Johnny Merrimon's twin sister Ashley suddenly vanished a year ago, when they were twelve years old. And even if everyone else seems to have given up hope on finding her, Johnny has not. In fact, he has secretly spent most of everyday looking for her, going on foot, on 'borrowed' cars and going house to house, waiting and searching patiently. When another girl, Tiffany, disappears, the secret and mystery of Ashley's disappearance slowly unravels. Quite a satisfying whirlwind of a read.
'Asphalt cut the country like a scar, a long, hot burn of razor-black. Heat had not twisted the air, but the driver knew it was coming, the scorching glare, the shimmer at the far place where blue hammered down.'(opening lines)
'Johnny learned early. If somebody asked him why he was so different, why he held himself so still and why his eyes seemed to swallow light, that's what he'd tell them. He learned early that there was no safe place, not the backyard or the playground, not the front porch or the quiet road that grazed the edge of town. No safe place, and no one to protect you. Childhood was illusion.'(7)
'He thought that the cop probably meant what he said. He was probably a good guy. But Johnny could never look at him without remembering Alyssa, and that kind of thinking required concentration. He had to picture her alive and smiling, not in a dirt-floored cellar or in the back of some car. She was twelve the last time he'd seen her. Twelve, with black hair, cut like a boy's.'(16)
'People were not right. The cop had that part straight. Johnny had peered over more fences and into more windows than he could count. He'd knocked on doors at all hours, and he's seen things that weren't right. Things that people did when they thought they were alone and no one was watching. He'd seen kids sniff drugs and old people eat food that fell on the floor. He once saw a preacher in his underwear, hot-faced and screaming at his wife as she cried. That was messed up. But Johnny was no idiot. He knew that crazy people could look like anybody else.'(39)
"Life is a comedy," Jack said, but there was no smile left. His mother was scary religious, born again and taking no prisoners. She was on Jack all the time with threats of hellfire and damnation. He played it off, but the cracks showed.'(43)
'Levi Freemantle carried a precious thing on his shoulder. It was a heavy box, wrapped twice in black plastic and closed up with silver tape. Few men could carry it as far as Levi had, but Levi was not like other men. He ignored the hurt of it, the sense of it. He kept his feet on the path and moved his lips when words rose up in his mind. He listened to God's voice in his head and followed the river like his momma taught him when he was a boy. The river was the river, never-changing, and Levi had walked the river trail a hundred times, maybe. Not that he counted that good.'(53)
'Hunt shook his head at the absurdity of the word. There was nothing mere about the boy Johnny had become. The evidence was everywhere: in his actions and his attitudes, in this bare-walled room and even in the books he kept. They were not a boy's books. Johnny had books on history and ancient religions, vision quests, and the hunting rituals on the Plain Indians.'(112)
'He drove out the fear and put his fingers on the key. His eyes, in the mirror, showed red lines and blackened lids. He was untouchable, he told himself, a warrior.... He was an Indian chief.(118)
"The world is what it is, unjust and tragic and full of crying shames. Don't hate me for it."(127)
'The kid knew things. Hunt was certain of it. He pictured again, as he had many times, the black eyes and wariness, the profound stillness of deep and careful thought. Johnny was messed up in so many fundamental ways, confused, twisted sideways; but the clarity with which he saw certain things... Loyalty. Fierceness. Determination.'(187-188)
'Darkness is a cancer of the human heart.'(338)
a Thomas Dunne Book for Minotaur Books
419 pages
Book owned
Book qualifies for: 100+ Reading Challenge
___________________________
No comments:
Post a Comment