ARC, 416 pages
Release Date: June 7, 2016Published by: Bloomsbury USA ChildrensStand-aloneSource: TLAFor fans of: Mysteries, Fiction, Contemporary, Romance, Suspense, Sparkly Covers, YA
Six were taken. Eleven years later, five come back–with no idea of where they’ve been.
Eleven years ago, six kindergartners went missing without a trace. After all that time, the people left behind moved on, or tried to.
Until today. Today five of those kids return. They’re sixteen, and they are . . . fine. Scarlett comes home and finds a mom she barely recognizes, and doesn’t really recognize the person she’s supposed to be, either. But she thinks she remembers Lucas. Lucas remembers Scarlett, too, except they’re entirely unable to recall where they’ve been or what happened to them. Neither of them remember the sixth victim, Max. He doesn’t come back. Everyone wants answers. Most of all Max’s sister Avery, who needs to find her brother–dead or alive–and isn’t buying this whole memory-loss story.
*MY THOUGHTS*
When I first heard of this book I immediately added it to my TBR. It sounded like a me book automatically. And then more and more of the early reviews started turning up and I knew I had to have it. So of course, my expectations were already sky high. I just knew I had to get my hands on it. But unfortunately, it didn’t meet my expectations, and I was a little disappointed to be honest.
Eleven years ago six kids vanished into thin air. No one knew anything and no one knew who to blame. Then one day they defied all the odds and returned in perfectly good condition. Until they realized that one of them is still missing. Now not only do they want to know where they’ve been, but they also want to know who they’re missing and why they didn’t return with them.
Ok, this one is going to be a tough one to review because I don’t want to give anything away. There will be no real way to talk about this without spoilers unless I don’t talk about the plot at all. What I will say, is the book was ok, but it seemed really drawn out. Like there weren’t that many clues that they found throughout the entire book as to what happened, but it seemed like it took forever to get the answers. And on top of that, the answers that they DID find were always so weird and vague at the time they found them, they didn’t seem to mean anything to them or to me the reader.
Also, I think I may not have been a huge fan of this one because I’m not a fan of one of the POV’s that’s featured. She made everything about her. I wish I could go into detail, but it would be spoilery. Just know that it really had nothing to do with her, just someone close to her and she seemed to make it all about her all the time. It got on my nerves so much I found myself rolling my eyes and wanting to skim her chapter when it came up.
Something I did like about this book though was the formatting. It’s SO FUN. There’s one time that a spiral is mentioned and the word is done in a spiral. I loved that! I can’t wait to see what they look like in the final copies! I’m sure the other art will be done much better in those!
Lastly, I want to talk about the ending. To be completely honest, it could’ve been done much better than it was. I literally found myself saying out-loud “That’s it?!” Like that’s how you found the culprit? Like I spent 416 pages reading about this person/thing and THAT’S how you end it? It seemed like the editor or somebody took out the best part because they said it was too long. I didn’t really understand why the author chose that to happen.
The main thing that kept me reading was the suspense and intrigue though. I found myself really wanting to know what it is that was happening and why it was them it happened to. It was a weird, wild ride, and it was interesting to see how it all turned up.
In short, it didn’t exactly meet my expectations, but at the same time, it wasn’t bad either. There are some things I liked about it and somethings I thought it could’ve done without, but overall it was still an interesting read. Give it a try, someone may like it more than me!
Overall, I give this
Real rating was 2.5 but I rounded up!
There will be no quotes from this one as they may all be spoilery!
I just finished this book last night. Havne't had the chance to review it yet. tHe ending was kind of so so but I think the book is more about them moving on then discoving the how and who and why and such. We did get those answers but yes not in the way i expected. I did want more in the end. I love the way it was formatted. Sometimes Scarlett confused me a bit. her mind was barely tethering at times… it was very cool how it was done. the suspsens and the mystery was a very big part of this book. I actually loved this book. Great review.
Hmmm. I know another blogger friend who read this recently and she said it was okay as well. I like the idea of the unique format but an uneventful ending makes me nervous. Greta review!
Cassi @ My Thoughts Literally