About this title: From the bestselling author of "Midwives" and "Before You Know Kindness" comes a psychological novel of obsession and consequences. When college sophomore Laural Estabook is attacked while riding her bike through Vermont's back roads, her life is forever changed. 12 photos.
Note: This is a general synopsis. Each listing is described below.
Binding: Hardcover
Publisher: Shaye Areheart Books
Date Published: 2007
ISBN-13:9781400047468ISBN:1400047463
Description: Good in Good jacket. Stated 1st Edition, 1st Printing Average used book, may have price sticker on front cover, and moderate shelfwear. read more
Binding: Paperback
Publisher: Vintage
Date Published: 2008
ISBN-13:9781400031665ISBN:1400031664
Description: Good. A copy that has been read, but remains in clean condition. All pages are intact, and the cover is intact (including dustcover, if applicable). The spine may show signs of wear. Pages can include limited notes and highlighting, and the copy can include "from the library of" labels. ******PLEASE NOTE****** Orders placed after Dec. 7 cannot be guaranteed delivery before Christmas unless you select EXPEDITED shipping! Thank you & Happy Holidays! read more
Binding: Paperback
Publisher: Vintage
Date Published: 2008
ISBN-13:9781400031665ISBN:1400031664
Description: Good. A copy that has been read, but remains in clean condition. All pages are intact, and the cover is intact (including dustcover, if applicable). The spine may show signs of wear. Pages can include limited notes and highlighting, and the copy can include "from the library of" labels. read more
Binding: Paperback
Publisher: Vintage
Date Published: 2008
ISBN-13:9781400031665ISBN:1400031664
Description: Good. A copy that has been read, but remains in clean condition. All pages are intact, and the cover is intact (including dustcover, if applicable). The spine may show signs of wear. Pages can include limited notes and highlighting, and the copy can include "from the library of" labels. read more
Binding: Hardcover
Publisher: Shaye Areheart Books
Date Published: 2007
ISBN-13:9781400047468ISBN:1400047463
Description: Good in Good jacket. 144-U-Add Spine is loose. Books rated "Good" may have some notes, underlining, or highlighting. These books also may contain the previous owner's name, stamp, sticker, or gift inscription, or may be library discards. read more
Description: Fine. Almost in new condition. Book shows only very slight signs of use. Cover and binding are undamaged and pages show minimal use. Millions of satisfied customers and climbing. Thriftbooks is the name you can trust, guaranteed. Spend Less. Read More. read more
Description: Fine. Almost in new condition. Book shows only very slight signs of use. Cover and binding are undamaged and pages show minimal use. Millions of satisfied customers and climbing. Thriftbooks is the name you can trust, guaranteed. Spend Less. Read More. read more
Description: Very good. Book has appearance of light use with no easily noticeable wear. Millions of satisfied customers and climbing. Thriftbooks is the name you can trust, guaranteed. Spend Less. Read More. read more
Description: Fine. Almost in new condition. Book shows only very slight signs of use. Cover and binding are undamaged and pages show minimal use. Millions of satisfied customers and climbing. Thriftbooks is the name you can trust, guaranteed. Spend Less. Read More. read more
Description: Fair. Dust Cover Missing. Ex-Library book-will contain library markings. Millions of satisfied customers and climbing. Thriftbooks is the name you can trust, guaranteed. Spend Less. Read More. read more
Description: Good. Purchasing this DVD supports the North Central Regional Library. Thriftbooks and NCRL have partnered to help raise additional funds for the library system. Library ID found on DVD and case. Ex-Library book-will contain library markings. Light shelf wear and minimal interior marks. Millions of satisfied customers and climbing. Thriftbooks is the name you can trust, guaranteed. Spend Less. Read More. read more
Description: Good. Light shelf wear and minimal interior marks. Millions of satisfied customers and climbing. Thriftbooks is the name you can trust, guaranteed. Spend Less. Read More. read more
Description: Very good. Book has appearance of light use with no easily noticeable wear. Millions of satisfied customers and climbing. Thriftbooks is the name you can trust, guaranteed. Spend Less. Read More. read more
Description: Good. Purchasing this book supports the King County Library System Foundation. Thriftbooks and KCLSF have partnered to help raise additional funds for the library system. Ex-Library book-will contain library markings. Light shelf wear and minimal interior marks. Millions of satisfied customers and climbing. Thriftbooks is the name you can trust, guaranteed. Spend Less. Read More. read more
Description: Very good. Book has appearance of light use with no easily noticeable wear. Millions of satisfied customers and climbing. Thriftbooks is the name you can trust, guaranteed. Spend Less. Read More. read more
Description: Very good. Book has appearance of light use with no easily noticeable wear. Millions of satisfied customers and climbing. Thriftbooks is the name you can trust, guaranteed. Spend Less. Read More. read more
Description: Good. Purchasing this book supports the King County Library System Foundation. Thriftbooks and KCLSF have partnered to help raise additional funds for the library system. Ex-Library book-will contain library markings. Almost in new condition. Book shows only very slight signs of use. Cover and binding are undamaged and pages show minimal use. Millions of satisfied customers and climbing. Thriftbooks is the name you can trust, guaranteed. Spend Less. Read More. read more
Description: Very good. Book has appearance of light use with no easily noticeable wear. Millions of satisfied customers and climbing. Thriftbooks is the name you can trust, guaranteed. Spend Less. Read More. read more
Description: Very good. Book has appearance of light use with no easily noticeable wear. Millions of satisfied customers and climbing. Thriftbooks is the name you can trust, guaranteed. Spend Less. Read More. read more
Description: Good. Light shelf wear and minimal interior marks. Millions of satisfied customers and climbing. Thriftbooks is the name you can trust, guaranteed. Spend Less. Read More. read more
"I thought I was reading one story... but then it got flipped, turned upside down at the end and all of a sudden I had to rethink the entire book!!!! WOW!!!! Amazing story (ies)!!! My book club still mentions some of the more disturbing parts to this book because we were shocked by how graphic it was. The story that follows the trajedy really makes you want to get out your psychology books! Excellent book club discussion book!"
"Although I am familiar with Chris Bohjalian, the title caught my eye. I was told (by an editor who recently read about 80 pages of my novel--in-progress), that the mother of my POV character was a classic case of the Double Bind personality. I had not heard of this before. (Google it to discover what it is -- or read this book!) In part, the editor was correct, but, of course, not having read the whole book, she couldn't make a definite assessment. It was helpful, though. As was this book -- in opening up a new area of "personality disorder", if you will, which I find fascinating.
I was blown away by this psychological mystery story. After the first 3 chapters, I put it down for a while. When I next picked it up, I couldn't put it back down again. I am not going to go into detail: I don't want to spoil anything!
I think this excellently crafted story would be great for anyone involved in a book club. (There is a Reading Group Discussion Guide at the end.)Or anyone who enjoys reading a story that has been expertly manipulated by its author -- and maybe, anyone that can afford to stay up all night reading..."
"Completely intriguing till the end which I didn't see coming. I had to go back to the beginning to appreciate the impact of the ending. This was a great follow-up for our book club which read the Great Gatsby last year. Thanks to a friend for this recommendation. I'm delighted to discover this new author. Looking forward to reading more."
"I figured out the supposed "twist" as soon as I read the psychiatrist's notes. The effort taken to write them as genderless came off as odd and clunky.
The whole thing came off to me as disjointed and in need of editing. There were some glaring mistakes--a child eating a caramel apple is described as having made a mess with it and it being red like blood all over her face and hands...um, caramel is BROWN. Everyone is described, even right in the middle of dialogue where we know all of their names, by their occupation: The waitress said blah blah blah. Blah blah blah, said the young social worker. And my favorite word of all (and apparently the author's as well) DOWAGER. Who has used that word in the last century? I was jolted out of the story each time.
An 11 year old child wonders what is really going on with Laurel (AKA The Social Worker) since she has noticed the "glimpses of darkness behind the veil," or some such nonsense. As the mother of an actual 11 year old, I can assure you that one would only notice a dark veil if the X Box is in use behind it. They could care less about the moody secrets of adults around them, except for how it affects them directly, such as if the adult is ordering pizza or is about to demand that chores or homework be finished. None of the characters in the book seem true to themselves, if that makes any sense. In the end I found I was indifferent to all of them.
The sad thing is, the premise was promising...a volunteer at a homeless shelter finds a box of photographs that belonged to a recently deceased resident. While looking through them, she comes upon a photograph of a young girl on a bike in a familiar landscape, and realizes it is a photograph of herself on the very day she was attacked and raped years before.
I could go on and on about the many ways this book grated on my nerves, but here are a few: Robert Buchanan sees a picture of a fictional housewife and decides to change his name to "Bobbie Crocker." Why the feminine spelling "Bobbie" instead of the masculine "Bobby?" Why was the homeless shelter repeatedly referred to as the acronym BEDS as if that was the actual name? I cringed every time I came across "BEDS." *cringing now*
Anyway, back to the name change. The newly minted Bobbie Crocker joins the army. The paragraph describing this is so poorly written that I will simply copy it here from page 295:
If the Army had any doubts about the mental health of a recruit whose moniker must have reminded them of a cake mix, they weren't sufficient to prevent them from allowing him to wade ashore at Omaha Beach in one of the very first waves behind the demolition teams. Bobbie would fight that year and into the next in France and Belgium and Germany, somehow escaping the war unscathed. Physically, anyway. He had an affair with a French woman who was in many ways even more scarred than he was, given how much of her family had died in the first German offensive in May 1940 and then fighting in North Africa in 1943. She lost two brothers, a cousin, and her father. He wanted to bring her back with him to the United States, but she wouldn't leave her family--the living and the dead.
The Army should have had doubts about his mental health because his last name was Crocker? Can you say run on sentence? Who edited this?
Somehow I resisted throwing the book against the wall at this point. I should not have fought the urge. Limping along to the most unbelievable, contrived and trite ending, the reader finds that *SURPRISE!* Laurel is the one in the psychiatrist's chair, and that most of the characters were invented by her crazed mind! Imagine that. Of course, the fact that all of the made-up characters had scenes without Laurel involved, and their own thoughts, actions and opinions make that plot twist ludicrous...but what did you expect from a book that takes the characters of The Great Gatsby and pretends they are real people? Until the end, anyway. Laurel is crazy! That's why she thinks the Gatsbys were her neighbors! Get the big twist there? *gag*"
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