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A review by spacemanchris
We Now Return to Regular Life by Martin Wilson
4.0
This isn't a review, more a series of rambling thoughts.
The overwhelming themes in this story are about guilt and regret, with a small amount of hope thrown in to keep from being completely depressed.
This was an odd combination of being extremely readable while being incredibly heavy. We're never given an overly graphic version of what happens to the abducted boy Sam, Martin Wilson manages to suggest just enough to ensure your mind fills in the horrible blanks.
Like Wilson's earlier book, "What They Always Tell Us", this switches narrators with each chapter. Sam's sister Beth and Josh, Sam's friend alternate.
Beth's struggle with wanting to support Sam and not wanting to hear any of the details clearly tears her up inside, causing her to become distant and angry from her family and friends. She almost resents Sam for not staying dead, for interrupting the life they'd finally gotten on with.
When Beth overhears that Sam was sexually abused, she's filled with this heart wrenching horror. She knew it must have happened but hearing it said out loud totally destroyed her for a while.
There's a moment where Beth has a chance to let Sam open up but changes the subject because she's not ready. I don't think any of them really were despite their claims of "We'll let Sam talk when he's ready."
Overall Beth has a good arc. By the end of it she's ready to be there for Sam as well as get on with her life.
Josh has his own struggles. He never really liked Sam but is wracked with guilt for not coming forward with the information he had about the abductor.
Adding to that he's gay, so he's still coming to terms with who he is when Sam returns. He immediately feels an attraction for him but he's not sure if it's real or if it's a way of coping with the guilt he's lived with for three years. After all he didn't even like Sam that much, they were just friends of convenience.
Josh is such a strong person, so much stronger than I'd be in that situation. He stays by Sam's side even when his parents tell him that he doesn't owe Sam anything, and when his friends TP Sam's house, and finally when Sam opens up to him and only him.
Sam and Josh have a really interesting relationship. While Josh is figuring out his feelings, Sam is doing the same but I don't think it's sexual for him. He needs a friend, someone he trusts, someone who he's connected with. Josh.
There are three moments that temporarily broke me while reading this. The first was Sam describing the night his abductor Rusty tried to kill him. Sam pleaded with him not to and promised to stay with him. A promise made by an eleven year old fearing for his life. It's partly why he never ran, why he tried to build a life for himself while trying not to think about his family who were only hours away.
The second was the sleepover where a drunk Sam masturbated Josh. It's such a sad moment. Josh knows it's not what Sam wants, it's what he wants. Sam does it, finishes and goes back to his bed to sleep. Like it's this perfunctory act he's done many times before. It has this horrible implication of what his time was like when he was gone.
The final moment was Sam's reaction to Rusty's death. "I miss him. I'll never see him again." A reaction that his family doesn't understand.
Like almost all books featuring teenage protagonists I want to see what happens next. What do Sam, Beth and Josh look like in five years or ten? Have they moved on with their lives or regressed?
The book does leave everyone in a better place. Not everyone is fully healed but they are getting there. It's nice to leave the reader with that hope after all the guilt and regret. There's also a nice reference to Martin Wilson's earlier book "What They Always Tell Us". Nice to see he's creating his own multiverse.
The overwhelming themes in this story are about guilt and regret, with a small amount of hope thrown in to keep from being completely depressed.
This was an odd combination of being extremely readable while being incredibly heavy. We're never given an overly graphic version of what happens to the abducted boy Sam, Martin Wilson manages to suggest just enough to ensure your mind fills in the horrible blanks.
Like Wilson's earlier book, "What They Always Tell Us", this switches narrators with each chapter. Sam's sister Beth and Josh, Sam's friend alternate.
Beth's struggle with wanting to support Sam and not wanting to hear any of the details clearly tears her up inside, causing her to become distant and angry from her family and friends. She almost resents Sam for not staying dead, for interrupting the life they'd finally gotten on with.
When Beth overhears that Sam was sexually abused, she's filled with this heart wrenching horror. She knew it must have happened but hearing it said out loud totally destroyed her for a while.
There's a moment where Beth has a chance to let Sam open up but changes the subject because she's not ready. I don't think any of them really were despite their claims of "We'll let Sam talk when he's ready."
Overall Beth has a good arc. By the end of it she's ready to be there for Sam as well as get on with her life.
Josh has his own struggles. He never really liked Sam but is wracked with guilt for not coming forward with the information he had about the abductor.
Adding to that he's gay, so he's still coming to terms with who he is when Sam returns. He immediately feels an attraction for him but he's not sure if it's real or if it's a way of coping with the guilt he's lived with for three years. After all he didn't even like Sam that much, they were just friends of convenience.
Josh is such a strong person, so much stronger than I'd be in that situation. He stays by Sam's side even when his parents tell him that he doesn't owe Sam anything, and when his friends TP Sam's house, and finally when Sam opens up to him and only him.
Sam and Josh have a really interesting relationship. While Josh is figuring out his feelings, Sam is doing the same but I don't think it's sexual for him. He needs a friend, someone he trusts, someone who he's connected with. Josh.
There are three moments that temporarily broke me while reading this. The first was Sam describing the night his abductor Rusty tried to kill him. Sam pleaded with him not to and promised to stay with him. A promise made by an eleven year old fearing for his life. It's partly why he never ran, why he tried to build a life for himself while trying not to think about his family who were only hours away.
The second was the sleepover where a drunk Sam masturbated Josh. It's such a sad moment. Josh knows it's not what Sam wants, it's what he wants. Sam does it, finishes and goes back to his bed to sleep. Like it's this perfunctory act he's done many times before. It has this horrible implication of what his time was like when he was gone.
The final moment was Sam's reaction to Rusty's death. "I miss him. I'll never see him again." A reaction that his family doesn't understand.
Like almost all books featuring teenage protagonists I want to see what happens next. What do Sam, Beth and Josh look like in five years or ten? Have they moved on with their lives or regressed?
The book does leave everyone in a better place. Not everyone is fully healed but they are getting there. It's nice to leave the reader with that hope after all the guilt and regret. There's also a nice reference to Martin Wilson's earlier book "What They Always Tell Us". Nice to see he's creating his own multiverse.