generally it is difficult to make it work, but Carey succeeds, having crafted a novel filled with suspense and mystery. Through her use of second person narrative, Carey pulls the reader into the action especially when Sunny is being attacked or being chased, which based on the premise of the novel, happens frequently.

"She grabs your head with one hand, watching you as she holds you there, the smile still curled on her lips. Then she raises the knife. The pain in your head is white-hot, your back scraped and bleeding on the pavement, and you know this is it."

Carey has indicated that she wrote Blackbird in second person because she felt this was the best perspective for a character who had no memory of who she is and because it makes the reader feel like they are the ones who are in danger. She also felt it was a new approach to writing a thriller and would push her out of her comfort zone. It is a different narrative that most readers will not often experience and Carey makes it work here. It's fresh and intriguing.

The story is mostly action driven, partly because the character doesn't remember who she is and with the second person narrative we learn along with her, bits and pieces of her past. Sunny appears to be a very intelligent, quick-thinking girl with considerable street smarts and someone who seems mature beyond her years. She also appears to have had some kind of self-defense training and is athletic. She's in a city where she seems to remember how to get around, but can't remember her own name or past. We learn through another narrator that this might be because she has been given some kind of drug to erase her memories, but that the drug is beginning to wear off, as evidenced by the recurring dreams and flashbacks she's experiencing. She's adaptable and resilient, determined to uncover her past and her identity and to learn why she's being hunted.

There are plenty of secondary characters in the novel, most of whom we meet only briefly and therefore are not very well drawn. Ben and Celia Alvarez are the two main secondary characters. Ben appears to be on Sunny's side, providing a place for her to stay and driving her around to investigate certain areas and situations. However, when Sunny discovers a folder labelled she suspects Ben's motives and flees from him. Celia on the other is definitely out to help Sunny, letting her leave when she learns Sunny was involved in the arson in San Francisco as well as keeping in contact with her outside of her job. It is Celia who provides Sunny with the information about Hilary Goss, the woman who tried to kill her.

The cliffhanger ending leads nicely into the sequel, Deadfall, which will be released June 2015. In this sequel, the main character will meet the boy in her dreams, try to figure out what has happened between her and Ben, learn her true identity and come to understand her past and finally figure out who the people are who are trying to kill her and why.



***The remainder of the novel is summarized below for those who will read the sequel next year and want to refresh their memories as to what happened. It therefore contains spoilers.**

Sunny is interviewed extensively by the police who find her story unbelievable. When they question her about Ben after finding his name and number in her pocket, Sunny feels that she has to protect him and simply tells the police that he was just "some guy I met at the supermarket" who tried to pick her up. In an effort to locate the house where Ivan was taken, another officer, Celia Alvarez takes Sunny out in her cruiser, where they do eventually find the house. Incredibly, the house has been set on fire and the cops believe it  was the work of junkies. Celia tells Sunny that her prints indicate that she is wanted for arson at Club Xenith in San Francisco. Believing that Celia will arrest her, Sunny flees, although she suspects that Celia is letting her go.

Sunny returns to Ben telling him why she ran from him and that she eventually went to the police. Research on Ben's computer suggests that homeless teens are believed responsible for the arson in San Francisco. Sunny and Ben become intimate. Later on she remembers more about THE BOY, whom she loves and whom she realizes was being hunted on the island. The next morning, Sunny decides to investigate Parillo Construction, the name she saw on the boxes at the house where Ivan was. Ben takes her to Parillo Construction where Sunny makes a gruesome discovery - the body of Ivan stuffed into a garbage bag ready to be disposed of and evidence of a dog-fighting ring.

Meanwhile Celia Alvarez is certain that the unknown girl who came to the police is telling the truth. Celia meets Sunny unexpectedly in the parking lot outside the grocery store and the girl has new information for her about the man who was kidnapped after she met him in the park, about his body and where it can be found. Sunny also wants to know if Celia knows her name from the information given to them by police in San Francisco. but Celia tells her that one of the homeless kids stated her name was Trinie and that she was originally from a town named Cabazon, near Palm Springs.

While waiting for Ben to come home from school, Sunny reluctantly accompanies Izzy shopping but then discovers she's being watched and followed by the man from the park. Sunny flees but finds herself being chased and shot at by the unknown man. Although he tackles and brings Sunny down, she manages to escape. When she returns to Ben's house they travel to Cabazon to try to find Sunny's home. Later that night in a motel,  Sunny has another dream about being attacked by a man while on the island and being saved by the boy. When she awakes, Sunny remembers that the man who hunted her on the island is the same man who chased and shot her. He's hunted her before.

Ben has to go meet his mom while Sunny decides to go meet Celia at her home. Celia tells her that she has uncovered two unsolved homicides of teenagers in which the bodies had the right hand severed at the wrist. Sunny shows Celia the bird tattoo on her wrist and is convinced that this is brand identifying her. Celia gives her an untraceable cell phone to keep in touch.

When Sunny arrives back at Ben's home she finds him not home. A call from Celia yields startling information - that a man came to claim the car of a woman whom he says is his wife away on business. The woman, Hilary Goss is the person who chased Sunny and a search online reveals the man with the scar who chased and almost killed Sunny as her husband, Henry Goss. Sunny decides to go to Henry's home, breaks in and in a secret compartment in the bedroom closet finds a dossier on her, showing her scars, and labelling her as Blackbird, Los Angeles Target, who survived 15 days on the island. A contract between the Goss's and A&A Enterprises in the folder states that he has been reassigned to "Blackbird" as a result of his wife's death. There is mention of a "Watcher" and a "Stager", though they are not identified.

The situation becomes complicated when Izzy shows up at the house and they are confronted by Henry Goss. Goss shoots Izzy and chases Sunny who manages yet again to escape. When she arrives at Ben's home safe, she decides to search online, understanding now that this game is huge with many participants. That's when she notices the AAE folder on Ben's computer and realizes that he's her Watcher. Sunny's narrative is broken by a scene on the island of a woman who doesn't know that her husband is on the island hunting humans. When she sees a sign for help she assumes her husband is in trouble and goes into the forest to find him, only to be shot dead by another hunter. Sunny flees first to check on Izzy at the hospital and then to Union station where she plans to catch a train to Chicago. There at the train station is the boy from the island.


Book Details:
Blackbird by Anna Carey
New York: HarperTeen      2014
245 pp.

Don't Look Back by Jennifer L. Armentrout

Seventeen year old Samantha Jo Franco is found walking along a rural road leading out of Michaux State Forest after going missing for four days. She doesn't remember her name and is badly scratched and has blood on her jeans. At the hospital, Samantha is told she has dissociative amnesia and that her memories may or may not return.

Samantha meets her parents, Steven and Joanna Franco and learns she has a brother, Scott, as well as a boyfriend, Del. She also learns that she went missing with her best friend, Cassie Winchester, who is still missing. When Sam returns home, she discovers her family is extremely wealthy and that she lives on a huge estate that belongs to her mother's family.

As Sam tries to pick up the pieces of her life she gradually learns that she was not a nice person. The sticker on her door which reads This Bitch Bites is the first hint of who Samantha was before the amnesia. Several days after returning home, a few of Cassie's friends visit her. After their visit she finds a note under her pillow in her bedroom that says "Don't look back. You won't like what you find." Sam has no idea who placed the note in her room and her brother Scott tries to downplay the note, telling her it is just a cruel joke.

When Sam meets Del she feels uncomfortable in his presence. He returns a necklace he gave her and which she left at his place before she went missing.  Del tells her they started dating at the beginning of their freshman year, that their fathers are in business together and that their relationship is expected by both families. However, both Scott and Sam's childhood friend, Carson Ortiz, intensely dislike Del. This makes Samantha wary of Del and not interested in To complicate matters, Samantha finds herself attracted to Carson, who seems not as self-absorbed as Del. But because of Samantha's previous reputation, Carson is wary of her too.

The more Samantha learns about herself, the more she comes to realize that she was a truly mean girl. She wasn't always like this however. Sam changed when Cassie came to Gettysburg, PA. She and Cassie as well as their friends were often mean to many of the students at school. Sam was once good friends with Carson whose father works as a groundskeeper but that changed after Cassie arrived. She often humiliated other girls in the school. Samantha is embarrassed and ashamed of her reputation.

All during this time, Cassie has pieces of flashbacks and continues to receive the mysterious notes. In an effort to recover her memories, Samantha decides to visit Cassie's home, hoping these visits will help trigger the lost memories. However, when Cassie's body is recovered from the lake, Samantha becomes determined to remember what happened that night, even though her remembering might just place her in great danger.

Armentrout successfully keeps her readers guessing as to what exactly happened to Cassie and Samantha and who murdered Cassie Winchester. There are plenty of suspects including Del, Carson, Scott and even parents. Readers may or may not guess the connection between Cassie and Samantha very early on, which might then lead them to uncovering the real murderer well before the climax of the novel.

Despite this, for those who are not completely certain, suspense is maintained in the novel because every time a memory surfaces, another character becomes a potential suspect. It seems many people had a motive for murdering Cassie, who was hated even more than Samantha.

Armentrout does make use of a love triangle to create tension between the various characters; between Carson and Del, and between Samantha and her socialite mother. But free from her past because of her memory loss, Samantha decides to ignore her parents disapproval of Carson and forge ahead with a relationship with him.

Samantha is a likeable character who gets a second chance essentially because she can't remember who she was. Her voice in the novel is very believable as she struggles to come to terms with her memory loss and how she behaved before the incident with Cassie. However, many of the characters in this novel are stereotypical; Del is the self-absorbed rich boyfriend while working-class Carson is the caring, gentle lover. Unfortunately, this novel, like many young adult novels, portrays parents as the villains, more concerned with class status, opinions and almost always self-absorbed. Samantha's father is generally absent (which is out of character with his final actions in the novel), as is her alcohol-imbibing mother who only surfaces whenever Samantha is with the socially unsuitable Carson.

Readers will understand the significance of the cover of Don't Look Back when they read the ending of the novel.


Book Details:
Don't Look Back by Jennifer L. Armentrout
New York: Hyperion    2014
369 pp.

Lindsey Lost by Suzanne Marie Phillips

"Nothing.  I know nothing. It's like yesterday never was."

Lindsey Lost is a suspenseful, murder mystery novel that keeps readers guessing right to the very end. The story is told over 12 days, beginning January 11, 2011 and running to January 23, 2011. The story revolves around a brother and sister, both of whom are high-performing athletes.

Micah Hamilton throws a fastball in excess of ninety miles per hour, earning him the nickname, "Comet". He is hoping to get into a good school and make the major league. Micah's girlfriend, Vivian Nguyen, is the "real deal". She keeps him anchored and they are very close. Vivian's mom died two years ago.

His older sister, Lindsey Michelle Hamilton is an outstanding track athlete who has run the mile in 4:18 and who has her sights set on the London Olympics. Lindsay placed at Nationals last year with a great time that threatens other top runners. Her dream is to place at Nationals and make the Olympic team for the 2012 London Olympics. Because Lindsey has been so focused on her athletics, she only started dating last year. Her first boyfriend was Jonas, a football player, on whom Lindsey had a big crush.But the relationship didn't last and now she's dating Micah's friend, Reed, who is obsessed with her.

Lindsey's longtime coach, Kelly, can help her achieve that dream. Kelly herself was an Olympian who placed fourth in the mile at Athens and she's hoping to follow Lindsey into a top track school. But, it turns out that Kelly and Lindsey have a major conflict over just how that dream will be achieved. Kelly wants Lindsey to attend UCLA, Kelly's alma mater, but Lindsey has other dreams too. After her track career, she wants to be a marine biologist studying sea turtles and she therefore, wants to go to USC which has an underwater lab.

Lindsey is in her senior year and this time of the year is her off-season. But things haven't been going well for Lindsey lately. For one thing, during the past two weeks, Lindsey finds that she has been slowing down and that she seems to be in a slump in her training. She doesn't know why, but she figures it's better to have the slump now than sometime in the next year when she can't afford to perform poorly. In addition to this stress, Micah notices that Lindsey is not getting along with Kelly. They argue

When Micah wakes up on January 13, on the living room couch, he learns that Lindsey has gone missing. He remembers that the previous night, January 12, his parents went looking for Lindsey when she did not return home from school. Micah does not remember anything that happened on January 12. He doesn't remember being with Lindsey and he doesn't remember what happened to her. His father, a doctor, tells him that this can be quite common in people who have experienced a terrible trauma and that his memory might return. Or it might not.

A search through the orchard that Micah and Lindsey often passed through on their way home from school results in the discovery of Lindsey's body. A missing person's investigation has now become one for murder. As Micah struggles to piece together the missing day, the list of suspects grows. But only Micah has the pieces to the puzzle that will solve Lindsey's murder.

Phillips builds suspense throughout novel using Micah as an unreliable narrator and what he reveals about Lindsey's relationships with each of the main characters. This is done sometimes by how they react to Lindsey's death and at other times by what is revealed about their relationship with her. For example, Micah's father becomes a suspect by the way he suggests that Micah might never get his memory back. He urges Micah not to talk to anyone else about his memories and to come to him first. This leads the reader to question whether he is trying to protect Micah or whether he is hiding something.

Likewise, Lindsey's conflicts with both Kelly and Reed also indicate a possible motive for murder. Even Micah is a suspect, based on what he can remember from that day and the evidence that the detectives collect from the murder scene.

This short novel will appeal to reluctant readers who enjoy mystery novels. The beautiful cover is a wonderful incentive to pick up the novel and check it out!

Book Details:
Lindsey Lost by Suzanne Marie Phillips
New York: Viking     2012
208 pp.

Movie Review: The Vow

The Vow, released in time for Valentine's Day, is definitely a tear-jerker, a romantic movie for couples and for singles alike, about staying faithful to a vow even in the most difficult situations. The movie directed by Michael Sucsy, is loosely based on the real life events which Kim and Krickitt Carpenter lived through. Ten weeks after they were married, the couple were in a car accident in New Mexico. When she woke up from a coma, Krickitt could not remember anything from the previous eighteen months. Her doctor suggested that they begin dating again and Krickitt says that since she loved him before she decided to take a second chance. The couple were remarried in 1996, three years after their first marriage. You can learn more about their story in this interview:



The Carpenter's story is about hope, perseverance and commitment, all three virtues the movie more than adequately captures. Leo(Channing Tatum) and Paige Thorton (Rachel McAdams) are a couple who have been together for five years. Deeply in love, they are supportive of one another and share a strong commitment. Leo owns a small recording studio and Paige is a sculptor who is working on a series of sculptures for the Chicago building. Out on a date one evening, the couple are involved in a serious accident that sees Paige in hospital with severe brain trauma. When she awakes, her last memory is of being engaged to her former boyfriend, Jeremy. Paige has lost five years of memories and no longer remembers nor loves Leo.

Like his real-life counterpart, Leo meant what he said in his vows, that he would love Paige forever and prophetically that they would always find a way back to one another. When Paige's parents attempt to persuade her to come home with them, Leo steps in and convinces Paige to return home to their apartment and their life together. But things don't work out as he hoped, and Leo finds himself trying to cope with the loss of the one person he loves more than anything - his wife Paige. Will they ever be able to find their way back to the love they once knew?

Channing Tatum and Rachel McAdams have a wonderful onscreen chemistry that makes this movie work. There's a strong supporting cast of Sam Neill as Paige's father Bill, and Jessica Lange as her mother, Rita. The accident scene, done in slow motion but not gory, adds drama and horror to the situation of a couple, in love, enjoying an intimate moment before their lives are shattered. The movie also does a good job of providing viewers of a glimpse of what Rachel's life was like before she met Leo and why she cut her family out of her life.

While the real-life Carpenters are thrilled to see the movie made, they wish that it reflected more the role their Christian faith had in keeping their marriage together. It was their belief in God and in his grace to help a couple through trying times that saved their marriage. Having said that, it's very apparent that the studio wanted this to be a mainstream movie and there is little if anything Christian in this portrayal of the Carpenter's real life experience. In fact Leo and Paige's marriage is a bizarre ritual, occurring in an art gallery and comprising strange vows on the part of Paige.

What impressed me most about this movie is the message of love, forgiveness and fidelity it imparts to viewers. As Rachel's parents and Leo struggle over who wins Rachel's heart, we learn that she left her family over five years ago because of a betrayal of trust. When she relearns what this was and confronts her mother, her mother tells her that she made a promise years ago to Rachel's father and that she made a decision - to forgive him and to love him. "I chose to stay with him for all the things he's done right; not the one thing he's done wrong." says Rita. It's a message worth hearing and taking to heart. Rachel must not only make the decision to love and forgive her parents, but also she learns that mainly, love is almost always a decision.