Decidely Damaged

Dead to You by Lisa McMann

* Book will be released February 7, 2012
* ARC read via Around The World ARC Tours

4 out of 5 gnomes
I wanted to root for this character more but you can tell that something is really off with him.  Ethan is one heck of a damaged character, I'm pretty sure he himself doesn't know how damaged.  This is the kind of story that just gets to you and will have you thinking about it a long time after the last page.

The short chapters of the story are great because they really help build the tension.  This is a superb look at how devastated a family can be by loss and how it's not exactly simple to rekindle what you've lost.

Living in Omaha, NE and reading in the story about that law where anybody could drop off their kid for any reason and remembering all the different stories from that time really drew me into the plot and made everything seem more plausible.  That was a really messed up situation but it did put more of a spotlight on the plethora of problems with the system that is in place.  The character of Ethan shows how much being abandoned like that can truly harm a person.

I thought I knew where the story was going to go but then it veered off in some surprising directions.  There's so much that Ethan can't remember but he wants so much to be able to, especially after he meets his family.  He tries so hard and seems to have flashes of memory but they just seem to be blocked.

Suspicions and problems abound and as cliche as it may sound, it's not easy to go home again.  He is really skittish around most people and after one horribly embarrassing incident at school, things just seem to spiral out of control.

The ending, wow, I was hoping for a happier ending.  I really hated the ending at first but the more I thought about it, the more I felt that it fit.  I usually don't like endings that feel open-ended but your imagination here I think only improves the message of the story.  The last line really resonates and will leave you reeling and wondering what exactly is going to happen next.