Miriam Gershow

Honestly, this is one of the most boring books I have ever voluntarily read. Quite honestly, the line "Going missing was the only interesting thing my brother had ever done" was the highlight of the whole novel. I thought there would be mystery and suspense, but it was just the story of a girl who ended up not knowing how to interact with people after her brother disappeared. It would have been an easier read if Lydia had been a more sympathetic protagonist, but I just ended up not liking her, wanting to tell her to snap out of it, get on with her life. The whole novel was slow going and tedious. It was a chore just to talk myself into opening it. Usually if a book is this bad, I just stop reading, but I wanted to push through, see if it got any better. It didn't. I basically had to force myself to read the whole thing, and after about 10 pages I was so bored I was falling asleep, so it took longer than I thought it would to finish the novel. There is usually some kind of saving grace in everything I read, an interesting character, an unexpected twist, but I'd be hard pressed to find one here. The premise was new, innovative, and interesting, telling what happens to the family after someone disappears, but the execution of the story was completely lacking. Lydia and her mother never got over what happened to Danny, always outsiders, never comfortable interacting with people, always searching. Her father however, found his way out of all the chaos and moves on. Another thing I didn't like about this novel is that that it didn't really have a conclusion. We found out what happened to Danny at one point, and where everyone is years later, but don't really find out if the relationships that were broken or formed during that time ever get fixed.

Overall, a very slow, boring read. I would not recommend this to anyone.… (meer)

what if your older brother goes missing, and you don't miss him? What if your social status soars because of all of the attention? What if your parents fade away and you have to now raise yourself?

This is an interesting book, but it did lag a bit from time to time. I did a lot of fast reading to get thru the dull parts, one whiny teenager starts to sound like every whiny teenager after a while, but it was still a good, not great read. What actually happened to her brother would have been better left a mystery!… (meer)