This book was recommended to me on the afternoon of October 23, and I had finished by the afternoon of October 24th, even though both were very busy days! The author had me up until nearly 2 a.m., flipping pages until my eyes could barely focus.

The book jacket said "Huckleberry Finn meets Lord of the Flies." Beg to differ - this was more like the TV series 24 meets Lost, with a tragic young protagonist at the center of it all. I was immediately sucked in to the central tragedy of the book - the disappearance of 12-year-old Alyssa, the fraternal twin of the book's hero, the smart and haunted Jack.


The book went from five to four stars in the final chapters, and almost down to three. The plot points get really wild. Don't want to disclose too much, but suffice to say that the author stretched my credulity thread to its elastic snap point. However, the eventual resolution took me by complete surprise, even though in retrospect the author had set it up really neatly. And I was touched by the end. So four stars to a book that kept me reading long past this carpool mom's bedtime!