Synopsis
As boys, best friends Jeremy and Rafe went missing in a vast West Virginia state forest, only to mysteriously reappear six months later with no explanation for where they’d gone or how they’d survived.
Fifteen years after their homecoming, Rafe is a reclusive artist who still bears scars inside and out, but has no memory of what happened during those months. Meanwhile, Jeremy has become a famed missing persons’ investigator. With his uncanny abilities, he is the one person who can help vet tech Emilie find her sister, who vanished in the very same forest as Rafe and Jeremy.
Alongside the headstrong Emilie, Rafe and Jeremy must return to the enchanted world they called home for six months—for only then can they get back everything and everyone they’ve lost.
Rating
★★★
Thoughts
Thank you to Random House and NetGalley for the opportunity to read this digital ARC in exchange for an honest review.
Since I enjoyed The Wishing Game by this author, I was eager to read this ARC. The mention of Narnia also intrigued me. The premise caught my attention, but the plot started unraveling at around the thirty percent mark.
I feel as though I trudged through the last two-thirds of this book because it was trying to cover so many areas: contemporary, fantasy, paranormal, thriller, family drama, and LGBTQ+. The story felt quite young adult, although it is being marketed as adult fiction. It is also a coming-of-age queer story, which is not a subject I tend to gravitate to or connect with.
I found that the central relationship in this book echoed that of the one in The Binding by Bridget Collins, which I had recently read and enjoyed. The details involving a gay lover’s lost memory and a magical book felt a bit too familiar. For me, it started to feel like bits from too many stories patched together.
This story was a weak three-star for me. While there are vague similarities to Narnia, overall, the plot and world-building felt weak. I’m a Stevie Nicks fan, so those references were appreciated, though!