Monday, July 29, 2013

Dead to You by Lisa McMann

Genre: mystery
Series and Book #: unknown
Pages: 243
Summary:

Some memories are better left untouched.
 
Ethan was abducted from his front yard when he was just seven years old. Now, at sixteen, he has returned to his family.
 
It’s a miracle…at first.
 
Then the tensions start to build, and his family starts falling apart all over again. If only Ethan could remember something, anything, about his life before, he’d be able to put the pieces back together.
 
But there’s something that’s keeping his memory blocked.
 
Something unspeakable….
 
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Lisa really knew how to make Ethan's story believable, but she also plants the seeds of suspicion from early on. Ethan is a likeable character and it seems unlikely that he wouldn't be the same boy who was abducted when he was a kid. Throughout the book there are hints and clues as to who Ethan really is, and its such an interesting development of a character.

I admire Lisa because she must have had to do so much research into abductees and what they go through. Ethan was suffering from Stockholm Syndrome, when hostages express empathy toward their captors. Ethan often reminisced about the woman who cared for him until he was dropped off at a home in Nebraska. His memory loss from when he was a kid seems pretty obvious. What drove me to believing Ethan's claim he was the same kid was his ever-present need to remember everything. He wasn't resisting his memories; he truly wished he could remember his brother and best friend and mother and father.

I hope there's a sequel, or something to tie up all the loose ends Lisa left at the end of Dead to You. There's more to be explored in this story (I won't say anymore because I'm afraid I'll let something slip that will ruin the book for you. But I will say this: you won't see the end coming.)

The Cover: It looks like Ethan is dead. The snow connects back to the climate Ethan returns to, and is another metaphor for death.

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