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The Bright Forever

by Lee Martin (Goodreads Author)

3.44 of 5 stars 3.44 · rating details · 2,440 ratings · 459 reviews

On an evening like any other, nine-year-old Katie Mackey, daughter of the most affluent family in a small town on the plains of Indiana, sets out on her bicycle to return some library books.

This simple act is at the heart of The Bright Forever, a suspenseful, deeply affecting novel about the choices people make that change their lives forever. Keeping fact, speculation, an...more

Paperback, 282 pages

Published April 4th 2006 by Broadway (first published May 3rd 2005)

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The Poisonwood Bible by Barbara Kingsolver

Pulitzer Prize Finalists

14th out of 59 books — 29 voters

A Thief of Nightshade by J.S. Chancellor

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126th out of 238 books — 104 voters

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May 22, 2010 Barbara rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Recommended to Barbara by: Susan Sherwin

Lee Martin's sad, but compelling novel has remained in my thoughts as I mull over the events and their significance. He has written a deeply nuanced, complex account. A lovely nine year old girl, from a widely respected, affluent family, has disappeared. The story is narrated in the voices of various inhabitants of town. These speakers blend seamlessly and vivdly to recount their simple lives and their actions relative to the missing child.

Life in this small, insignificant,Indiana town during a...more

8 likes · like · see review

Sep 08, 2007 Molly rated it 5 of 5 stars Recommends it for: Readers of The Lovely Bones and Frederick Busch's Girls

The Bright Forever by Lee Martin is not only a thoughtful contemplation on the nature of regret but also a dynamic page-turner that this reader could not put down. The story itself is truly riveting, and the characters are so real that I felt totally drawn into their world. One of the book's greatest successes is that Martin makes the character of Katie come so alive in the beginning of the book that as the narrative progresses the reader cares deeply about finding out what happens to this sweet...more

5 likes · like · see review

Dec 17, 2012 Jason added it

Shelves: read-2007-beginning-august

I don't know what to say: This book is absolutely amazing. The story is about the kidnapping (and death? I will not ruin this secret) of a little girl from a small Indiana town in the 1970's. The point of view shifts often, from the mother, father, brother, to the teacher, neighbor, etc., even including the viewpoint of the abductor him/her self. While this could have been morbid and horrifying, the book is surprisingly light and easy to read; not in a fluffy, bubble gum sort of way, Martin is a...more

2 likes · like · see review

Nov 12, 2007 JoAnne rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I loved the voices in this book. The Bright Forever tells the story of the disappearance of Katie, an engaging 9 year old. Each chapter is narrated by one of the main characters. It reminded me Jodi Picoult's style of story telling. By the end of the book I felt empathy for all of the characters.

4 likes · like · see review

Jul 03, 2008 Phuong rated it 4 of 5 stars

This book was equally engrossing and disturbing. I'm actually surprised I chose to read it as it was about the disappearance of a little girl. Comparisons to Alice Sebold's The Lovely Bones will surely come to mind, but the books are nothing alike. I enjoyed this book so much more than Sebold's novel, which at times, could become a little trite.

It has 5 different narrators, and even with this multi-narrative, the author creates deft characterizations. You get a very rich understanding of what m...more

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Aug 30, 2007 34ler rated it 1 of 5 stars Recommends it for: enemies

what a disappointment! this book as well as the known world make me wonder what the hell's wrong with the pulitzer people. Martin's novel has the most common, boring prose i've seen in a while. i didnt care for or what happened to any of the characters and the dialogue-especially that of Raymond R. was pathetically annoying. every seedy slang phrase that a b-movie hick hustler would say was put into use- unconvincingly. i guess i dont feel so bad for Martin's lack of talent as i do the inexplica...more

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Nov 30, 2008 tammi rated it 4 of 5 stars

Enjoyed the style. The story is told from each characters perspective and due the the lies and different characters perspectives you really don't know what happens until the end.

1 like · like · see review

Aug 07, 2007 Meg rated it 4 of 5 stars Recommends it for: Those who liked "The Lovely Bones" and/or "The Little Friend"

Shelves: 2007-books-read-from-jan-to-present, literature-fiction-800s

A teenaged son and his parents, and a middle-aged math teacher deal with not only grief but guilt after their young daughter/sister/student disappears while taking her overdue books back to the library.

When the prime suspect in Katie's disappearance won't talk, the family feels a powerful force of hand and takes their own drastic measures in order to find Katie.

Set in a fictional small town in Indiana during the Vietnam War-era, The Bright Forever is an excellent story, filled with suspense, go...more

2 likes · like · see review

Nov 05, 2012 Sara rated it 4 of 5 stars

Wellll, doesn't he just wish HE was Gillian Flynn?
I read this book because it was nominated for a Pulitzer, and I have to wonder again how these contests are run. Why nominate this book? Because it's about Nowheresville, Midwest, USA (I grew up 20 miles from the setting of the book, so I know whereof I speak!)? Because it deals with the abduction and murder of a child? Because it's told from several viewpoints? Because those viewpoints are relatively genuine, but occasionally muddy enough it's t...more

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Aug 14, 2011 Margaret added it

Shelves: 2005

This story definitely held my attention and I kept reading because I wanted to know what really happened to Katie.

However, there were a few elements of the author's style of writing that I didn't care for - for example, it started out by Mr. Dees saying this is his story and he would be telling it when actually it is told by several of the characters and the author. I think I would have preferred just hearing from the characters and would have incorporated the background the author thought nece...more

1 like · like · see review

Jun 26, 2011 Lexie rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: fiction, humanity-s-heart

This is a 'heart of darkness' story ... A girl of twelve is savaged and killed by a broken man. We delve into the groans and urges of several characters -- all that they will not reveal except in extremis. "Any one of these people could be us," Lee Martin implies in the telling, and that is the story's harrowing brilliance -- one person's shame can seal another's fate. What will we do with responsibility, culpability, cowardice, contempt and courage ... What can happen when we turn our choices t...more

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Feb 02, 2011 Christie rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: favourite-books

Lee Martin’s novel The Bright Forever has restored my faith in fiction. After a long drought, The Bright Forever accomplished what all good novels should: it held me spellbound. It is beautifully written, has a cast of damaged and damned characters and is almost impossible to put down.

Nine-year-old Katie Mackey goes missing one hot July night in small-town Indiana. She’s the youngest child of Patsy and Junior Mackey. Junior is a man about town; he owns the glass factory. Katie and her older brot...more

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Jan 17, 2011 Beth Anne rated it 5 of 5 stars

ebook.

i was highly surprised by this book. the whole story unraveling delicately, through the memories told by multiple narrators, turning and twisting until i couldn't help but scramble to the end of the novel to find out what really happened.

the mystery of katie's disappearance, only revealed in the very last moment, kept me riveted. but other aspects of this story rang through so loudly, it wasn't just a thriller...it was a sad story about lonliness.

gilly was lonely, clare was lonely, mr. dee...more

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May 22, 2009 Angie rated it 2 of 5 stars

Shelves: 2007, university

"If you want to listen, you’ll have to trust me. Or close the book; go back to your lives. I warn you: this is a story as hard to hear as it is for me to tell."

I have very mixed feelings about this book. First and foremost, had this not been assigned for class, I would have taken the character up on his offer and closed the book. This kind of literary device seems amateurish, stemming only from a writer’s insecurity. And unfortunately, it occurred all throughout the book. While I understand it w...more "If you want to listen, you’ll have to trust me. Or close the book; go back to your lives. I warn you: this is a story as hard to hear as it is for me to tell."

I have very mixed feelings about this book. First and foremost, had this not been assigned for class, I would have taken the character up on his offer and closed the book. This kind of literary device seems amateurish, stemming only from a writer’s insecurity. And unfortunately, it occurred all throughout the book. While I understand it was assigned to the character as one of his traits, it doesn’t make it any less annoying, and I stand firm by my assumption that it was really the writer’s insecurities coming through the character.

This book was fairly predictable. It’s about a little girl who goes missing one evening when she goes to return some library books. Martin writes small-town Indiana very well; I could relate, being from small-town Ohio, but at the same time, I wish there would have been a bit more psychology regarding the characters and how the town works.

I absolutely loathed one of the characters, Clare. She is a widow who re-married and she is portrayed as being a victim. I understand that she feels like a victim, and that women like her exist, but my feminist heart wishes there would have been some hope for her.

I think more fascinating than the story itself is the construction of the novel. One of the characters has chapters of his speech that are only one sentence long—and this is, apparently, the character whose voice he wrote his first draft in. Cutting his speech down to sentences is a complete turn-around, and I think it was beneficial for the book... and makes me wonder if someday I might have to do something as drastic in order to save one of my own novels.

The past and present and future are all interwoven together, with one character talking from the future, and then glimpses into what happened the day the girl disappeared, with the present being represented as mystery (although the characters all know what is going to happen, you as a reader don’t).

If you like contemporary fiction that has a fair conclusion and a fair amount of mystery, or like books that unfold gently, or are about little girls who go missing (apparently this is becoming a trend??), then this would be a good book for you.(less)

1 like · like · see review

Jan 05, 2010 Heather rated it 4 of 5 stars

Like any well-written work, The Bright Forever is replete with metaphors, immensely effective at evoking the feelings of its characters, beautifully and simply written, and instrumental in asking pivotal questions about what it means to be guilty, innocent, and ultimately, at home. Are there shades of guilt? Who is innocent? What does it mean to matter to ourselves, to others, to the world? How do we know we're at home in ourselves, our lives, and in the world?

The book was truly surprising in m...more

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Jul 21, 2009 Susan rated it 4 of 5 stars

This is a poignant suspenseful story about the disappearance of nine-year-old Katie Mackey, the daughter of one of the most affluent families of the Heights, a small Indiana town, and two men from neighboring working-class Gooseneck who might be responsible for Katie's disappearance. The first of the men is Raymond R, a pretty sketchy character, who is married to trusting,unsuspecting Clare, after the death of first husband. The second of the men is Henry Dees, a lonely stange-duck-math teacher...more

1 like · like · see review

Nov 25, 2008 Diane rated it 5 of 5 stars

There was great character development along with edge-of-your-seat suspense. The mystery was tied into what we learn bit by bit of the characters and the parts they played.

1 like · like · see review

May 07, 2010 Dawn rated it 3 of 5 stars

Having children myself, and two of them girls, I often wondered why I was subjecting myself to this. The story is all about a 9 year old girl's disappearance one summer evening, the events and people surrounding the vanishing and a slow unraveling of what really happened. I cringe even thinking about this being anything more than a fictional story. I know it is too close to reality to make me comfortably able to enjoy the story.
It was well written for the most part, some minor switching of POV...more

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Aug 07, 2009 Derek rated it 5 of 5 stars

Lee Martin’s heartbreaking The Bright Forever is a novel of small details and giant events, an honest-to-God page-turner, and a notable achievement. His economical use of plain language and his focus on revisited details help the novel to read, in some sense, like a short story. That is, there is hardly a wasted word or image; everything is purposeful, but not to the point of feeling over-determined. But Martin’s awareness of narrative arc elevates this book from being merely a series of small t...more Lee Martin’s heartbreaking The Bright Forever is a novel of small details and giant events, an honest-to-God page-turner, and a notable achievement. His economical use of plain language and his focus on revisited details help the novel to read, in some sense, like a short story. That is, there is hardly a wasted word or image; everything is purposeful, but not to the point of feeling over-determined. But Martin’s awareness of narrative arc elevates this book from being merely a series of small town vignettes. No overambitious Winesburg, Ohio retread here.

The novel consists of multiple first-person narratives, with a few sections of third-person as well, which help to keep things fresh and dynamic. Martin ably writes not one, but two villains who share the blame for the horrendous crime on which the story is centered. We have the slimy loser Mr. Wright, exuding snake-oil and self-contempt, and his companion, the unmarried, unloved, and unstable Mr. Dees, a sort-of asexual pedophile.

Mr. Wright is the most difficult to pin down, the most opaque and unsettling. While not necessarily strong, his physicality is emphasized throughout the book, and we see its culmination in the kidnapping and murder of Katie Mackey. We see Mr. Wright faint from sun-stroke (no doubt induced by quaffing pills and drink), we see him pound his fist on the roof of his truck, and we even see him hit his wife, accidentally, while sleepwalking. These details, minor when taken by themselves, inform one another and show Mr. Wright as threatening, quite a bit sick, and capable of just about anything.

I wonder about the symbolic meaning behind some of Martin’s imagery. I think there’s something to be said of Mr. Mackey owning a glassworks (a fitting symbol for a fragile setting that, by the time of the novel’s conclusion, is, of course, shattered), and it’s also interesting that in Clare’s dream, she looks through her husband’s binoculars and sees a kaleidoscope made up of colorful, broken glass. I hesitate to make too much of these moments (I’m much less capable of picking up on important symbols than other readers I know), but they do seem important, and lend the book a weight it might not otherwise have.

It really is a tremendous book, and it’s unfortunate that some of the folks who picked it up when it was slapped with the dubious recommended-if-you-like-The Lovely Bones tag have been so miserly with their Goodreads star ratings. Highly recommended.
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Apr 15, 2013 Colleen rated it 1 of 5 stars

I stayed up late last night finishing this book and I went to bed upset. I really did not like this book. Here are the top 3 reasons why I didn’t like it.
1) I am a mom of a 9 year old girl. This is every mom’s worst nightmare. My very worst nightmare. So why did I read a book about a 9 year old getting kidnapped? I have absolutely no idea. None.
2) I did not connect with any of the characters on any level. I didn’t feel like we got to really know the victim. The two old perverted men were just t...more

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Nov 02, 2009 Jennifer rated it 3 of 5 stars

I have had this book on my shelf for a year now. I picked it up at a second hand store. The reason for the purchase? It is staged in a southern Indiana town. Since I live in Indiana, I wanted to see how the description of a week in July is viewed to others. It is very similar to “The Lovely Bones,” but it truly lacks the “fork in the road.” Personally, I liked this book much better. This book changes narrators so it follows all of the characters involved in the book. In a small Indiana town, pre...more

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Sep 25, 2011 Kolleen rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: murder-mystery, suspense

Let me just start by saying that, once again, Goodreads need to come up with a half star system because this was about a 2 1/2 star book at best, but... I digress.

I'm not gonna lie, I bought this book because it reminded me so much of The Lovely Bones, and I was hoping it would be nearly as good. Wrong on both counts. Not at all like The Lovely Bones, minus the cover artwork and the missing girl, and not nearly as good.

The Bright Forever is less about the girl that goes missing than it is about...more Let me just start by saying that, once again, Goodreads need to come up with a half star system because this was about a 2 1/2 star book at best, but... I digress.

I'm not gonna lie, I bought this book because it reminded me so much of The Lovely Bones, and I was hoping it would be nearly as good. Wrong on both counts. Not at all like The Lovely Bones, minus the cover artwork and the missing girl, and not nearly as good.

The Bright Forever is less about the girl that goes missing than it is about every other character in the story. Yes, 9-year-old Katie does go missing, but rather than focus on that and learning about Katie, we are learning about everybody else's pasts. First we have the weirdo math tutor who is an old lonely man, an overly friendly neighbor who is a 'dope fiend', and a widow who is desperate for love. I suppose that done the right way, this line of thought could have worked out nicely, but here it really didn't.

Complaint #1: the chapters were broken up into the different perspectives of the characters in the book, and if you know me, than you know I typically hate this. Complaint #2: I think the point of this story was so that the reader would sympathize with the killer and all those involved, which I almost did until the author ruined it by making them all even more weird than they had to be (i.e. the lock of hair from Katie's brush). Complaint #3: the ending. I am torn because I rather enjoyed the ending, I sure didn't see it coming, but for real?! (I don't want to spoil anything here so I will speak in code). I'm pretty sure if Man #1 is almost certain that Man #2 will murder Katie, that he would GET HER THE HELL OUT OF THE CAR! In the end, all of the characters are left to live with their own guilt and regret of coulda, woulda, shouldas and move on with their lives with the burden of Katie hanging over all of them. This was a more than okay book, but I can't say that I actually liked it. Hmmm... guess it's just one of those books I'll have to let sink in.(less)

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Aug 19, 2011 Leslie rated it 2 of 5 stars

The back cover introduces the situation: "On an evening like any other, nine-year-old Katie Mackey, daughter of the most affluent family in a small town on the plain of Indiana, sets out on her bicycle to return some library books"
I will credit the author for telling this tale in plain, speaking language from several characters' points of view. However, this proved to be a bothersome subject - and not just because of the prolonged answer to the obvious question: "What happened to Katie Mackey?"

I...more

1 like · like · see review

Sep 28, 2007 Meghan rated it 4 of 5 stars

This was a completely absorbing, well-crafted novel--very clear why it was a PUlitzer Prize finalist. WHat I like most about the book was how complex my relationship with the narrator was. More than any book I've read recently, it elicited very strong emotional responses form me toward the narrator -- I was angry with him, felt trust, lost trust...went through a whole emotional cycle. Great read!

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Sep 11, 2011 Kelly Humenansky rated it 4 of 5 stars

This book was a definite page-turner for me. A review on the back says, "Part Mystic River, part Winesburg, Ohio," and I would add part Lovely Bones, part Criminal Minds, and snippets from a bunch of short stories. Told from a variety of perspectives, including the voice of the town as a narrator and a completely unreliable, nerdy, bachelor math teacher narrator, the story moves quickly and left me guessing even when I thought I had it all figured out. For me, a good book is all in the style of...more

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Dec 14, 2009 Kristen rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: myfavoritebooks

The Bright Forever by Lee Martin is a touching, heart-breaking story of a little girl, Katie Mackey, gone missing and the people whose lives were involved and affected. I liked the way the story was told in alternating character perspectives, while the main narrative was told by Mr. Dees. While I can't say there were too many "surprises" in the storyline, it was beautifully told. The Bright Forever is a novel that has touched something deep and uniquely human within me; I know it's one of those...more

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Jan 08, 2012 Amy rated it 1 of 5 stars

Despite being constructed masterfully, the prose was incredibly dull. The author handles words well, and his sentence structure was superb, but what he was saying was just so boring. This novel dragged on and on. I skipped about fifty pages and still nothing had been resolved. by the end i was frustrated and fed up & just wanted the book to end. The characters seemed stereotypical and that made them lack depth. The town was interesting but i did not get a sense of it's deeper societal workin...more

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Mar 03, 2010 Pat rated it 3 of 5 stars

This isn't a fun book to read, and is actually quite painful both in it's subject matter and it's telling. The focus of the story is on the psyches of the novel's troubled, tortured characters, their lives deeply troubled and, in some sense ruined by a little girl's disappearance on the way to return a library book. The narrative slips back and forth in time and perspective, flitting from character to character and yet always rooted in the words of Henry, the social outcast whose silent eyes cap...more

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Jul 08, 2011 Dan Norton rated it 5 of 5 stars

I have little doubt that this will be the best book I read all year. It is absolutely perfect in most respects.

The disappearance and murder of a little girl from a small “all-American” town in the Midwest during the 70s is told from the perspective of a few of those directly affected by the crime. Each character is so well developed, and each shares a small part of the blame for the girls disappearance - or so they believe.

Each character made a choice or did/didn't do something that ultimately...more I have little doubt that this will be the best book I read all year. It is absolutely perfect in most respects.

The disappearance and murder of a little girl from a small “all-American” town in the Midwest during the 70s is told from the perspective of a few of those directly affected by the crime. Each character is so well developed, and each shares a small part of the blame for the girls disappearance - or so they believe.

Each character made a choice or did/didn't do something that ultimately led to the girls disappearance. The book explores those small choices and how the guilt that arises from those choices literally wrecks each one of the characters. Who is to blame for the disappearance of the little girl? Is it the person who kidnaps her while she is riding her bike on the way to return her overdue library books, or is it the father who, as punishment for not returning them on time, makes her return them late one evening. Seems like an obvious question. But read this book and see how each character feels equally responsible, and you can't help but wonder.

This book makes you feel almost as much sympathy for the the perpetrator of the crime as it does the victims family - and not by vilifying the family, but by humanizing the perpetrator. I love it when a book can do that.

Each character tells their story as though they are saddled up to the bar at a local pub - finally coming clean about their role in the events surrounding the girls disappearance 30 years after the fact. For me part of the fun was trying to decide who the characters were talking to - they (one character in particular) were clearly telling their story to someone. For most of the book I was sure it was the sheriff or a family member who was revisiting the events and just wanting answers. Then, at about 3/4 of the way in it becomes clear who the characters are speaking to. It is revealed in a very direct manner that I think most authors would avoid. But it totally works and made me enjoy the last part of the book even more.
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Jul 08, 2011 Laura rated it 4 of 5 stars

I believe this was a finalist for the Pulitzer...blurbs on the back cover called the writing "clean" and that's exactly the feeling I was left with. The story of a child's murder is carefully unspooled through multiple first-person narrators interspersed with omniscient chapters. One of the narrators is unreliable and barely sympathetic, which might've made him hard to stick with throughout the book (even he implores the reader/listener/you to stick with him, hear his story out despite his repea...more

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About Lee Martin

Lee Martin is the author of the novels, The Bright Forever, a finalist for the 2006 Pulitzer Prize in Fiction; River of Heaven; Quakertown; and Break the Skin. He has also published three memoirs, From Our House and Turning Bones, and Such a Life. His first book was the short story collection, The Least You Need To Know. He is the co-editor of Passing the Word: Writers on Their Mentors. His fictio...more

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Quotes from The Bright Forever

“The measure of a man's character is what he would do if he knew he would never be found out.” — 13 people liked it

“When someone you love disappears, it's like the light goes dim, and you're in the shadows. You try to do what people tell you: put one foot in front of the other; keep looking up; give yourself over to the seconds and minutes and hours. But always there's taht glimmer of light-that way of living you once knew-sort of faded and smoky like the crescent moon on a winter's night when the air is full of ice and clouds, but still there, hanging just over your head. You think it's not far. Your think at any moment you can reach out and grab it.” — 11 people liked it

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