GoodRead - Dead To You

As you probably know, I quite like Lisa McMann's Wake trilogy and her stand alone, The Missing/Cryer's Cross. So I got very excited over her latest teen novel, Dead To You. 

Ethan was abducted from his front yard when he was seven years old. Now aged sixteen, he returned to his family. That should be wonderful, right? Not really as his arrival seems to have bought out tensions to the surface. His parents begin to argue, his younger brother doesn't trust him and Ethan can't remember what happened to him. If only he could remember something... anything...

But sometimes, forgotten memories should just be that. Forgotten.

Am going to put this out there now: this was one of the tensest reads that I have read in a while. I think it's because we all think that a missing person being returned to their family will be wonderful. Happy Ever After. And it's not. Lisa writes about how it's not always a wonderful as we all think. I think Lisa's strength in this is how she writes it: she writes bluntly, not shying away from the uncomfortable moments and yet, she shows each character having layers. We are discovering these characters at the same time at Ethan does so we get caught up in the moment.

There are faults, I have to say that, as I think most bloggers will. But it depends on how you read it. Some people didn't like the ending (I was shocked by it, though I accidently discovered it while checking page count as I no longer trust Goodreads), some people won't like the love interest and how quickly it happened, some people would say its too short. My main fault is some expression Ethan uses. For some reason, they jarred my reading and made me go "Huh?" and reread it for a reason I didn't understand.

But I couldn't stop reading this book, even when my stomach got knotted and I felt that I had to stop because the tension was going to kill me. But I couldn't. This book was gripping and tense, and left me wanting more (yes, I know this is a standalone but I wanted more!). I can not wait for Lisa's next book, Crash!

PS - whoever does the US covers for Lisa McMann in an artist. All the Wake trilogy cover, Cryer's Cross and Dead To You have been unique.