If we describe the compelling story told here, it might sound like something you'd want to rush out to the bookstore or library to find.......a Texas family torn asunder when one of their two young sons, an 11 year old, is kidnapped and held captive for five years by a pedophile living in a neighboring town.
Found, rescued and returned to his family as a brutalized, damaged 16 year old, the boy, his parents and younger brother each struggle to re-assemble themselves as a family.......while each of them are consumed with guilt, anger and overwhelmed by the seemingly impossible task of healing themselves....
A tale to keep you riveted to every page? Sadly, no. Author Johnston buries this gut-wrenching plot under an avalanche of internal psychological probing. Though we appreciate his skilled attempts to delve deeply into his characters' emotional agonies.........the prose of the internal musings becomes endless, monotonous and constantly brings the novel to a grinding halt.....
As if he's rewarding us for eating our spinach and plowing through countless, impenetrable pages of this stuff, Johnston occasionally offers nuggets of dialogue and plot developments.....
But don't get your hopes up, because the book goes right back to its indigestible chunks of internal monologues. After crawling around in the characters' heads for hundreds of pages, Johnston finally arrives at a conclusion that normally should have wielded enormous emotional power for a reader........but to be honest, if left us only with a sigh of relief that the damn thing was at long last over......
Sorry, but as much as we hoped to love this book, we found it a missed opportunity.......an studied exercise in creative writing that forgets the key mission of engaging its readers. 1 & 1/2 disappointed stars....(* 1/2)
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