In three words I deem this novel: depressing, long, and inappropriate."Six-year-old Emma vanished into the thick San Francisco mist. Or into the heaving Pacific. Or somewhere just beyond: to a parking lot, a stranger's van, or a road with traffic flashing by. Devastated by guilt, haunted by her fears about becoming a stepmother, Abby refuses to believe that Emma is dead. And so she searches her mind for clues about what happened that morning and cannot stop the flood of memories reaching from her own childhood to illuminate that irreversible moment on the beach. . . . A profoundly original novel of family, loss, and hope, THE YEAR OF FOG beguiles with its window into the mysteries of time and memory even as it lays bare the deep and wondrous workings of the human heart. The result is a mesmerizing drama that will touch anyone who knows what it means to love a child." {from yearoffog.com}
Now here's MY version. I am so mad that I wasted my precious book-reading-time on this stupid book. The New York Times Bestseller what??! I couldn't wait to finish this thing, so I could move on. Why did I finish it when I didn't even like it? I think I have a pretty good excuse: the book is about a girl who vanishes. I had to find out whether they found her or not right? So I kept reading. (Ugh). This book was depressing, even agonizing, with it's daily mundane routine of Abby (the main character and narrator) as she was looking for this lost little girl. There were way too many flashbacks, inappropriate behaviors and language, memory theories, and misleads for my taste.
The front of the book says "Highly recommended [for fans of] authors like Jodi Picoult and Jacquelyn Mitchard," well, I guess I won't be reading any books by those authors any time soon. Thanks for the warning.
I will generously give this book 1.5 ouf of 5 stars.