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Fragile (The Hollows #1)

by Lisa Unger (Goodreads Author)

3.57 of 5 stars 3.57 · rating details · 5,063 ratings · 706 reviews

Everybody knows everybody in The Hollows, a quaint, charming town outside of New York City. It’s a place where neighbors keep an eye on each other’s kids, where people say hello in the grocery store, and where high school cliques and antics are never quite forgotten. As a kid, Maggie found the microscope of small town life stifling. But as a wife and mother, she’s happily...more Everybody knows everybody in The Hollows, a quaint, charming town outside of New York City. It’s a place where neighbors keep an eye on each other’s kids, where people say hello in the grocery store, and where high school cliques and antics are never quite forgotten. As a kid, Maggie found the microscope of small town life stifling. But as a wife and mother, she’s happily returned to The Hollows’ insular embrace. As a psychologist, her knowledge of family histories provides powerful insights into her patients’ lives. So when the girlfriend of her teenage son Rick disappears, Maggie’s intuitive gift proves useful to the case – and also dangerous.

Eerie parallels soon emerge between Charlene’s disappearance and the abduction of another local girl that shook the community when Maggie was a teenager. The investigation has her husband, Jones, the lead detective on the case, acting strangely. Rick, already a brooding teenager, becomes even more withdrawn. In a town where the past is always present, nobody is above suspicion, not even a son in the eyes of his father.

“I know how a moment can spiral out of control,” Jones says to a shocked Maggie, as he searches Rick’s room for incriminating evidence. “How the consequences of one careless action can cost you everything.”

As she tries to reassure him that Rick embodies his father in all of the important ways, Maggie realizes this might be exactly what Jones fears most. Determined to uncover the truth, Maggie pursues her own leads into Charlene’s disappearance and exposes a long-buried town secret – one that could destroy everything she holds dear. This thrilling novel about one community’s intricateyet fragile bonds will leave readers asking, “How well do I know the people I love?” and “How far would I go to protect them?”

* WalMart chose Fragile paperback for “All You Bookclub”
* Target names Lisa Unger an “Emerging Author” with Fragile paperback
* Harper’s Bazaar Hot Book List
* Good Morning America Top Book Pick for Great Summer Reads (less)

Hardcover, 336 pages

Published August 3rd 2010 by Crown (first published 2010)

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Jan 04, 2011 Dina rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: mystery-thrillers, fiction, ebook

I needed to read a book by an author whose name (first or last) starts with the letter "U" in order to finish RRRC's 2010 A-Z Author Challenge, and that's how I "discovered" Lisa Unger. I didn't know anything about her and her books when I started to read Fragile, so I had no expectations. Now I wish I had known what to expect, because I wasn't in the right mood to read a "depressing" book.

This story takes place in a small town called The Hollows, where everyone knows everyone - or so they think...more I needed to read a book by an author whose name (first or last) starts with the letter "U" in order to finish RRRC's 2010 A-Z Author Challenge, and that's how I "discovered" Lisa Unger. I didn't know anything about her and her books when I started to read Fragile, so I had no expectations. Now I wish I had known what to expect, because I wasn't in the right mood to read a "depressing" book.

This story takes place in a small town called The Hollows, where everyone knows everyone - or so they think. Their peaceful - aka dreary and hopeless - suburban lives are shaken when a teenage girl goes missing. Has she run away or has she been abducted? Why? As the news are spread around town, the memories of a similar case that happened two decades earlier resurface - and long-buried secrets can no longer stay hidden. The parallels between the two (past and present) cases seem to affect everyone's life, and no one will be the same when all is finally said and done.

I had a hard time reading this book. There were too many characters and the POV shifted constantly from one to another. It was annoying, because I didn't need to be privy to the thoughts of every character that made an appearance in the story. Some of those POV were redundant, repeating what I'd already learned from other characters' POV, and some were completely unnecessary, adding nothing to the story. Anyway, regardless of their importance, all characters were connected with Jones Cooper, the head detective at the Hollows Police Department, and his wife Maggie, a psychotherapist who added a few wrinkles to my forehead due to her lack of professional ethic. Jones' and Maggie's POV were the ones who kept the story going and Ms. Unger could have ditched the other characters' POV - but that's just my opinion...

Besides the too-many-characters issue I just mentioned, I also had a problem with their characterization. I mean, there wasn't one single character who was slightly content in this story. Considering how many of them there were, it was depressing to find out that none of them knew what happiness was. Oh Ms. Unger, just slash my wrists and be done with it, will you?

As for the mystery/suspense part of the story, it was dragged too long for my taste, but it had an interesting plot twist near the end. I ~~suspected~~ knew that things weren't exactly what they looked like in that sleepy little town, but I hadn't figured out what exactly laid beneath the silence held by Jones & Co.

The ending wasn't to my liking either. Everything was wrapped up too neatly, which was unrealistic and disconcerting. The ending did not fit the overall story, that's all I can say without giving it away.

Based on what I wrote above, one might assume I disliked this read. Well, I didn't dislike it - but I can't say I quite liked it because it depressed the crap out of me. Strangely enough, that's also the reason this book has its merit, as I don't think Ms. Unger was aiming at delivering an uplifting story when she wrote it. So, all things considered, I guess I could say this was an okay read to me. I'm just glad I'm not one of the depressing characters in this book.
(less)

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Aug 02, 2010 Jennifer rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: fiction, suspense

From My Blog (4.5 stars)...

Complex, multilayered and suspenseful, Fragile by Lisa Unger tells not only the story of one missing girl, but two separated by decades and the secrets kept by the inhabitants of The Hollows, New York. Charlene leaves home and everyone assumes she is a runaway, yet the adults remember another time, back when they were Charlene's age and Sarah Meyer went missing. Are the cases as similar as they appear and if so, will anyone be willing to bring up the secrets of the pas...more

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Oct 03, 2011 Lauren Fidler rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: abusive-relationships, authority-problems, convoluted-plot, dysfunctional-family-drama, fighting, makes-me-wish-i-had-a-map, mindrot, might-try-the-sequel, mystery, suburbanightmare, what-a-bunch-of-assholes, wish-it-were-better

i know. i promised myself i'd never unger again.

i lied.

let's just face it. an unger novel is perfect for those pre-bedtime creepouts. she weaves convoluted plots that feel simultaneously unbelievable and close-to-home. here, it's the tale of two dead girls, separated by decades, and the question of what would you do to protect the ones you love.

jonesin':

1. for once, unger's multi-perspective drama didn't feel uber-contrived to me. i got into the rhythm of the novel easily and it was addictive.
2....more i know. i promised myself i'd never unger again.

i lied.

let's just face it. an unger novel is perfect for those pre-bedtime creepouts. she weaves convoluted plots that feel simultaneously unbelievable and close-to-home. here, it's the tale of two dead girls, separated by decades, and the question of what would you do to protect the ones you love.

jonesin':

1. for once, unger's multi-perspective drama didn't feel uber-contrived to me. i got into the rhythm of the novel easily and it was addictive.
2. tone: it's creepy. i wanted to double check the locks on all my windows and doors after reading. it's not something about which i would say, "YES! I need to read more books like this so that i can live in abject terror for the rest of my life!" but i think she was successful in creating the intended atmosphere. and i respect that.
3. story: of all the ungers i've read, this one i liked the most. there's something harrowing about a missing girl that makes me think of the 80s in the worst kind of nostalgic way. i flipped the pages the same way i glued myself to the television, looking for updated news of missing children, fearing the worst, hoping for the best. whatever the best may be.

trippin':

1. the names. blech. jones cooper? two last names is hardly effective at conjuring anything other than a downeaster in a flannel jacket. sorry.
2. female author in a male brain. or male author in a female brain. i don't like it. it has to be done carefully and cautiously, with respect to the gender. but here unger's internal conflict reads like the stereotype. ricky has all the predictable angst worthy of a teenage male goth ("It's Rick, Mom!"), jones is doughy, passive, and broken, and charlie is...well, charlie is number 3.
3. charlie: okay, i've said it before and i'll say it again. i really don't like it when authors create a fictional author self. here, it's charlie, the writer-cum-exterminator. his story is probably the weakest and obviously he is, in all ways but the penis, supposed to function as the counterpart for unger (who tells us in the epilogue about how she was personally haunted by a missing girl when she was in her teens and how she wanted to write about it but couldn't find the words). blahblahblah. charlie had potential, but it was squandered when he became a literal representation of the author herself.
4. maggie: maggie is ricky's mom, jones's wife, marshall's therapist, melody's high school buddy, elizabeth's daughter...she's connected to almost all of them (not charlie, though, i guess it bears mentioning). i hated her. she's very condescending her role of therapist and she plays only to the stereotype. plus, she pimps therapy on EVERYONE, and, i'm not saying they don't need it, but it felt a little cheap and a little hollow.
5. marshall, travis, and the chief - this unholy trinity of abusive/abused males permeates the text in a way that feels altogether overplayed. they're 2-d representations of a sensitive subject matter worthy of some deeper consideration. oddly, while reading, i totally imagined christopher plummer in the role of the chief. off-putting, that.

3 star effort here - a good story mildly undone by the cardboard rigidity of its characters.(less)

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Feb 17, 2013 Tony rated it 5 of 5 stars

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here. THIS SUMMARY/REVIEW WAS COPIED FROM OTHER SOURCES AND IS USED ONLY AS A REMINDER OF WHAT THE BOOK WAS ABOUT FOR MY PERSONAL INTEREST. ANY PERSONAL NOTATIONS ARE FOR MY RECOLLECTION ONLY

Everybody knows everybody in The Hollows, a quaint, charming town outside of New York City. It’s a place where neighbors keep an eye on each other’s kids, where people say hello in the grocery store, and where high school cliques and antics are never quite forgotten. As a kid, Maggie found the microscope of small...more THIS SUMMARY/REVIEW WAS COPIED FROM OTHER SOURCES AND IS USED ONLY AS A REMINDER OF WHAT THE BOOK WAS ABOUT FOR MY PERSONAL INTEREST. ANY PERSONAL NOTATIONS ARE FOR MY RECOLLECTION ONLY

Everybody knows everybody in The Hollows, a quaint, charming town outside of New York City. It’s a place where neighbors keep an eye on each other’s kids, where people say hello in the grocery store, and where high school cliques and antics are never quite forgotten. As a kid, Maggie found the microscope of small town life stifling. But as a wife and mother, she’s happily returned to The Hollows’ insular embrace. As a psychologist, her knowledge of family histories provides powerful insights into her patients’ lives. So when the girlfriend of her teenage son Rick disappears, Maggie’s intuitive gift proves useful to the case – and also dangerous.

Eerie parallels soon emerge between Charlene’s disappearance and the abduction of another local girl that shook the community when Maggie was a teenager. The investigation has her husband, Jones, the lead detective on the case, acting strangely. Rick, already a brooding teenager, becomes even more withdrawn. In a town where the past is always present, nobody is above suspicion, not even a son in the eyes of his father.

“I know how a moment can spiral out of control,” Jones says to a shocked Maggie, as he searches Rick’s room for incriminating evidence. “How the consequences of one careless action can cost you everything.”

As she tries to reassure him that Rick embodies his father in all of the important ways, Maggie realizes this might be exactly what Jones fears most. Determined to uncover the truth, Maggie pursues her own leads into Charlene’s disappearance and exposes a long-buried town secret – one that could destroy everything she holds dear. This thrilling novel about one community’s intricate yet fragile bonds will leave readers asking, “How well do I know the people I love?” and “How far would I go to protect them?”

Issue 1- Twenty years ago, Travis Crosby, Melody, and Jones Cooper pick up a classmate, Sarah. High on marijuana, Travis tries to take advantage of Sarah and ends up killing her. None of the three admit to being at the crime. All feel guilty for the rest of their lives. Tommy DeLano, a kid always picked on and older than the 3 above, witnessed the crime but admits to the murder. All in town believe it was him and he was weak minded. In fact, he had moved Sarah's body, carved it up and violated her. A psychic, Eloise Montgomery, had said the murderer's name began with T. This whole incident has haunted everyone involved, in addition to Jones's wife and mother-in-law.

Issue 2 - Jones's son's, Ricky, girlfriend is missing. She is Charlene's daughter. Charlene is a abusive relationship with her second husband (and who we find out that she killed on the night that the daughter disappeared). A troubled boy, Marshall (Travis's son)agreed to drive Charlene to New York but instead brought her to his Grandfather's (T's father and former police chief who is an old bastard)falling apart old boat where he dies and gags her. As it all turns out, Marshall is arrested for kidnapping Charlene and killing his grandfather, Travis is imprisoned for violating Charlene and threatening the high school principal (who he picked on as a child), Melody is imprisoned for killing her second husband, and Jones resigns and retires after admitting to his part in Sarah's death.

Everything in the story is connected. Whew.(less)

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May 12, 2013 Fanficfan44 rated it 3 of 5 stars

I haven’t read anything by this author before or at least I don’t remember if I have. I picked this up because I thought it would be a lighter read than what I am supposed to be reading, The Elegance of the Hedgehog, and it was. I believe it is supposed to be more of a mystery than a thriller, the plot really involves two mysteries, one that was assumed to have been solved. and a new one happening currently.

The real story though, is about the long term effects of deceit, guilt and abuse. These t...more

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Jan 28, 2013 Michelle rated it 4 of 5 stars

I was so, so pleasantly surprised by this book. I wasn't expecting much - an engaging story to pass a few days in the bleak month of January would be more than enough. I definitely got that - Ms. Unger's array of characters is complex enough to keep your neurons firing, but not so much as to seem like a chore. It was shaping up to be just the book I'd hoped for, in fact.

Simply put, the story follows generations of residents within a small town outside NYC, and covers the disappearance of two gir...more

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Nov 19, 2012 Matt Schiariti rated it 4 of 5 stars

Fragile isn't the usual Lisa Unger novel. It's more of a small town mystery than it is a thriller filled with betrayal, twists and intrigue, but it's still a very good book.

A girl has gone missing in The Hollows, a small town about a two hour ride away from New York. A town where everybody knows everybody else. A town where most people are born, live and die in. A small town where some secrets never seem to die.

Maggie Cooper is a local psychiatrist in town. Her husband, Jones, ex jock and high s...more Fragile isn't the usual Lisa Unger novel. It's more of a small town mystery than it is a thriller filled with betrayal, twists and intrigue, but it's still a very good book.

A girl has gone missing in The Hollows, a small town about a two hour ride away from New York. A town where everybody knows everybody else. A town where most people are born, live and die in. A small town where some secrets never seem to die.

Maggie Cooper is a local psychiatrist in town. Her husband, Jones, ex jock and high school heart throb is the head of the local detective squad. Their son Ricky happens to be dating the girl who goes missing. She's also seeing as a patient one Marshall Crosby who is the son of an ex cop in town, a mean boy who grew up into a mean man. As it turns out, Charlene's mother, Melody, was also a childhood friend of Maggie and Jones, as well as Travis Crosby (Marshall's father) and they all share a tie to the past.

When they were younger something similar happened to what's going on in the present. A young musical prodigy named Sarah went missing and was found mutilated and murdered and a local crackpot went to jail for it after confessing to the brutal murder. But is that what really happened? As the novel progresses and the current mystery unfolds, details about the past and how it affected the lives of Jones, Travis and Melody are revealed showing that people's lives and the ties that bind them are indeed fragile.

This is more of a character driven story and lacks the nail biting intrigue of dual identities and finding out that you've been 'sleeping with a stranger' that are a hallmark of Unger's previous three novels, but it's no less interesting and it's certainly no less a very good read. Unger's characters are lifelike, each with their own unique voice and at its heart, Fragile is a very good mystery and makes you feel as if you're in a real small town filled with people who may have wanted more but are inexorably drawn to stay in the place they couldn't wait to get away from when they were younger. Another fantastic book by this talented author who remains one of my favorites. (less)

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Jul 01, 2012 Kelly rated it 5 of 5 stars

Fragile is a mystery in the best sense of the word, with well-developed characters and slow-building suspense. It is the story of missing teenage girls, decades apart, and the connections between their disappearances.

Maggie Cooper is a well-respected psychologist living in "The Hollows", a small town outside of New York City. While juggling a busy practice, she tries desperately to keep her relationships with her detective husband, Jones, and sullen teenage son, Ricky, going strong. When Ricky's...more

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Apr 19, 2012 Rebecca rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: chicklit

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

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Feb 06, 2012 Kathleen Hagen added it · review of another edition

Fragile, by Lisa Unger, a-minus, narrated by Nancy Linari, produced by Random House Audio, downloaded from audible.com.

Everybody knows everybody in The Hollows, a quaint, charming town outside of New York City. It's a place where neighbors keep an eye on one another's kids,
where people say hello in the grocery store, and where high-school cliques and antics are never quite forgotten.As a child, Maggie found living under the
microscope of small-town life stifling. But as a wife and mother, she has...more

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Nov 25, 2011 Kat rated it 4 of 5 stars

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

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Nov 12, 2011 Katherine rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: reviewed

This book, along with a copy of The Night Strangers, was sent to me by the marketing manager of Crown Publishing. I had won the Goodreads giveaway for Before Versailles and after almost two months I had not received it. It was a pleasant surprise and a very generous gesture, especially since the original giveaway book arrived shortly thereafter. Theoretically, then, it probably isn't necessary to review the book but feel it is appropriate.

I faithfully read page by page to Ch 19, page 190, almost...more

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Aug 25, 2011 Mathew rated it 2 of 5 stars

The book starts off strong (I picked it up randomly and kept reading because I liked the first few pages) and turns into somewhat of a page turner, but then crimes are committed (one past, one present, a couple of others alluded to) and, like so many similar books, it falls apart. My theory is that so many books fall apart when crimes are committed for a couple of reasons. One: the tree of possible consequences branches wildly at such moments and, Two: authors rarely have first hand experience w...more

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Aug 21, 2011 April rated it 2 of 5 stars

Shelves: 2011-reads

A book that explores the complexity of secrets, families, and small towns. Sometimes the secrets meant to protect loved ones can end up doing more harm than the reality of the truth. In a rare case, I felt as though this book was too long. It ended for me about fifty pages before I closed the back cover. There was an attempt to tie up all the lose ends, make sense of things, and that to me, dragged on and on.

I did, however, find the storyline about the agony and anxiety of teenagers to be captiv...more

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Jul 28, 2011 Ryan rated it 3 of 5 stars

I suppose one could call this a thriller - there is suspense, and even a bit of action. But I liked it for its great insight into parenting, and especially being the parent of adults - all-the-way-grown adults and just-about-legally-adult. Maggie's son is nearly 18, will be heading for college and she is dealing with accepting how her role in his life has changed. At best, we barely keep up with our kids - they are changing at the speed of light, we plod along behind. I'm convinced that they get...more I suppose one could call this a thriller - there is suspense, and even a bit of action. But I liked it for its great insight into parenting, and especially being the parent of adults - all-the-way-grown adults and just-about-legally-adult. Maggie's son is nearly 18, will be heading for college and she is dealing with accepting how her role in his life has changed. At best, we barely keep up with our kids - they are changing at the speed of light, we plod along behind. I'm convinced that they get mad at us because it takes us sooo long to get "it" and by the time we do, "it" has changed. But for their entire lives we've been able to fix anything and everything, and there is a moment when you realize you can't anymore and its one of the most painful discoveries, even though you know that was kinda the point. Your heart doesn't ache any less - and to see your child in any sort of pain, regardless of age, can be physically painful...and you simply have to accept that you can't fix it anymore.

At one point, Maggie says something to her son..."What she was trying to say was, 'I'll take care of you, no matter what happens'. But the truth was she couldn't really take care of him any longer. She couldn't bandage his knee and give him an ice cream, she couldn't even hold him when he cried. Because he didn't bring his wounds to her anymore, and didn't cry either. And there wasn't enough ice cream in the world to soothe the pain of lost love." Exactly. Batman or Elmo band-aids could work miracles...not so much anymore (though I think they make them smile a little).

And you spend a lot of time trying to convince yourself that they WILL be okay because you are terrified they won't..."Fear that after all the years of protecting...it wouldn't be enough. Fear that...forces beyond their control would take him down a path they could no longer reach him. Fear that he'd be seduced by something ugly and would choose it. And that there would be nothing they could do but let him go."

I like this too, because it is critical they can choose - even if you don't always like their choices. "she finally understood that for all the schedules and consistency, the rewards and reprimands, ultimately it's the child who chooses how to behave. It's the parent's responsibility to provide the safe environment, the predictable rules, the loving discipline, the healthy meals, but ultimately the child has to be the one to put the broccoli in his mouth, chew and swallow."

I think it was probably a pretty good book overall. Certainly exactly what I needed and for that I'm grateful it was written, and hanging out on the wrong shelf at the library, just so I'd notice it at the moment I needed it.(less)

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Mar 28, 2011 Laura Droege rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: fiction, mysteries

The Hollows is the small town where everyone knows everyone. The knowledge spans generations, with high school rivalries and conflict passed down to children, with people longing to leave and yet unable to, drawn back by family or memories that they cannot escape.

So when a young woman disappears, the town remembers the disappearance and murder of another teenage girl many years before. Those who know what happened the night Sarah died are also those closest to the young woman now missing: Jones,...more The Hollows is the small town where everyone knows everyone. The knowledge spans generations, with high school rivalries and conflict passed down to children, with people longing to leave and yet unable to, drawn back by family or memories that they cannot escape.

So when a young woman disappears, the town remembers the disappearance and murder of another teenage girl many years before. Those who know what happened the night Sarah died are also those closest to the young woman now missing: Jones, the lead detective and father of the teen's boyfriend; Melody, the former sexy girl turned burnout and mother of the teen; and Travis, a crude and violent son of the former police chief, ex-cop, and father of a troubled teenage son. Their lives intersected for a moment years ago and each has lived with the consequences of their decisions and become who they are as a result.

Maggie, Jones' wife, doesn't know what happened. Yet she sees the eery parallels between Charlene's disappearance and Sarah's murder, and is disturbed by her husband's suspicions of their teenage son. But who is really to blame for Charlene's disappearance? How well does she know those around her? And though The Hollows' citizens believe that they know the history of everyone else there, do they really?

At first, I had difficulty keeping all the characters and their relationships (past and present) straight in my mind. There are simply so many people to remember, and keeping the old high school dynamics, their present situations, and who is aligned with who may frustrate a few readers. But I did finally get a grip on it.

Otherwise, I really enjoyed the book. I felt sympathy for many of the characters and disdain for others. I was particularly charmed by the kindly exterminator Charlie. He's a minor character but one who shows up frequently enough to make a positive impression on me.

I found the dynamics between the characters realistic.As anyone who has attended a high school reunion can attest, the teenage roles are hard to shake when you're confronted with former friends and enemies. No matter how far you run, the moment you return, you're still pegged with your label: nerd, jock, slut, loser. All the adults in the novel realize this; the teenagers will soon enough find out this truth. I nodded my head at several points, thankful that someone realized just how hard it is to live in your hometown and be confronted with that past almost every day.

The second reason I enjoyed this book is how the characters deal with the past. Jones in particular is haunted by "what ifs". If he hadn't made this decision, and that person hadn't made that one, and still another hadn't had this or that happen to them, where would they be? Would Sarah still be dead? Would Charlene have disappeared? As I've written about in a blog post, the "what ifs" waste our time. In the end, Jones realizes that the past cannot be undone and the only thing to do is to move forward and embrace the present moment.
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Nov 14, 2010 Jennifer rated it 3 of 5 stars

A teenage girl goes missing in a small town where bad things aren't supposed to happen. Years earlier, another girl disappeared and was found murdered. Is there a connection? This book reminds me a bit of Tana French's Faithful Place. It's a mystery where you figure out what happened about half way through, and the focus is actually on the relationships between the main characters.

This would have been a great book, except for a few things:

1) There are way too many narrators. This story is not c...more

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Aug 13, 2010 Michelle rated it 4 of 5 stars Recommends it for: those who enjoy a suspenseful mystery.

The storyline of FRAGILE involves a small town's reaction to the disappearance of a high school girl named Charlene. Much of what we learn is viewed through the lens of the Cooper family (mom Maggie; dad/Police Detective Jones; son Rick). Rick is friends with the missing girl and his dad's broken relationship with him sends suspicions in Rick's direction. We also learn, however, that Jones has some baggage from his own childhood in The Hollows which is informing much of those suspicions. That ba...more The storyline of FRAGILE involves a small town's reaction to the disappearance of a high school girl named Charlene. Much of what we learn is viewed through the lens of the Cooper family (mom Maggie; dad/Police Detective Jones; son Rick). Rick is friends with the missing girl and his dad's broken relationship with him sends suspicions in Rick's direction. We also learn, however, that Jones has some baggage from his own childhood in The Hollows which is informing much of those suspicions. That baggage is the basis for the novel's subplot: a teenaged girl named Sarah who went missing when Jones was in high school. The author does a wonderful job gradually doling out details of this disappearance--almost like a trail of breadcrumbs. It turns out that the night the girl disappeared, Jones was hanging out with the town bully Travis and a girl who years later will become mother to.....Charlene. Piqued your interest yet? I thought so!

The fictional town in this book, The Hollows, reminded me a lot of the town in which I grew up--a tightly knit community where everyone knows everyone else, many people leave after high school, but many move back because they end up missing it so much. This was the first novel I've read by Unger and I quite enjoyed it. When I read the acknowledgements at the end, I learned the author based the story on the disappearance of a girl *she* knew when growing up in New Jersey. The Librarian in me is itching to research the details on that one....

From Publisher's Weekly: "Set in the Hollows, a secluded town about 100 miles outside New York City, Unger's contemporary thriller offers solid entertainment, but lacks the tension of her 2008 stand-alone, Black Out. Psychologist Maggie Cooper and her husband, Det. Jones Cooper, disagree on how to handle their rebellious son, 17-year-old Rick, who prefers to spend time with his band or holed up with his girlfriend, Charlene Murray. When Charlene disappears one night after a fight with her mother, Maggie and Jones wonder if she ran off to Manhattan, but are reminded of the disappearance 20 years earlier of Sarah Meyers, whose mutilated body was found after she vanished on her way home from school. Though the alleged killer confessed, there are still unanswered questions, and Maggie and Jones find themselves forced to revisit the past as suspicion falls on Rick."(less)

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Apr 05, 2012 Stacey rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I'm not really sure why I keep doing this. I told myself - no, virtually swore on everything holy - that I wouldn't read another Unger book after Blackout. But I couldn't help it - I saw so much potential in the premise of Fragile. And every author has a bad book here and there, right?

Don't get me wrong, this one wasn't terrible, hence the three stars. And as usual, it started out great. We're dropped in the action right from the start and then she backs up to explain how it got to that point. I...more

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Sep 26, 2010 Keri Neal rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: mystery-thriller, read-non-series

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

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Dec 24, 2012 Molly rated it 3 of 5 stars

Slight spoilers....

Lots of characters and a narrative that jumps around from past to present, from different view points, can make this book a little hard to follow at times. Some parts read really quickly while a couple of others dragged...I wish the pace was maintained throughout a little better.

It also seemed like a big departure (unlikely, character-wise) for both Maggie and her mom to have not only visited, but had meaningful experiences with, the psychic. The characters of Elizabeth and Ma...more

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Jun 06, 2011 Michelle rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: 2011

This is a multi-viewpoint (literary?) thriller that takes place in a small New York town. Maggie, local-kid-turned-therapist is billed as the protagonist but she is only one of the many narrators of this quick, engaging book. There isn’t a lot to say other than I enjoyed this, it’s very plotty but a notch up from most thrillers as the characters are well-developed and their relationships as important as the plot itself. I did think Jones was portrayed a little too asshole-like in the beginning,...more

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Aug 20, 2012 Miamikel SS rated it 4 of 5 stars

From Publishers Weekly: Set in the Hollows, a secluded town about 100 miles outside New York City, Unger's contemporary thriller offers solid entertainment, but lacks the tension of her 2008 stand-alone, Black Out. Psychologist Maggie Cooper and her husband, Det. Jones Cooper, disagree on how to handle their rebellious son, 17-year-old Rick, who prefers to spend time with his band or holed up with his girlfriend, Charlene Murray. When Charlene disappears one night after a fight with her mother,...more From Publishers Weekly: Set in the Hollows, a secluded town about 100 miles outside New York City, Unger's contemporary thriller offers solid entertainment, but lacks the tension of her 2008 stand-alone, Black Out. Psychologist Maggie Cooper and her husband, Det. Jones Cooper, disagree on how to handle their rebellious son, 17-year-old Rick, who prefers to spend time with his band or holed up with his girlfriend, Charlene Murray. When Charlene disappears one night after a fight with her mother, Maggie and Jones wonder if she ran off to Manhattan, but are reminded of the disappearance 20 years earlier of Sarah Meyers, whose mutilated body was found after she vanished on her way home from school. Though the alleged killer confessed, there are still unanswered questions, and Maggie and Jones find themselves forced to revisit the past as suspicion falls on Rick. Since the Hollows is so small, characters continually rehash secrets--and rumors--so that Unger relies too heavily on the community's interconnectedness to bolster her plot.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

From Me: Holy Hanna, this book was a riveting page turner and a who-dunit that left me saying WHAT?! I have just recently read Defending Jacob so in the same mode of mystery, crime, solving the big who was it, I felt the same tone through this book.

And let me say, after this book, I"m a fan!

The story started out a bit jumbled for me - I felt silly having to go back and re-read pages like "who was that again?" Unger introduces SO MANY CHARACTERS so quickly, you have to keep up or you'll be lost!

In a nutshell, pyschologist Maggie tries to help solve the disappearance of a young girl missing and her son is one of the main suspects - the twist: Her husband is the chief of police in this small everyone knows everyone's business town. At the same time, she's battling ghosts from the past that bear eery similiarities as you read along.

I think Unger mentions pretty much every person in town and there's a connection in some way in this book! (less)

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Miamikel SS From Publishers Weekly: Set in the Hollows, a secluded town about 100 miles outside New York City, Unger's contemporary thriller offers solid entertai...more From Publishers Weekly: Set in the Hollows, a secluded town about 100 miles outside New York City, Unger's contemporary thriller offers solid entertainment, but lacks the tension of her 2008 stand-alone, Black Out. Psychologist Maggie Cooper and her husband, Det. Jones Cooper, disagree on how to handle their rebellious son, 17-year-old Rick, who prefers to spend time with his band or holed up with his girlfriend, Charlene Murray. When Charlene disappears one night after a fight with her mother, Maggie and Jones wonder if she ran off to Manhattan, but are reminded of the disappearance 20 years earlier of Sarah Meyers, whose mutilated body was found after she vanished on her way home from school. Though the alleged killer confessed, there are still unanswered questions, and Maggie and Jones find themselves forced to revisit the past as suspicion falls on Rick. Since the Hollows is so small, characters continually rehash secrets--and rumors--so that Unger relies too heavily on the community's interconnectedness to bolster her plot.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

From Me: Holy Hanna, this book was a riveting page turner and a who-dunit that left me saying WHAT?! I have just recently read Defending Jacob so in the same mode of mystery, crime, solving the big who was it, I felt the same tone through this book.

And let me say, after this book, I"m a fan!

The story started out a bit jumbled for me - I felt silly having to go back and re-read pages like "who was that again?" Unger introduces SO MANY CHARACTERS so quickly, you have to keep up or you'll be lost!

In a nutshell, pyschologist Maggie tries to help solve the disappearance of a young girl missing and her son is one of the main suspects - the twist: Her husband is the chief of police in this small everyone knows everyone's business town. At the same time, she's battling ghosts from the past that bear eery similiarities as you read along.

I think Unger mentions pretty much every person in town and there's a connection in some way in this book!(less)
Aug 20, 2012 08:34am

Nov 08, 2010 Karen rated it 2 of 5 stars

I feel a little uncharitable giving this only two stars, especially since I could be accused of going overboard with the stars on other occasions. Somehow this just didnt come together for me, a shame since it started with such promise. Good points are these: the writing is extremly smooth. Unger is undoubtedly a deft writer. I flew from one page to the next. Missing teenage girls is a premise I keep seeing over and and over again--in fact it's beginning to grow tiresome--but this seemed to offe...more

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Sep 30, 2012 Connie N. rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: contemporary, relationships

Overall, I liked this book. It was the story of a small town that dealt with 2 very similar tragedies and the results of both. It looked at the people involved and the choices they made both at the time and how those choices affected their decisions and relationships for the rest of their lives. One boy kept asking, "How do you know if you're a good person or a bad one?" That seemed to be the theme of the book...each person looking at his/her own life and deciding if they had been good or bad. I...more

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Sep 10, 2012 Holly rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I really enjoy reading Lisa Unger. I read Darness, my old Friend first and then this. Though Darness is said to be a sequel it doesn't matter which is read first.

Anyway, Unger switches between past and present through the whole book and I didn't mind that as some might have. I actually quite enjoyed the slow suspense of finding out what happened many years ago. I also didnt mind the switching of narratives, many authors do this and when I started reading novels when I was maybe 19 this did anno...more

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Jan 10, 2012 Jody rated it 1 of 5 stars

Shelves: grownups

I listened to this on audiobook.

The only reason I listened to this entire thing was because I kept being stuck at the gym or on my commute and having this as the only audiobook available.

Story about a girl who goes missing, it brings back memories of another girl who went missing 20 or so years ago and a bunch of secrets are revealed. Slowly. And repetitively.

I don't know if it was the writing or the narration, but I kept imagining characters giving each other cheesy significant looks after jus...more

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Dec 17, 2011 John Barlow rated it 3 of 5 stars

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here. Lisa Unger’s FRAGILE is a kind of slow-burn crime novel. Set in a small town 100 miles from New York, the story is about the disappearance of a teenaged girl from the community. There’s a lot of character-based development, especially at the beginning, and for a good hundred pages you’re not entirely sure if the novel really is about a crime, or whether it’s a study of the personalities, relationships and backstories of the main characters. Indeed, for the first third of the book it seems as if...more Lisa Unger’s FRAGILE is a kind of slow-burn crime novel. Set in a small town 100 miles from New York, the story is about the disappearance of a teenaged girl from the community. There’s a lot of character-based development, especially at the beginning, and for a good hundred pages you’re not entirely sure if the novel really is about a crime, or whether it’s a study of the personalities, relationships and backstories of the main characters. Indeed, for the first third of the book it seems as if the hunt for a missing girl is simply a loose structure to hang the novel on. This initial perception isn’t helped by the fact that the main character is a practising psychologist who spends a lot of time analysing those around her and herself.

But it is a crime novel, one with a very elegant and complex structure. The main players in the unfolding drama of the missing girl are all connected, either directly or indirectly, to the disappearance of another girl from the same community a generation earlier. In that case, she ended up dead, a fact which adds an extra layer of implied jeopardy to the new situation. The disappearance of the new girl (after an argument with her mother) is a typical case of a seventeen-year-old girl going AWOL, but as the town slowly wakes up to the possibility that she has been abducted or killed, the truth about the murder thirty years ago slowly surfaces.

The novel deals with issues of guilt, and how we are able to conceal it so well that it lies unnoticed, not forgotten, but on the outside of our lives, like something hidden at the back of a large, junk-filled attic where no one ever goes (an image used in the novel); the facts are all there, still nominally amongst us, close to our lives, but we allow them to fade almost entirely from memory. In FRAGILE it takes another potential murder to draw out the truth, and Lisa Unger does this incredibly well. We learn only gradually what happened thirty years ago, yet it doesn’t feel like a trail of cues any more than the hunt for the missing girl feels like a straightforward mystery, because by the time the plot is moving to its double resolution we’re heavily invested in the characters themselves (warning: you’re going to read the final chapters fast). The effect is strangely compelling: two mysteries to resolve, and a complex web of personal relationships that are about to be torn apart by the truth.

Didn’t like? Important dialogue was often interspersed with the internal thoughts/analysis of Maggie (the psychologist). In fact, I didn’t like Maggie much at all. I did understand her character, and empathised with her on many levels. But at the same time I wanted her to be a little more assertive. I think the novel could have done with a stronger person at its heart, rather than a massively tolerant one. (less)

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Jul 01, 2011 Lora rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: first-reads-giveaway

The book started with promise for me. The first part of the book started with introducing the different characters and a little about their life but somewhere toward the middle of the book it got a little confusing trying to keep them all straight. I also didn't like the way the book vacillated back and forth between past and present with each character, sometimes I was so confused in the start of a chapter that I had to stop and think "where am I at?" If I had sat down and read this book all in...more

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Feb 15, 2011 Janene rated it 2 of 5 stars

This book was frustrating.

I didn't like how it flipped from past to present to past to present with no warning whatsoever. I also didn't like that I was always trying to remember who someone was in relation to someone else. I understand that we were suppose to be getting the idea that it was a small town and everyone is connected but it was REALLY confusing. I live in the small town that I was born into and I do know a lot of people who know a lot of the same people I do. It's true that small to...more

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About Lisa Unger

Lisa Unger is an award-winning New York Times and internationally bestselling author. Her novels have sold more than 1.5 million copies and have been translated into twenty-six different languages.

Her writing is hailed as "stellar” (USA Today), “sensational” (Publishers Weekly) and “sophisticated” (New York Daily News) with “gripping narrative and evocative, muscular prose” (Associated Press).

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Darkness, My Old Friend (The Hollows, #2)

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“Motherhood was an ever widening circle of good-byes.” — 14 people liked it

“Everyone always talks about how well mothers know their children. No one ever seems to notice how well children know their mothers.” — 13 people liked it

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