Title: Dead To You
Author: Lisa McMann
Publisher: Simon Pulse
Genre: Young Adult // Mystery // Contemporary
Format: Physical Copy
Source: Library
Some memories are better left untouched.
Ethan was abducted from his front yard when he was just seven years old. Now, at sixteen, he has returned to his family.
It's a miracle... at first.
Then the tensions start to build. His reintroduction to his old life isn't going smoothly, and his family is tearing apart all over again. If only Ethan could remember something, anything, about his life before, he'd be able to put the pieces back together.
But there's something that's keeping his memory blocked.
Something unspeakable...(goodreads).
I read Wake by Lisa McMann and knew that I had to read more by this author. Dead To You was everything I expected plus a little more.
Plot: Dead To You has been on my TBR list for the longest time and I FINALLY got a chance to read it! This fast-paced mystery is told from the POV of Ethan, a boy who was abducted from his front lawn ten years ago. What starts off as a beautiful tale of reunion, expands to what happens AFTER a child has been returned home. The awkwardness of trying to find your place in a family that has tried to go on, returning to school and seeing old school friends. The novel also has a mystery regarding WHO took Ethan and for what purpose. I was engaged and managed to eat this one up in a day (it's a short read). The "conclusion" was very open-ended which was very unsettling, in a good way.
Characters: The mystery is told through Ethan's POV which brings the reader even closer to the mystery. Ethan seems so broken and vulnerable given his past experience and I sympathized with him until the very end. Since Ethan is a teenage boy with hormone, he pretty much falls victim to insta-lust with the first female character he meets and they go on to have a fast-paced relationship. Normally, this would bother me, but since everything else in this novel was fast-paced, it was only natural that the "lust story" be fast paced as well.
World Building: There isn't much to the world building in Dead To You. The story goes from home, to school, to the park, to home again. The feeling was your average small-town USA with Ethan being the resident outsider.
Short N Sweet: Dead To You is a book-clutching romance that will tug at your heart and keep you guessing until the very end. I recommend it for all fans of the mystery genre!
Labels: 4 stars, book review, Dead to You, lisa mcmann, Simon Pulse
