Amy

This non-fiction story about the author's 15 month captivity is written with beautiful descriptions of the places she travelled and a matter-of-fact tone that makes her horrific experiences in captivity that much more horrifying. One of my favorite quotes from the book comes after the two captives, Amanda and Nigel, celebrate Christmas by creating gifts for one another with whatever was available and trading them through a bathroom they shared: “I loved him in that moment, on that day, more than I'd ever loved anyone, in a way that reached past the standard boy-girl love and hit some sort of deeper bedrock. I loved him as a human, with no complication.”

Like many other reviewers, I only read this book because I think the movie looks interesting. I was not expecting it to be so compelling. From early on, there was a heavy sense of irony. I felt dread and sympathy for many of the characters. There is a deep psychological, pathological development that takes the place of anything “exciting.” The twist at the end, and I mean the end, was a delightful surprise. I had to sit for a second thinking, “Did that just happen?” Anyway, I loved it, and I hope the movie doesn't disappoint . . .

Some of the reviews I read gave this book a single star and many of those said they never finished. Others gave this book five stars. I fall in the middle on this one. Jane Eyre is my favorite novel, so I was excited to see how she/the novel would be incorporated into this mystery. I do think the plot line of JE was used well, but I did want to see a bit more of it. I also wanted the main character to interact more with Jane, have more conversations; I wanted the writer to really capture Jane's spirit, but I don't think she did. The story is very creative, and being the first in a series, I feel a lot of sub plot lines and characters had to be introduced and explained, so it felt like it jumped around quite a bit. There were some really clever moments throughout - one being the Wordsworth poem (but I won't say more to avoid spoiling anything). I am inclined to read more of these books.

I only rated it low because of personal preference. I can certainly see why it's a book within the canon. I don't love magical realism, and I did not know many of the references, so I spent a good deal of time researching people and terms. I recommend this book, but it's time consuming if you want to really be engaged with the style, and the references and their importance.