Play Book Tag discussion

An interesting twist, dealing with the aftereffects of being abducted or someone close to you abducted.

Patch, an outcast who fancies himself a pirate, foils the abduction of a teenage girl, only to be abducted himself. His best friend, Saint, another outcast, is the only person who does not eventually give up on finding Patch. This story covers 25 years of their lives.

This is not a thriller as I suspected, full of action and suspense and chase. Some of that exists, but this is a much more a "who done it" intertwined in an epic story.

I first fell in love with the cover of the book, but the book blurb did not grasp my attention. After seeing the book everywhere, including Goodreads End of the Year Awards, I added it to my list.

The writing is odd, and the descriptions are very...original. I kept having to go back and reread sentences and paragraphs, but eventually I adapted to the flow of Whitaker's writing. The story is an original perspective on an old story and is a beautiful tale of friendship, trauma, obsession, and self-discovery. Patch, Saint, Misty, Grace are names appropriately with their names holding significance of their character.

Then...the story falls apart. The reveal just...(view spoiler)[doesn't satisfy or even make sense with the rest of the story. There are so many holes and logical fallacies that...made me not care anymore. (hide spoiler)]

I am curious to try more Whitaker but am unsure.

And yet you gave it four stars!

I actually read this one with my IRL (in real life) book club in January and we had a really interesting discussion. I was moved by it and the discussion was rich. This one does however require some suspension of disbelief. Which I liked about it. How it came together in ways that were suppposed to show something that probably would have never ever come together in that way....

Amy wrote: "And yet you gave it four stars!

I actually read this one with my IRL (in real life) book club in January and we had a really interesting discussion. I was moved by it and the discussion was rich. ..."

I did love the majority of the story and enjoyed the writing once I got used to it. It's a beautiful book on so many levels.

Give us a preview of that discussion y'all had. I'll add "spoilers" to the heading if needed.