Sunday, August 10, 2014

This is Sarah by Ally Malinenko

(Image found on Goodreads)
"In a single moment, Sarah vanished, and the world shifted forever on its axis."-Ally Malinenko, This is Sarah

Colin is struggling. Struggling with the fact that his girlfriend has disappeared. Struggling with the fact that he quickly becomes a suspect. Struggling with the fact that everyone is moving on and he can't. But when her voice mail turns on a year after her disappearance, he can't help but feel as if holding onto her was the right thing to do. Then there's Claire, Sarah's sister. She struggles to adjust to being an only child, dealing with all of the frustration, and pain that comes with not knowing what happens. Find the official description on Goodreads.

This is Sarah was really well written, it wasn't hard to hear Colin's voice and I found that the writing really kept the reader interested and emotionally involved. Ally Malinenko also included different forms of storytelling including the transcripts from some of Colin's interrogations and several other forms that are different from the narration that is typical. The only thing that I found was that if you didn't pay attention to the names at the beginning of the chapters it could be difficult to tell when Claire was the narrator. I was halfway through a chapter and had all these questions before going back and realizing that Claire was narrating. But other than that it was really well written.

There were lots of rough scenes,and while it was emotional, it was emotional in the way that you felt sadness, anger, or despair with or on behalf of the characters. There were few scenes that were actually happy but it was still very emotional. Dealing with Colin's refusal to grieve, anger, then Mrs. Evan's denial and Mr. Evans attempts to grieve, and many more was draining as if the reader was experiencing each and every emotion. It was amazing to get that deep into a book.

This is Sarah is an emotionally touching story, and it was well written. It's not a hard book to read and you really should give it a chance!

2 comments:

  1. So glad you liked this every bit as much as I did. There really was a lot packed into this short story. :)

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    Replies
    1. There really was. It was great to read that way. Thanks for commenting!

      Aly

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