Goodreads Mobile | see what your friends are reading

Dec 28, 2011

Marlyn rated it:

Twelve-year old Caitlin Stuart used to walk her dog Frosty in a park near their house, next to a cemetery. One day, Frosty comes home without Caitlin.

Four years later, her father Tom hasn't given up waiting for her to return. He still leaves a key under the doormat for her in case she comes back and no one's home, and refuses to talk to a counselor or therapist.

Meanwhile, Caitlin's mother Abby resigns herself to the fact that she may never see her daughter again, and organize More...

0 comments like

Dec 16, 2011

Cynthia rated it:

At first I really like this book--the story clipped along at a good pace, but not too fast. The idea of the missing child returning home, changed and unwilling to discuss what happened seemed so good. There was so much that could have been done with it. Sadly, in the end it just came off as a creepy look at violence against young women by every man in their lives.

I felt the Caitlin character was done well and seemed realistic. However, Tom and Abby were far too Lifetime Movie of More...

2 comments like (4 people liked it)

Dec 14, 2011

Jeanbooknerd rated it:

David Bell’s thriller debut, Cemetery Girl, is the story of the disappearance of 12 year old Caitlin Stuart and how her parents, Tom and Abby, coped with her being gone. Bell starts the story four years earlier after Caitlin’s disappearance. Frantic and besieged, Tom vowed to never give up the hope that she is still alive and will come back home. However, Abby has given up and decides it is time to move on. She planned a memorial service and ordered a headstone as she felt the marriage ended whe More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Dec 11, 2011

Sally rated it:

I just finished ready Cemetery Girl by David J Bell and I have to say there was just a bit missing for me. If I could give half stars I would as I would say it was a bit better than just average. Now the story is a bit dull in the beginning, for me anyway, and I found myself not really liking the father.

The father, Tom, in the beginning was the grieving father and I felt for him, but as the story went on he started to annoy me. I know losing a child, fictional or not, isn't the easies More...

1 comment like

Oct 27, 2011

Amanda rated it:

When 12-year-old Caitlen disappears, her family is torn apart. Four years later, she returns, and things do not progress as expected or desired.

Told from the point of view of Caitlen's father, this book takes the reader through the emotional turmoil after her abduction through that sustained after her return. Unfortunately, Caitlen is less than overjoyed at returning to her family, continuously saying she wants to return to the man who abducted her. The events that follow make this More...

0 comments like

Oct 15, 2011

Cheryl rated it:

When Caitlin was just twelve years old, she disappeared. Since that time, Tom and Abby Stuart have tried to hold on to hope that Caitlin might still return to them one day. Though, with Caitlin gone, their marriage has fallen apart. Abby is finally ready to let go of Caitlin but Tom is not.

Tom and Abby receive “the call”. The one that they never thought that they would ever receive. The police ask Tom and Abby to come down as they have Caitlin. Tom and Abby are happy but Caitlin has More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Oct 04, 2011

Mason rated it:

Losing a child is devastating for the parents, but is it worse when the child simply disappears?

Leading an idealistic life, Tom and Abby Stuart have it all - a good marriage, successful careers, nice home and a delightful 12-year-old daughter, Caitlin. Then their world is scattered. Caitlin takes the family dog, Frosty, out for a walk and only the dog returns home.

Four years later Caitlin is discovered alive. She’s disheveled, dirty, but unnaturally calm. She won’t discus More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Aug 31, 2011

Rae rated it:

While there were some parts of the book that were very good and realistic, such as the interaction between the main character and his wife, there were other parts that weren't. I could see what the author was trying to do, but that was the problem. It was too obvious, to blatant. Some of reminiscences felt too much like tangents. I also felt like the book fell on it's face in the last couple of chapters. You're at the climax of the story and all of a sudden it's the epilogue. It doesn't transiti More...

1 comment like (2 people liked it)

Oct 08, 2011

Kimberly(Kimba the Caffeinated Book Reviewer) rated it:

Cemetery Girl was an addictive novel, that kept me up till 3 in the morning to reach the conclusion. Bell weaves a believable tale of a parent’s worst nightmare. He delivers it with an authentic voice in Tom Stuart.

Protagonist Tom Stuart, father of Caitlin and husband of Abby tells this riveting story from his perspective. The story is broken into three parts. The first part deals with events leading up to Caitlin’s disappearance. The second takes us through the aftermath and how More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Aug 21, 2011

Kristie rated it:

Cemetery Girl is the story of Caitlin Stuart, a girl who disappears at age 12 and is found alive four years later. Caitlin refuses to talk about what happened to her while she was gone, and her father, Tom, struggles to uncover the mystery behind those lost years.

Cemetery Girl is told from the perspective of Tom, and as the story unfolds, the reader is treated to great writing that relays so much more than the typical mystery/thriller abduction tale. The author, David Bell, does an e More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Oct 27, 2011

LORI rated it:

Tom and Abby Stuart seem to be a couple with the perfect life until their wonderful 12-year old daughter, Caitlin, disappears without a trace. The only witness to Caitlin’s disappearance is the family dog. Abby finds solace at church, Tom endures by tracking every lead and keeping their daughter’s story out there. Their marriage starts to fall apart as they are both pulled in different directions. Abby needs closure and Tom needs to keep hope alive.

Four years later their world is rocke More...

0 comments like

Dec 09, 2011

Jeremy rated it:

There were some redeeming qualities about this book. It was a fast paced plot, and it kept me interested, so to speak. I am not sure interested is the right word as I was so repulsed by the main character and his actions. I do not know and never ever ever want to know what it is like for my daughter to be missing, but I can tell you this - if I behave the way he did, please take one of Scarface's sub machine guns and mow me down because I would never want to be such a sorry excuse of a human More...

7 comments like

Oct 24, 2011

Chris rated it:

This is one of those books that I almost stopped reading once or twice, but then something surprising would happen and I'd find myself reading later than planned, negotiating with myself that after I read just one more chapter then I'd do xy and z.

With it being October, I was hoping Cemetery Girl would be a creepy book, learning more towards horror, but it is a psychological suspense novel, mainly about Tom, the father of a twelve year old girl named Caitlin who goes missing for four y More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Jun 19, 2011

Jo Anne rated it:

I won a copy of Cemetery Girl through Goodreads giveaways and read it in 2 days. It was riveting, to say the least, though the story line is somewhat borrowed from the tabloid headlines. Young girl is presumably kidnapped; parents' marriage falls apart; girl is returned, but drastically changed and insists she loves her kidnapper; father takes matters into his own hands... The difference between this book being simply a replay of those startling newspaper accounts of kidnappings and somethin More...

0 comments like

Jan 17, 2012

Cayleigh rated it:

In Cemetery Girl we meet Tom, a man whose daughter, Caitlin, disappeared 4 years ago when she was 12 years old. At this point in their lives Tom’s wife, Abby has decided that it is time to move on with her life, that Caitlin is dead and is not going to come back. Tom, who still leaves the lights on for Caitlin and a key hidden under the doormat, is not willing to accept this fact. He is not ready to give up or to move on. Then after quite a few chapters that establish the effects of the disappea More...

0 comments like

Feb 21, 2012

Ashley rated it:

When Tom Stuart's beloved twelve year old daughter, Caitlin, doesn't return home from walking the family dog one afternoon, his life is forever changed. For four years he struggles to keep the hope alive that Caitlin will someday be found, and returned to him, despite all odds.

Then, one day, miraculously, she is! However things are not how he always dreamed they'd be and the road to recovery is very bumpy. Tom, having been consumed with torturous questions of the unknown for four More...

0 comments like

Dec 27, 2011

Amy rated it:

I was disappointed in this book. After reading the description and the blurbs on the back of the book, it really sounded like something I would like. Reading the actual story, on the other hand, made me feel like something was missing. It never grabbed me in the way a "thriller" is supposed to. I found no thrills at all. What I did find was a bunch of characters I didn't like and a pace so slow it was painful. Several times I debated whether to even bother finishing. I would be ready t More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Nov 11, 2011

Kaye rated it:

Well, I am in a quandary as to this one. While I love suspense and thrillers and the first three-quarters of the book had me riveted to the pages just to see how the plot progressed, the last quarter of the book not so intriguing and I'm not sure exactly why.

I think part of it is I didn't really like any of the characters. Oh, sure I could empathize with them but as to liking them, it was a no. At times they acted contrary to their character development at the beginning. Obvi More...

0 comments like (2 people liked it)

Feb 20, 2012

Aleah rated it:

The writing was good, but the plot quickly became very predictable (abducted girl comes home, the sullen victim of Stockholm Syndrome). This book could have been so much more than it was. The characters were very two-dimensional, the villain just gross, and it was very hard to garner any sympathy for the victim, as she was surly, mouthy, and whined about going back to her abductor in nearly every conversation. The confrontation between Tom, the girl's father, and Coulter, was so unrealistic that More...

0 comments like

Dec 09, 2011

Titilayo rated it:

this was my first time reading one of bell's novels. i enjoyed this one. it certainly made me fell like i was the middle class father of a missing teenager desperate to hold on to the hope that she would return home, while my wife replaces her hope and our marriage with a new age charismatic church life (and maybe me with the preacher). and then the unexpected happens. a shaky lead. a troubled young woman opens pandora and all hell breaks loose. suddenly my daughter is back. my wife is pretendin More...

0 comments like

Jan 16, 2012

Cristina rated it:

Honestly, i really liked how Bell wrote about one of outcomes that no one would really consider as a possibility in those certain situations... But i felt like i couldn't keep up with the different twists that kept going back and forth. I felt like Bell was scattering ideas here and there, and didn't have me on my toes from what everyone kept talking about.

After all the countless pages i read about the father needing to know what happened and all this frustration that was leading up More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Dec 17, 2011

Emily rated it:

This book by a WKU English prof tackles the horrific subject of child stranger abduction & the aftermath faced by involved parents. The story dissects in almost devastating detail the experience of losing a child, the years after that loss, and the reality of gaining that child back: older, jaded, damaged, changed, and blaming the parents for it all. The characters have almost too much distance from the horror of their experience & it's a struggle to truly empathize with them. The ending is sati More...

0 comments like

Nov 23, 2011

Desiree rated it:

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here

0 comments like

Dec 24, 2011

Kelly rated it:

I found the premise of Bell's novel intriguing at first and certainly relevant in the wake of the real-life Jaycee Dugard and Elizabeth Smart cases. The novel wrestles with the question of exactly how far one will go in search of the truth after the disappearance and reappearance of their child - and moreover-how far should one go in search of that same truth without re-victimization occurring. Although I found the ending a bit less than satisfying, I think Bell did an admirable job in depicti More...

0 comments like

Oct 12, 2011

John rated it:

I really enjoyed this a lot more than I anticipated I would. What I really appreciated about the book was the psychological aspect of a father not only dealing with the lose of his child, but having his wish fulfilled when that child returns. Tom is never really able to get his head out of those 4 missing years when his daughter was taken from him. It was really Tom, and his thought processes that kept me glued to the book.

I found the plot to be a little over the top in the last 100 More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Dec 27, 2011

Lindsay rated it:

This is the kind of book that that keeps you up late at night only to disappoint you so profoundly, you want to egg the author's house. The ending wasn't sad or abrupt. It was just unsatisfying. I can honestly say that I wouldn't recommend it to anyone, despite the fact that I couldn't put it down.

I gave it three stars for successful suspense and a protagonist who was both complex and interesting. But don't go into this book hoping for another "Room," "Before I go to Sle More...

1 comment like

Jan 13, 2012

Jessica rated it:

Throughout reading this book I never found myself board. Keeps you on edge. A very good story leading up to the end... but... was a little disappointed by the ending. I felt there were a lot of questions that were left unanswered, a lot of loose ends. I very unimpressive ending, like the book was finished in a hurry. Would have liked see something come from the murder of Tracy and Jasmine (the girl in the cemetery) seemed like she might have played a more important role in the end perhaps?
More...

0 comments like

Nov 21, 2011

Alison rated it:

Disappointed. Frustrated. The author had an opportunity to delve into the grief and turmoil of a father who lost his daughter, a father who never gave up his search for her and who faced many consequences for that choice. Instead, the author gave us an idiot. An idiot named Tom. Many times throughout the book I found myself actually laughing at loud at this character and the stupidity of the choices he made. I would've rather read this book from the point of view of the wife, because she at leas More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Nov 17, 2011

Erica rated it:

The first 3/4 of the book were interesting, mysterious and I couldn't put it down. Despite the characters not being too likable or even staying consistent with their personalities. Then I couldn't put it down for the 1/4 because I desperately wanted it to end differently, which sadly it did not. The fathers actions by the end disgusted me and were unbelievable, no parent would ever even contemplate what he did. I wasn't under the delusion that there would be a happy ending, but this ending was j More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Feb 07, 2012

Lori/QueenoftheVBS added it

This story grabbed me from the first pages! I couldn't put it down. A little disappointed in the ending though. I thought it was a little unbelievable. I can't see any father acting the way the character did in this story. I was expecting it to be a little closer to the true life kidnappings that have been in the news. I can't imagine any father wanting all the details and acting the way this father did. I had a hard time believing that the mother character too. No mother would be like th More...

0 comments like

reviews