I usually enjoy reading about characters whose author makes me think, "Oh, yeah, I know what he/she means. I have felt the same way." I like to read about characters who think about their motives and examine their lives. Given those parameters, it is surprising that I enjoyed this book. I did like the book, but I was very puzzled by the main character's approach to motherhood. I was troubled to some degree by the author's shallow dealing with motivations and relationships. I think that what kept me reading was the fact that the book dealt with the issue of how identity is defined in lives. While I don't necessarily agree with conclusions Mitchard reached, I did enjoy the debate.

Its beautifully written and the characters are mostly believable, but its not a happy story. As a parent, I found it a disturbing story to read. But it explores the way child abduction can affect an entire family in a thorough and thoughtful way.

I enjoyed this book. It is a story about a family who lose a child. The Mother, Beth takes the children away and asks her older son who is 7, to watch her younger son who is 3 whilst she takes care of a hotel booking - she is just across the lobby. When she returns, Ben is gone and is nowhere to be found.
The book then follows the family, including extended family as they try to figure out what happened and where Ben has gone. Then, 10 years later Ben re-appears. (not a spoiler, it tells you on the back)

I have read reviews where people say the story is too much coincidence, well I guess yes it is however the same reviewers have said that they checked the back first to see if the child was alive. Also a lot of reviews where the Mother is selfish, but in my opinion I think the author has dealt with this difficult story line really well, no one knows how they would react in this terrible situation, and Beth just completely shuts down, doesn't feel like a mother any more, more of a failure I guess. I feel that the author really handles this difficult subject & family emotions well.

I have not given this 5 stars, as in places I felt it was a bit too descriptive, and also a bit jumpy. I would read the second one, and do recommend this.

"Dzieci nie rozpływają się w powietrzu [...]. Same się "nie gubią". To dorośli dopuszczają do tego, by się zagubiły. "

Film ciekawszy.

Mình mua sách dựa theo cảm tính nhiều. Cũng như lúc nghe nhạc vậy. Mỗi thời điểm lại thích một bài khác nhau, (mà nhiều lúc không biết là mình thích gì :)) )khó tính đến múc cứ dò dò ở cái playlist mãi để tìm một bài để gán cho nó là "Song of the day", thiếu nước nhái các bạn post lên instagram với hashtag #ootd thôi.
Truyện này lúc nhìn thấy ở kệ sách tầng 2 phố Đinh Lễ, mình đã gục ngay rồi. Lần này thì em phải thuộc về chị nha. Cuối cùng thì được bạn mua tặng. (Hai quyển sách mở hàng đầu năm 2016 là hai quyển được tặng. Và là hai quyển mình ưng.)
Trước hết phải nói đến cái review của Tạp chí US, in ngay bìa của truyện: "Hãy hít thật sâu trước khi đọc nhé...Câu chuyện lôi cuốn này không cho bạn rời ra lúc nào để thở đâu." Tuổi trên giấy khai sinh còn trẻ nhưng với cái tâm hồn già khú để như những bà già từng trải với cái sự lừa lọc ở đời (=)) ), đọc xong lời này mình cười (khẩy), marketing lộ liễu quá pa.
Ai dè nó đúng. Cầm lên đọc một lèo từ 10h tối tới 7h sáng mà không bỏ xuống được. Thành tâm mà nói, câu chuyện thực sự không quá xuất sắc, cũng không có nhiều phần hồi hộp, ấy vậy mà nó lại cuốn hút. Như anh chàng Jung Hwan trong Reply 1988 ấy, chả có gì đặc sắc, nổi trội ấy thế mà các chị em gái cứ đổ đứ đừ.
Đọc truyện, mình cảm thông với Beth. Có người bảo con người Beth kì quá, lãnh cảm quá, xa lạ quá, làm họ không kết nối được. Cái đau đớn mất con họ muốn được "đọc thấy" cơ. Họ phải đọc được cô khóc lóc, quằn quại rồi như điên như dại tìm con như thế nào ý. Sao lại đòi hỏi đau đớn phải khải dập khuôn như vậy? Cô đau theo cách của cô mà. Đau lắm, đến nỗi tiềm thức cô tách biệt khỏi cái thế giới hiện tại mà cô đang sống, vô hồn chống chọi với cái vết thương vẫn khiến cô đau nhói qua từng giây, từng phút kể từ khi bé Ben mất tích. Cô tự trách mình như tội đồ lớn nhất của sự đau thương này. Mười phút thôi, hay năm phút? Thời gian ngắn ấy có thể cứu rỗi cả gia đình họ khỏi khoảng thời gian địa ngục chín năm ấy. Nhưng thời gian đâu có quay trở lại. Sự day dứt đau thương ấy là song sắt kiên cố nhốt cô ở lại trong "căn phòng tối", ở một cái thế giới không hề có hiện tại, không hề có gia đình mà cô yêu thương với những đứa trẻ mà cô vẫn luôn tự hào kheo với mọi người rằng cô với Pat "tạo ra chúng từ những thứ" họ có thôi ấy.
Ben trở về, sau chín năm dài đằng đẵng, bằng một sự tình cờ kì diệu. Nhưng em không còn là Ben nữa rồi. Em đã trở thành Sam còn Vincent đã trở thành Reese. Mẹ Beth thì về với hiện tại. Mặc cho thế giới tung hô, hoan hỉ trước cái sự trở về của em, thế giới của Ben và gia đình Cappadora có đầy những cảm xúc lẫn lộn mà bản thân mình cũng không định hình nổi, chỉ le lói trong lòng một cảm giác tiếc nuối bâng quơ. Cảm giác cái khoảng cách trong gia đình họ sao mà xa vời vợi. Cái mối liên kết giữa họ sao mà mong manh đến đau lòng. Chín năm mà, chín năm thật dài đã khiến cho mọi thứ thay đổi thật bi ai.
Trong cái hiện thực đó, Vincent đã trở thành điểm sáng mà mình thích nhất ở trong truyện. Em thông minh, hiểu chuyện, yêu gia đình, nhưng em luôn mặc cảm tội lỗi khi để lạc mất Ben, để rồi nổi loạn và tách biệt khỏi những người mà em yêu thương. Ben trở về khiến cho Vincent lại một lần nữa trở lại là Vincent (mình thực sự không thích họ chú thích chap cuối là Reese, phải là Vincent chứ?). Em lại một lần nữa trở thành một người anh tuyệt vời, là một người anh đáng tin cậy mà Ben biết rằng em "sẽ đến và tìm" nó, "ở nơi sâu thẳm trong tâm hồn ấy". Dù cho có là lúc hai đứa còn bé tí khi Ben trốn trong cái rương tủ hay khi là lúc em bỏ trốn về nhà bố George, Vincent vẫn đến và tìm được em, dẫn em-là chính Ben- trở về. Cái kết để mở với một Vincent trầm tư, lặng lẽ ở chỗ trường kỷ, chờ đợi buổi bình minh tới viết nên trang truyện mới cho cuộc đời gia đình Cappadora. Em đã trưởng thành lên nhiều hơn hẳn cái tuổi 16 của mình. Tương lai, chắc chắn em sẽ trở thành một người tốt, một người tuyệt vời.
**Có lẽ truyện này sẽ được năm sao nếu như Vincent có được cái kết trọn vẹn hơn, khi biết rằng mình cũng được mẹ yêu thương và là một phần quan trọng không thể thiếu của gia đình.

Well, obviously I did not like it.

The abstract is that a three year old boy child vanishes, while in the care of his mother and watched by his seven year old brother. Family torn apart, police search, ect ect. Nine years later the boy is found by accident. This is a scenario that should make for a great book, how could all those dynamic elements go wrong?

Here’s how;

The literary style is very poor; so much so that the subject matter is obscured by the sickly sentimental and poorly edited writing. After a couple of chapters one has to put it down for a while and go do something more mentally stimulating like scrub the bathroom.

The characters are poorly defined; three days after completing it I can barely remember any of the characters. The author spends a couple of paragraphs or pages defining someone and then ignores them utterly until one hundred pages latter they surface briefly at a Christmas party.
The exceptions to this are the female, Jewish, lesbian police officer who the author is clearly very fond of and who gives the author a chance to establish how regrettably middle class conservative and bigoted she is. I suspect that she thinks is demonstrating the opposite, she isn’t.

The main character for the first third of the novel is 'the mother' Beth. She is emotionaly superfical and deeply unlikable and consequently I was completely unable to bond with the character. Beth is phenomenally self centred, self absorbed and unwilling to give a shred of consideration to ANYONE else in her extended family or in any way admit that the lose of 'her' Ben may be affecting them too. She whinges her dysfunctional way through the novel until the last fifty pages, where she suddenly displays a bit of character and backbone which is by then, completely unbelievable. Beth is written as a deeply unsympathetic moron and I kind of wish someone would slap her heartily.

No other character is in any way convincing “the husband’ is two dimensional, ‘The rebellious son’ is a stereotype which gives the author yet another chance to prove her ability in stereotyping and her conservative opinions.

All in all, a travesty of a book. I regret the trees that were cut down to provide the paper. And I just noticed that the online book calls it “Cappadora family #1” you mean there are more of these? I think I can see the overall intelligence level of the planet visibly dropping.

This, for me, was one of those books where you get invested & cannot put it down only to get to the end & wish you had not read it all. If the intent of the author was to make me dislike "Bethie" then she succeeded stupendously. Honestly, of the thousands of books I have read over the years I put Beth right up there with the most horrible of characters. How this woman garnered such loyal friends & kept them is beyond me. I've known some narcissistic & selfish people & this woman would sit far above them. UN REAL. The only saving grace for not abandoning this book was the richness of the other characters & finding myself rooting for several of them & wanting good, honest deep abiding love to prevail.

This book was a terribly long read. It dragged on and on for me and took me forever to finish it because I couldn't pick it up.

**SPOILER ALERT**
Throughout this entire book, Beth infuriates me. She's not trying. And it's not just that she's not trying in her marriage or with her kids or her work or her family and friends; she's also not trying to help herself. Obviously, if things are that bad, she needed to seek help. Even by telling one person. As someone who also suffers from mental illness, I know how hard it is to talk about it, and I also know how much better it is to just tell one person (even though it doesn't really fix everything). I felt awful for Vincent/Reese. Everyone gave up on him. If he's acting that way, why didn't someone notice and pay attention ahead of time before it got too late? Beth is a terrible mother. I want to believe that Pat is a good father, but I feel like he, too, just decided to sweep things under the rug and ignore them than try to confront the problem head-on.

This novel was also recommended by Oprah's Book Club; I believe this is because struggling mothers and older women are supposed to empathize and twitter on about how life can be so hard. While this can be a realistic image of what can happen to a person, I found it unrelatable due to Beth's character and lack of care for life. It droned on and on for pages and pages before finally becoming something worth reading and then leaving the reader with an unsatisfactory ending.

I would not read this again nor recommend it to anyone.

Very sad, but a very sincere, heartrenching, powerful book about love, loss, fears, grief, shattered hearts, & learning to move forward as a family. I enjoyed the friendship between Candy, the investigation officer for the case, & Beth, the mom who lost her son. Its a book about how people cope with the tasks of everyday life, but these sorts of traumas make them a shell of a person until they can work through the traumatic events. This book definitely captured my attention. I could understand in many ways why Vincent was an insecure teenager, & went through a period where he was adament that people call him Reece, & not Vincent, as that could be shortened to Vinnie which he detested. I think we all have gone through that, where we experience self esteem issues at school, especially as teenagers. The ending seems to end on a cliff hanger, kind of leaving you thinking, hang on, what happens next. It seemed to end messily, but not all books or stories have happily ever after endings. I am glad that Ben, the child who went missing was found, but there is still circumstances there that came out through this story.

I read this many years ago and didn't realize I'd never included it in my "read" list. I liked it quite a lot but began to develop whiplash from the plot twists and turns. I've actually heard of a story similar to this one - at least in its development - so it's not as far-fetched and impossibly miraculous or solomonic as it might seem. One of the Oprah books that I actually liked - that it in itself could be considered miraculous!

I'm hesitant to outline the book's plot for fear of giving out too much information. However, since most reviews of the book give away the plot and because the story has also been made into a movie, I'll proceed. Be aware, though, that possible spoilers lie ahead.

SPOILER ALERT!!! SPOILER ALERT!!! SPOILER ALERT!!!



Beth Cappadora, excited about her 15-year high school reunion, packs up her three kids (Vincent, 7; Ben, 3; and infant Kerry) and her niece/babysitter and drives from Madison, Wisconsin to the Chicago hotel that's hosting the festivities.



While Beth is doing some business at the hotel's busy reception desk Ben disappears. Police, family, and friends search all over for days, but Ben is simply gone.



Beth and her husband Pat are shattered by the loss, and their remaining two children suffer from their parents' distraction.



In time Pat is more or less able to go on with his life and his job - helping run his uncle's restaurant in Madison. Beth, however, can't seem to recover at all. She sleeps most of the time and, even when she's awake, Beth isn't really there.



The Cappadoras try attending a support group, which is of very limited assistance.

Vincent, who was supposed to be keeping an eye on Ben when he vanished, develops serious behavior problems. These become worse as he approaches adolescence and Vincent becomes a bully, gets into fights, and repeatedly gets into trouble at school.



Vincent is sent to a therapist but does all he can to avoid addressing his real issues - thinking he's pulling the wool over his therapist's eyes.

After a health crisis the Cappadoras move back to Chicago, where their extended family still lives. And miracle of miracles - nine years after he vanished - Ben shows up on the Cappadora's doorstep looking for a lawn-mowing job.



The reunion isn't the total blessing Beth and Pat would have hoped for however. Ben doesn't remember them at all and has a fierce attachment to his 'new family' - the woman who kidnapped him (now severely mentally ill) and her husband George. To top it off George is a complete innocent in all this; he accepted Ben as his wife's child, 'adopted' him, and dearly loves the boy.



The latter part of the book is especially heart-rending as Ben's 'two families' must cope with everything that's happened. What's everyone supposed to do now? Are Vincent and Kerry going to welcome their 'new' sibling? How does Ben cope with being a stranger in his own family?



How does Pat deal with 'another dad' in the picture?



What's going to happen to the kidnapper?

The book tells a compelling story, the writing is good, and the characters seem more or less true to life. I had great sympathy for Beth but didn't like her much. She wallows in her grief for too long and makes (almost) no attempt to 'be there' for the family she still has. The other characters, especially Pat, seem to do the best they can in very difficult circumstances.

In the end I felt the book was too long and overly melodramatic.



The story reminded me of an afternoon special on Lifetime TV. The story rates 3 stars for me but - to be completely fair - I think some other readers might like the book better.

You can follow my reviews at https://reviewsbybarbsaffer.blogspot....

4.5 stars

I actually read this book 15 years ago when I was pregnant with my daughter. It has stayed with me all these years. I thought it was a great book. Depressing and sad given the subject but very well written and easy to read. I read it very quickly over a couple of days.