Method 15/33 by Shannon Kirk
My rating: 3/5 cats
Tricking someone into thinking he has power is the ultimate power play.
this book is a lot of fun, inasmuch as a book about the abduction of a pregnant 16-year-old girl can be classified as “fun.”
however, considering it is about a 16-year-old girl who is anything but helpless and manages to turn the tables on her kidnapper in a very ooh-rah girl power way, i think “fun” is a suitable word.
when i first came across this book, after reading a ton of positive reviews for it here on goodreads, i was somehow under the impression that this bit of the synopsis: The Method is what happens when the victim is just as dangerous as the captors, was suggesting that the victim, lisa, was some kind of killer herself, with experience on the other side of the villain curtain that she would draw upon to fight back against her abductors.
but, no.
she’s just a really bright kid with the ability to “switch off” her emotions and become an intellectual machine with mad macgyver skills in turning ordinary objects, or “assets,” into tools and weapons to facilitate her escape.
and you have to accept certain facts as given in order to enjoy this in the right spirit. lisa has had a singular upbringing, which has prepared her to know, and know how to do, many things beyond her years—she’s skilled in various martial arts, she can do complicated equations in her head, she understands psychology and physics and how elastic and bleach can be a victim’s best friend. she’s got a phenomenal memory, and with all of her emotions switched off except for the one that is determined to keep her unborn son safe no matter the obstacle, she is unbelievably formidable.
and that’s the word—unbelievable. because if you can’t accept the things this character does as plausible, you’re going to have a hard time getting into the rhythm. but if you can switch off your disbelief like lisa switches off her emotions, it’s a very propulsive thriller as lisa plots and prepares her escape from imprisonment while on the other track of the storyline, a couple of fbi agents with their own peculiar skills are circling towards her rescue.
for me, this is a 3.5—i am perfectly willing to embrace lisa’s preternatural capabilities, so that wasn’t what held this back for me, but there was some clunky writing throughout—particularly when lisa would cite esoteric facts by quoting experts in a way that broke up the narrative flow. also, the last chapter seemed tacked-on and didn’t add much to my appreciation of the story. i understand the desire to include it, for reasons of closure or aftermath or long-term assessment, but it wasn’t interesting to me at all, and it dragged out a story i felt had already come to its natural conclusion with information and new characters that did nothing for me.
i enjoyed the ride of the story very much, i just wish it had ended with a pop instead of slowly winding down through an epilogue that didn’t contribute to the overall mood of the novel.
but still, fun.
many thanks to chelsea for getting this one into my hands!
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