A review by neenor
Without Looking Back by Tabitha Suzuma

5.0

Suzuma is definitely becoming one of my favourite authors. This is the second book of hers that I have read, and although I preferred the other one a little bit more, I still utterly loved this one. The thing I really like about her books is that she deals with topics that we all know and think about, but barely ever read about - well, in teenage books, anyway. This novel was about a depressed father taking his three children away from France to Paris after he lost the custody battle with his ex-wife. From the beginning, the reader knows about them being abducted, and for the first half of the book you are just sat waiting for one of them to find out. And they do halfway through the story, just like I said - which confused me. All I could think of was, what is going to happen for the rest of the book? I don't want to spoil what happens, but I thought it was an excellent twist to what I was expecting, and the ending was fantastic - again, totally unexpected but perfect. Suzuma shows in this novel that situations like these are far more complicated than we can understand, and she shows this so beautifully. As you read, you really become attached to the characters of Louis, Max and Millie - and even their kidnapping Father. At the end I could feel tears welling up in m eyes , and I just wish there had been one more chapter, because it kind of ends on a cliffhanger. You want to find out what happens to the family - do they get caught, or do they get away with it? What does Max do when he hits sixteen? What does Louis do when he hits sixteen? However, a sequel just wouldn't be good for this book - it is so amazing and moving as it is. My praise for Suzuma is endless and I hope to read some of her other books in the future.