TEST
When Oliver’s father kidnapped him in second grade, it shattered the neighborhood Oliver left behind. Emmy is still defined as “the best friend of the kidnapped boy,” even to her overprotective parents, from whom she hides her passion for surfing. Oliver’s shocking return, while wonderful on the surface, proves to be more complicated for all parties concerned than anyone is prepared for. The kidnapping elements of this novel are very well developed and Oliver in particular is realistically depicted, and if the heroine and romance are somewhat generic, the novel was still an enjoyable read.
Emmy is a fairly standard first person teen narrator. She loves surfing, she is supportive of Oliver, and she’s not an academic superstar, but she didn’t come off the page for me. Oliver was much better executed, possibly because we get the extra details from seeing him through Emmy’s eyes. He has been through the trauma of losing his mother the first time, and then the trauma of learning that his father abducted him, and then the trauma of being returned to his mother. His new life doesn’t fit him in any way, from the big (his mother has remarried and had more children) to the ordinary (raised in New York City, Oliver can’t drive in his new Southern California location). Add in the conflicted feelings he has about his abductor father and you have a well-rounded treatment of a hero with a lot of issues.
The parents were also strikingly strong characters. Oliver’s mother was crushed by his abduction, and the author shows how that wound scabbed over but never healed. Her efforts, and those of her new husband, to adapt to a life with Oliver now are painful in their good intentions and poor execution. Emmy’s parents are the secondhand-smokers of Oliver’s kidnapping – having supported their neighbor and friend for a decade, they’ve also fallen victim to the terrifying shadow of losing a child. They now parent Emmy in controlling fear. I can tell that the author did research on the ripple effects of a kidnapping on the neighborhood as well as on the child, and also on the long-term effects on all parties.
Two things didn’t work as well for me. I didn’t find it credible that friendships would mean much after the ten years between second grade and high school. This isn’t even the case for people who stay in the same town and have the same experiences, let alone ones who have been separated by time, space, and trauma. It felt forced in support of the main plot thread, “destined grand reunion with second grade crush.”
The author’s depiction of teen life and teen conversations also felt stilted and unnatural, reading strongly like an adult trying to be cool. For example, the author uses the phrase “douche canoe” as a running gag at a party as if it’s a clever, coined-on-the-spot nickname for a jerk character, but it’s a widely-used phrase. The party the friends go to is straight out of a teen movie. Emmy and Oliver’s other friends felt stock character-y, and their conflicts were teen standbys (the gay friend – male, as always – with unsupportive parents; the neatnik friend who has to share a bedroom with a slobby sister and divides it down the middle). There are also excessive dialogue tags.
Because I didn’t get to know Emmy that well, I didn’t feel invested in her romantic relationship with Oliver. The author rightfully dedicated significant page count to Oliver’s coming to terms with his past, but this means that Emmy’s role for him is largely confidante and friend/therapist, not love interest. The book could have been rewritten with Emmy as his long-lost sister or male best friend without losing most of what made it work.
Emmy and Oliver is a well-developed depiction of three parties affected by the shock of kidnapping – the child, the child’s parents, and the surrounding parents. While the child’s friends could be better developed, they aren’t problematic, either, but the romance is definitely weak. Check this book out if the kidnapping story intrigues you, but for romance I’d give it a miss.
Grade: B
Book Type: Young Adult
Sensuality: Kisses
Review Date: 28/01/16
Publication Date: 06/2015
I'm a history geek and educator, and I've lived in five different countries in North America, Asia, and Europe. In addition to the usual subgenres, I'm partial to YA, Sci-fi/Fantasy, and graphic novels. I love to cook.
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Recent Comments …
Yep
This sounds delightful! I’m grabbing it, thanks
excellent book: interesting, funny dialogs, deep understanding of each character, interesting secondary characters, and also sexy.
I don’t think anyone expects you to post UK prices – it’s just a shame that such a great sale…
I’m sorry about that. We don’t have any way to post British prices as an American based site.
I have several of her books on my TBR and after reading this am moving them up the pile.