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There were a few truly beautiful and touching parts, but there were a few too many parts which I found not at all to my taste, which took away from the text. I have loved another of Joyce's books and I am willing to try again. This one, I will think about again for sure.
A friend lent me this book and I couldn't have been more thrilled with it. Joyce tells the story of a family trying to come to terms with the reappearance of Tara, who disappeared twenty years ago, when she was only sixteen. The complication? She claims she was abducted by fairies.
The joy of this story is that it's told mostly from the point of view of her family, struggling to understand and adapt. Some chapters do cover the stories she tells of her disappearance and what happened on the other side, giving a lovely fantasy through-line to a story that is otherwise mostly about human connection and real life.
Beautiful, a little haunting, very lovely. Deep characters with real flaws but overall you are rooting for them, and a fantastic mystery that draws you through the entire book, right up to its satisfying conclusion.
The joy of this story is that it's told mostly from the point of view of her family, struggling to understand and adapt. Some chapters do cover the stories she tells of her disappearance and what happened on the other side, giving a lovely fantasy through-line to a story that is otherwise mostly about human connection and real life.
Beautiful, a little haunting, very lovely. Deep characters with real flaws but overall you are rooting for them, and a fantastic mystery that draws you through the entire book, right up to its satisfying conclusion.
Beautiful writing but a bit slow and the plot was somewhat meh. I thought there would be more of a twist at the end. Still, I might be interested in reading more from him.
Fast read. I had a good storyline and interesting enough characters. I liked the book but it did not knock my socks off.
I received this book through good reads giveaway. it was a pretty good book, but it was hard for me to follow along. you have to be an attentive reader with all of the pov changes and with going to the future and back to the past, and present. the ending left me wondering what would happen next. so i gave the book 3 stars, it just wasn't enough for me, im a needy reader.
While I didn't know what I was getting into based on the synopsis, and I try not to read reviews ahead of time, this wasn't quite what I was expecting. This wasn't so much a fairy tale/fantasy book as it was an exposition of relationships and reactions. Under mysterious circumstances, that may have happened to others previously, Tara disappears while in the woods. Everyone blames her then boyfriend, Richie, but no trace of Tara is found, and after a while, the family and those involved move on. Twenty years later, Tara shows up on her parents' doorstep. For her it's only been a few months, for them, twenty years have passed. Shocked, they call their son, Peter, who comes, but cannot grasp the unbelievable tale Tara weaves to explain her disappearance.
Tara's parents are happy to have her back, but something isn't quite right. Peter, with the help of a doctor, tries to determine if Tara is who she claims to be, for how can she be his sister if she hasn't aged a day in her absence? After losing his girlfriend, his best friend, and the family he had become a part of, Richie cannot move on and is stuck in a never ending loop. Upon Tara's return, he only wants to find out what happened, and maybe pick up where they left off.
For a relatively short read, the character development in this book is astounding. Joyce pulls you into a story which in its simplest form would only take a few pages to tell. But you're not there for the story; Joyce moves from character to character giving you various perspectives which could be distracting, but only serves to enhance the story. From Tara's own thoughts, Peter's apprehension, and Richie's stunted life, along with a psychiatrist who just doesn't get it, this story unfolds an intermingled mix of truth and fantasy. What is possible? Why did Tara come back? Will she choose to stay despite the consequences? What really happened to her in the other world? Can she and Richie pick up where they left off?
In many ways, I think Tara came back to fix the broken pieces in each person who was affected by her sudden disappearance, but then again, maybe not. Joyce lets the reader come to their own conclusions on Tara's motivations, what is truth, and what is fantasy. And is she hiding a deeper secret?
Tara's parents are happy to have her back, but something isn't quite right. Peter, with the help of a doctor, tries to determine if Tara is who she claims to be, for how can she be his sister if she hasn't aged a day in her absence? After losing his girlfriend, his best friend, and the family he had become a part of, Richie cannot move on and is stuck in a never ending loop. Upon Tara's return, he only wants to find out what happened, and maybe pick up where they left off.
For a relatively short read, the character development in this book is astounding. Joyce pulls you into a story which in its simplest form would only take a few pages to tell. But you're not there for the story; Joyce moves from character to character giving you various perspectives which could be distracting, but only serves to enhance the story. From Tara's own thoughts, Peter's apprehension, and Richie's stunted life, along with a psychiatrist who just doesn't get it, this story unfolds an intermingled mix of truth and fantasy. What is possible? Why did Tara come back? Will she choose to stay despite the consequences? What really happened to her in the other world? Can she and Richie pick up where they left off?
In many ways, I think Tara came back to fix the broken pieces in each person who was affected by her sudden disappearance, but then again, maybe not. Joyce lets the reader come to their own conclusions on Tara's motivations, what is truth, and what is fantasy. And is she hiding a deeper secret?
Tara disappeared when she was a teen. Her family searched all over, but resigned themselves to the fact that she was dead somewhere. Twenty years later, on Christmas, she shows up at her parents’ door, looking just as old as she had when she left. The book showed how her disappearance affected her parents, brother and boyfriend, and how her reappearance did, too. We get to switch around the points of view between many people – Tara, the brother, even the nephew. But what happened? Where was she? Could she have been taken by fairies, or was that all in her head? I liked this novel because you’re not sure what’s going on, what happened, or maybe if there is more than one truth.