Descent by Tim Johnston
My rating: 3/5 cats
i seem to be the outlier with this book. everyone else is rave city, and i’m just “meh.” i thought it was okay, but it was both a little familiar and a little forgettable. while i was reading it, i was enjoying it, but at the end of the day it didn’t really stick to my ribs. there are definitely some memorable moments here, but my tastes run more towards the gritty thriller version of this story rather than the family drama side of things. the strongest scenes for me are the ones that fall on “my” side of the spectrum, and mostly come towards the end. those scenes were definitely worth the journey to get to them, but i think this just comes down to me being the wrong reader for the story. oops.
it concerns a family that is already experiencing difficulties when their eighteen-year-old track-star daughter caitlin goes missing during a family vacation in the rocky mountains where she’s out running with her younger brother sean. when sean is hit by a truck, miles from civilization, caitlin goes off with the driver to get help, and vanishes.
from there, the story focuses on the years following caitlin’s disappearance, and her family’s stubborn clinging to the hope of getting answers and closure. her father grant stays in the area to continue the search, her mother angela returns to wisconsin, and sean, after he heals, goes on a bit of a wander across the country, doing odd jobs and eventually rejoining grant in a cabin, where their neighbor has two sons: the sheriff leading the investigation and a much less law-abiding man who is mean to dogs. caitlin’s family, in their separate lives, experience emotional fallout, guilt, the pain of not knowing whether caitlin is alive or dead, and the horrible speculation about what is being done to her if she is still alive. it is told from multiple viewpoints, as each member of her family navigates their grief, which affects them all in very different ways.
as a family story with psychological elements, it is very well-written. it occasionally veers into “trying too hard” territory: Both beds in the adjoining room were empty and unmade, their layers cast off like torments, and it gets a little episodic at times, but it’s definitely engaging, and i kept reading because i wanted to know what happened to caitlin.
my biggest problem is with the ending. View Spoiler »
so there’s a lot of good stuff here, particularly in the descriptions of the rockies, but i didn’t get as swept away as all the other readers here on goodreads, which makes me sad. but i can just go read another book, and not sit here and dwell on what it is in me that is so flawed as a reader to have missed the enthusiasm boat. as always, don’t listen to me.
