Okay. I've read the book on my brand new Kindle ( which I adore, thank you very much) and based on the handy-dandy percentage dial, I got through 68%. I think I gave it more than enough of a chance before concluding that it is just awful.
First of all, I read about this book in AllYou magazine, and the review painted a vivid picture of a woman working through the issues of being contacted by her kidnapper twenty years before. Because she was only fifteen when the kidnapping took place, you can imagine quite the character that the author came up with right? No!
Despite the fact that I admire and liked her going back and forth to describe exactly what happened to the main character, Eliza, and what is happening now, the author really developed the flashback story a lot more than the main one. Her passion and good use of words were dedicated to the 1985 version of the character, leaving our present day depiction without any substance. She seemed like a shell of a character to me, waiting along with the audience for something to happen.
In addition to the lack of character development, there is just too much emphasis on the character's family life and nonchalant persona. I found myself getting bored, waiting for the other shoe to drop only to begin to realize there might be another shoe. If there was a huge character arch ( which would be hugely beneficial and would redeem this author somewhat) or some sort of story-twist or climax explosion, then the author did a bad job at dropping hints. And yes, something super colossal would have to happen in order to make the first half of the book worth it.
In short, the beginning was too long, underdeveloped as much as the main character, lack of description to the present day story, not enough emphasis on Eliza's emotional reaction to her rapist, and no hints to keep the reader interested. The only reason I read as much as I did, was because I was hoping to be proven wrong and the author would turn it all around and verbally slap me. Nope. It was a great idea, but poorly executed.
