From the dust jacket: Twelve-year-old Veronica Swan’s idyllic life in a close-knit Mormon community is shattered when her two younger sisters are brutally murdered. Although her parents find the strength to forgive the deranged killer, Scott Early, Veronica cannot do the same.
Years later she sets out alone to avenge here sisters’ deaths, dropping her identity and severing ties in the process. But as she closes in on Early, Veronica will discover the true meaning of sin and compassion…before she makes a decision that will change her and her family forever.
Finally the book I’ve been waiting for. This one GOT me. I started crying with the first chapter – it was such an emotional journey with this family - and I pretty much kept it up until the epilogue was complete. It was across the range crying - sad, happy, and everything in between. I have loved Jacquelyn Mitchard (like when I read The Deep End of the ocean) but I have also disliked Jacquelyn Mitchard (like when I read The Most Wanted). This sounds like I am talking about her as a person - which, of course, I am not. I don't know her as a person - I do now she has a cool website so with that as my only reference - as a person, I like her! I just don't always like what she writes. But when she is good...as she is this time...she is SO GOOD it makes you respond with a physical reaction - crying, clutching, ignoring your children, shooing away your husband - those kind of physical responses!.
The story is one of those ones that will stay with you forever. I remember reading The KiteRunner and the scene with the drops of blood in the snow...if you've read it, you're conjuring up that scene now. It's not a gory image but it stays with you - that little piece of the story wraps itself around you and holds on. Well the death scene of the girls is just like that. It's not a spoiler to say the girls are murdered -that's on the dust jacket. And,the killing is not a gory macabre scene - it's just written so that it feels like you are there in the middle of it. "And I saw my sisters, lying there like little white dolls in great dark pools of paint." So my review is: Wonderful book - first book on my Fall Into Reading challenge list that I have REALLY enjoyed. I have two others by her on the list - may have to move them up a notch or would that be pressing my luck?
2 comments:
I loved Deep End of the Ocean and I have this one on my MP3 player waiting to be listened to. Glad to know that it's Mitchard at her best. I may have to get to it sooner than later.
I've just realized that I have a copy of The Deep End of the Ocean on my shelves. I bought a box of Oprah Pick's on e-bay a couple of years ago. I got 23 books for 40 dollars. I have a few still unread. Thanks for the reminder. I'll dig it out and try it, as well as this one.
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