Search teams found their campsite ravaged by what looked like a bear. They were presumed dead until a decade later...the son appeared. Discovered while ransacking an outfitter store, he was violent and uncommunicative and sent to a psychiatric facility. Maya Stark, the assistant language therapist, is charged with making a connection with their high-profile patient. No matter how she tries, however, he refuses to answer questions about his father or the last ten years of his life.
But Maya, who was abandoned by her own mother, has secrets, too. And as she’s drawn closer to this enigmatic boy who is no longer a boy, she’ll risk everything to reunite him with his father who has disappeared from the known world. (Pub Date: Sep 04, 2018)
3.5.
Maya is a speech therapist in the same place she ended up interned after her mother left her. When the boy Lucas is found after ten years of his disappearance and assigned to her, she finds numerous connections she never thought they share. When Maya notices, she's putting everything on the line to help Lucas escape the clinic and save his father.
After loving Everything You Want Me to Be, I had super high expectations for Mejia's new work, so it was already impossible to satisfy me. The thing is that this book is also of a very different style. I remember EYWMTB to be more involving but also slightly superficial. This was definitely fixed here, all characters felt so real, I could guess their emotions because I'd also feel that way.
The book discusses mental health, readaptation and also suicide. It rang so true I'm torn whether to ask people who could feel triggered to stay away or if this could be the book for those. There is a life lesson, but it's not a very bright one in my opinion. The points raised were a punch in my stomach.
And with all that to approach, I think the story lacked in rhythm. I didn't feel that invested in knowing what happened to Lucas's father—especially considering how much time passes until you see people do something. But for that same reason, the book didn't encourage my reading, and I'd stop more than usual. I liked it but I wasn't curious over its whereabouts.
The characters may have been the reason too. Unlike in Mejia's previous work, though they were so much more real here, they didn't attract me.
As for conclusion, now I have to give it to Mejia. It was credible, it was rather shocking and above all it was beautiful. I didn't cry but it was because I felt touched beyond tears.
The story feels well researched, it gives you the pleasure of reading a good book, I just had my expectations too high to be met. It's still a great book nonetheless, and its topics have penetrated my mind in such a way, I'm sure I'll still be thinking of it all for a long time.
Honest review based on an ARC provided via Netgalley. Many thanks to the publisher for this opportunity.
Rating: 4 out of 5.
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