When I sit down to read a book, I find a comfortable spot because I usually plan to be there for some time. With Above, I never found that comfort zone because I was putting the book down every few chapters. Why? It was such an intense read that I had to walk away but I was only able to stay away for a few minutes and then I was right back into it because I had to know more. If there’s one thing I didn’t expect from this book, it was the intensity.
At sixteen, Blythe Hallowell is a smart girl, not necessarily boy obsessed, but there is one boy she can’t wait to see at the Horse Thieves Picnic. When the boy is called away and doesn’t return, Blythe is hurt. Walking home later, a local man named Dobbs Hordin drives by and tells her that her brother has been hurt. She gets in the car with him, and instead of being the day she met a boy at the picnic, it becomes the day she goes missing from Eudora, Kansas. Dobbs Hordin is a local survivalist and has been preparing a missile silo for the end of days. He takes Blythe to the silo, locking her in with his other gathered possessions, and when the door is locked, her life all but stops.
The first few days and months of her captivity, Blythe focuses solely on getting out. She wants to go home to her family, she wants to see her best friend, and she wants to walk in the sun again. Blythe soon comes to the sad realization that isn’t going to happen and it’s a crushing blow to her mentally. Months pass and she falls slowly into a dark place fueled by loneliness, anger, and despair. After she gives birth to a stillborn daughter, her mental state becomes even more precarious making even her captor nervous.
Seventeen years pass and Blythe, Dobbs, and their son Adam, live out their meager lives in that silo. All Blythe can think about is her son and going above. She never gave up hope that one day she would be able to see sunlight in place of the sickly light that governs their waking hours below. Wanting her son to understand the world above, she tells him stories about what it will be like once they leave. Dobbs, who does come and go during those seventeen years, never tells Blythe or Adam about the outside world. When an unexpected and unplanned event gives Blythe and Adam the chance to leave, they walk into a world they didn’t expect and weren’t prepared for.
I can honestly say I didn’t see the twist coming. I wanted Blythe and Adam to walk out into the sun, admire the flowers and blue sky. I wanted to see them walk to her parents’ home and be welcomed with open arms. After seventeen years of captivity, they walk into a world that neither understands. It’s devastating to not only Blythe and Adam but you as the reader. I’m not one for happy endings, but I thought Blythe deserved something after what she’d been through and she wasn’t going to get it.
There’s something really wonderful about this twist though, and by wonderful I don’t mean good. I like that Morley doesn’t let the reader have the happy ending. I like that she takes everything away and leaves Blythe with nothing. In more than one way, Blythe gets to start over with a clean slate even if she doesn’t see that. While no one forgives Dobbs for anything — and he certainly doesn’t deserve forgiveness — Blythe does come to realize a few things about him that she never would have given thought to if she had still been locked behind concrete walls.
I won’t lie — this is a book you won’t be able to put down. And if you do put it down, you’ll pick it back up in a few minutes because you won’t be able to stay away. Having devoured it in a day, trust me when I say this. Morley delivers a book that will drive you through every possible emotion before you get to the end, and once you get there, your heart will be sore from the beating.
Above
By Isla Morley
Simon and Schuster/Gallery Books
ISBN: 9781476731520
In addition to this blog, I also write reviews for the Bookreporter. You can find my review of Above here.
Clockwork Phoenix 4 is a collection of 18 stories edited by Mike Allen. Who, I will tell you now, is a master editor. And the authors, all masters as well. This collection is really fantastic. I took my time reading it and was rewarded each time a new story began. You can call it speculative, fantasy, science fiction, but what it is, is good reading. After each story, I was left thinking of the characters and settings which were believable and yet unbelievable at the same time. I’m not always a fan of short stories, and soon after the book arrived, I become a little apprehensive and worried I wasn’t going to enjoy it. I shouldn’t have worried. There are stories in this collection that I’ll go back to again and again. They are so rich and detailed I know I’ll find something new each time I pick up a story.
There are some books you finish and want more of, immediately. For me, this is one of those books. I loved the setting, the characters, the mystery — everything. I’ve been reading a lot of historical mysteries lately, and oddly, they’ve all been series and I’ve started all of them somewhere in the middle rather than from the beginning. The same is true for this book; it’s Robertson’s third book featuring the characters of Mrs. Harriet Westerman and Gabriel Crowther. Surprisingly, this hasn’t dulled my enjoyment one bit.
Lady Emily Hargreaves, accompanied by her husband Colin, is on her way to Venice to help a childhood friend named Emma Callum. A better description would be a childhood nemesis — Emily and Emma were not exactly the best of friends as children and Emily did her best to distance herself from Emma whenever possible. However, Emma has asked for her help and Emily can’t turn down a plea for help, even when that plea comes from Emma Callum. Years ago, Emma ran off with an Italian Count and caused a bit of a scandal at home, but is now in desperate need of Emily’s detective skills. Her father-in-law has been murdered in the home she shares with her husband, and her husband, who is a suspect in his father’s murder, has disappeared making the case against him look even more telling. She needs Emily to find the murderer and clear her husband.
In Shadow of Night, we pick up with Diana Bishop, now Diana Clairmont, and her new husband Matthew in 1590 Elizabethan England. Having time walked back to 1590 to find a witch capable of understanding Diana’s magic and who can teach her how to control her powers, the two soon get caught up in 16th Century English politics and court intrigue. It’s a particularly fascinating place for Diana, being the scholar that she is, but for Matthew the new setting brings on a fresh set of problems and emotions. Matthew, a vampire who once hunted down witches, now has to reconcile his old role as witch hunter which is more than difficult now that over 400 years later, he finds himself married to a witch. He also must come to some understanding with his father — a man he knows as dead in his present.
Feng is a young woman who is mostly ignored by everyone in her family with the exception of her grandfather who dotes on her. Her older sister is the one everyone’s hopes and dreams ride on but she’s cruel to Feng and the two have never had any sort of relationship. When her sister dies unexpectedly, Feng is forced to marry her fiancé to hold up the arrangements her parents made and Feng finds herself a wife to a son of a well-known and rich family in Shanghai with no idea how to fend for herself or any understanding of what’s expected of her.
There are books where the beginning hints at the ending. The House I Loved is one such book but knowing how this one will end is what makes it so special. It builds very slowly and before you know it, you’ve been picked up and carried to the end.
Just Book Reading 