Honestly, this is one of the most boring books I have ever voluntarily read. Quite honestly, the line "Going missing was the only interesting thing my brother had ever done" was the highlight of the whole novel. I thought there would be mystery and suspense, but it was just the story of a girl who ended up not knowing how to interact with people after her brother disappeared. It would have been an easier read if Lydia had been a more sympathetic protagonist, but I just ended up not liking her, wanting to tell her to snap out of it, get on with her life. The whole novel was slow going and tedious. It was a chore just to talk myself into opening it. Usually if a book is this bad, I just stop reading, but I wanted to push through, see if it got any better. It didn't. I basically had to force myself to read the whole thing, and after about 10 pages I was so bored I was falling asleep, so it took longer than I thought it would to finish the novel. There is usually some kind of saving grace in everything I read, an interesting character, an unexpected twist, but I'd be hard pressed to find one here. The premise was new, innovative, and interesting, telling what happens to the family after someone disappears, but the execution of the story was completely lacking. Lydia and her mother never got over what happened to Danny, always outsiders, never comfortable interacting with people, always searching. Her father however, found his way out of all the chaos and moves on. Another thing I didn't like about this novel is that that it didn't really have a conclusion. We found out what happened to Danny at one point, and where everyone is years later, but don't really find out if the relationships that were broken or formed during that time ever get fixed.

Overall, a very slow, boring read. I would not recommend this to anyone. ( )

what if your older brother goes missing, and you don't miss him? What if your social status soars because of all of the attention? What if your parents fade away and you have to now raise yourself?

This is an interesting book, but it did lag a bit from time to time. I did a lot of fast reading to get thru the dull parts, one whiny teenager starts to sound like every whiny teenager after a while, but it was still a good, not great read. What actually happened to her brother would have been better left a mystery! ( )

Engaging. Not a strong recommendation, but not bad at all. I'm checking out some Oregon writers. She's fine. ( )

This is a weird book... a little nerd girl's older brother goes missing and that's about it. Later, you find out what happened to the brother, but that's not even the end of the novel and the stuff that comes after that doesn't even matter. In fact, the whole book doesn't matter. It was cliched and boring on almost every single page. ( )

Miriam Gershow brings the lives of those tragic, strained faces seen too frequently on television who plead for information about a missing child. In pain-staking detail Gershow chronicles the reality behind the headlines and the new clips that the Pasternak family experiences after the disappearance of Danny, the “golden” child of the family. Bookish, awkward Lydia, the younger sister, wryly describes the disintegration of routine, her parent’s crumbling marriage and the desperate need for answers. Lydia finds herself suddenly sought out by her brother’s jock friends and befriended by an extremely extroverted classmate. As Lydia recounts family interactions and the treatment Danny both received and gave the reader comes to understand that this family’s brokenness occurred long before Danny disappeared. The realistic portrayal of this family often makes for uncomfortable reading and yet I felt compelled to continue to attend and not look away. ( )