Edeet Ravel

The opening page of this book grabbed me...hard! However, in the end, it was a let down.

Daniel and our narrator, Dana, fall in love and marry. A few years later, while completing his mandatory military service, Daniel disappears. Eleven years go by, and Dana continues to wait for him, publishing a full page newspaper ad each year saying she will never stop waiting.

The story is interesting. Dana is a Jewish citizen of Israel who supports the Palestinian cause, attending and photographing demonstrations. She has a number of quirky friends and neighbours and the story kept my interest. However, the ending is soap opera like. It seems unlikely that it took so long to find someone staying nearby. And Daniel's reasons for leaving -- and staying away -- stretched my credibility way too far. Too bad, because it ruined what was, up 'il then, a pretty good read.… (more)

Wow.

Alright, to be fair, I think a normal person would've fallen in love with him. We can't chalk it all up to Stockholms Syndrome, seeing as this man was THE. NICEST. FUCKING. KIDNAPPER. EVER. I"m pretty sure, most kidnappers are not that nice. But then again, all I know about kidnapping comes from watching Criminal Minds and Taken, and those shows may just be an exaggeration of the reality. Nice kidnappers mat, in fact, be the norm.

Still, this was an amazing book. The writing reminded me of the writing from [b:The Perks of Being a Wallflower|22628|The Perks of Being a Wallflower|Stephen Chbosky|http://d202m5krfqbpi5.cloudfront.net/books/1363910637s/22628.jpg|2236198] in that I had to shift the flow of my thoughts in order to keep pace with the book. It worked well. That was probably the best thing about this book, if you ask me.

(though I won't lie, I DO want to know if they end up together in the future. Was it just Stockholm's Syndrome? Or was it real?)

Meaning the plot and characters were good too.… (more)

I think this is the lowest I have rated any book on the CBC 100 lists. I'll explain my issues with it later but I want to preface my review by saying that I hold YA novels to the same standard that I hold any literature. Maybe that is unfair since I am a long way from being a youth but I think young people deserve to have well-written books the same as adults do.

Chloe is a high school student from Chicago spending a summer in Greece with her best friend, Angie. They are working as volunteers teaching children in a community center in Athens. They have a few days after their volunteer job ends to explore so Chloe goes off by herself to a ruin while Angie sleeps in. She is abducted by a small group of people who want some prisoners in the USA released. Chloe is taken by car and airplane to an abandoned warehouse that has been fixed up to keep her in comfort. One man, whose name she never knows, visits every few days to keep her supplied with food and other necessities. He treats Chloe with kindness and she thinks he cannot be so bad even if he has done a bad thing. She is coping quite well until another of the abductors visits and tortures Chloe by dunking her head in a pail of water until she almost drowns. The kind man finds Chloe lying on the floor and cares for her through a subsequent illness. After this Chloe falls in love with him. Is this the Stockholm Syndrome? Perhaps but the man also seems to care for Chloe. She learns more about him and his motivation for the kidnapping. She starts to imagine a future life with him although he tells her it cannot be. She returns to the US (we know this right at the beginning of the book so I'm not spoiling the ending) and writes the truth about the abduction which will not be what she gives the government interrogators.

One of my big problems with the book is that the motive for the abduction just doesn't seem plausible. The man tells her that he was put in prison by his country's regime and that one of the men they want released saved his life in prison. We also learn that he is Christian and white so it seems most likely to me that he came from a South or Central American country. His friend has been imprisoned in the US so why is he abducting someone in Greece? Chloe was picked at random and she has no connection to the US justice system. It just doesn't make sense to me. Another major problem for me is that the man says the abuse he suffered in prison means he doesn't want anyone to touch him. Yet, he and Chloe kiss and he has no problems with that, in fact he responds to her. And then there is the ending to the book which does not give a satisfying conclusion to the big question about whether Chloe is suffering from Stockholm syndrome. I think even a teenager would notice holes in this story.… (more)