Teacher Nathan Brookes leaves four pupils alone during a field trip in a national park. Within minutes, they have disappeared. A girl called Liv returns, but she has no memory of where she’s been. When a body is found years later, it is first believed to be one of the children, but is identified as a Bronze Age man. Yet Nathan starts to have horrific visions of the missing students. Then Liv reappears, desperate that the man be reburied. For he is the only thing keeping a terrible evil at bay...

 

 

 

I enjoyed this a lot! An awesome plot steeped in British myth and legend's it made for a really good read. In places it got a bit confusing, but I loved how it all mended together. I haven't actually read a plot quite like this Ever. It was modern and well thought out, it's not like your typical horror that's been done time and time again. This is original and new in some aspect's Highly recommended.

 

 

 

 

I'm 10% into this and... I'm really not feeling it. I can't remember who recommended it to me, but it's been on my TBR list for a few years. I feel a little bad abandoning it after all that waiting... but I don't want to waste my time on a book I don't like.

 

Do you have DNF guilt??

  Crossing

 Author: Andrew Xia Fukuda

 Performed by Luke Daniels

 Released: December 2012 by Brilliance Audio

 Category: Young Adult/Murder/Mystery

 

 

 Xing, pronounced Shing, is one of two Asian students in    an otherwise all white American High School. The other is  Naomi Lee, the only student Xing is able to interact with and they become fast friends. They are complete opposites, Naomi being outgoing and friendly while Xing is quiet, reserved and a loner. Not surprising due to the fact he’s either being bullied and made fun of or given the cold shoulder by everyone other than Naomi. All Xing wants is to be accepted and liked for himself but realises it’s unlikely to happen.

 

When students start going missing fear and tension build in the community. And yet, it’s through this horror Xing starts to think he may be accepted after all since he is a beautiful singer and now has the lead role in the school musical.

 

Thoughts

 

The story explores racism in-depth, how it feels to be an immigrant in America and grow up in an atmosphere of suspicion, bullying and ridicule resulting in a deep-seated loneliness and isolation. It shows how damaging and destructive this behaviour can be. It’s written in such a way that I couldn’t help but be drawn in to Xing’s emotions and feel for him.

 

Another new student, Jan Blair, is subjected to the same treatment, because she’s plain and lives in a shack. She becomes fixated on Xing which leads to the ultimate tragedy. The murder/mystery aspect is chilling and kept me guessing, I had no idea who the killer was at all.

 

The ending came totally out of the blue, completely unexpected, I could hardly believe it. I didn’t want to believe it. Xing’s hopelessness, desperation and the injustice of it all is tangible. Incredible writing, very powerful and moving which generates a compelling and heartbreaking story.

 

Performance

 

Listening to Xing’s thoughts and feelings expressed through Luke Daniels’ narration is emotional in the extreme. The dream Xing and his parents had for a better life which very quickly became more of an ordeal with all the resulting grief and despair is told with sensitivity and feeling.

I am having a pretty difficult time with this book..Normally, I seek out twisted books, the more twisted the better, but this one involves children and it is just really bothering me. Part of me wants to give it one star because of the topic..yet part of me wants to give her 5 stars because of how the book has drawn me in...I compromised with 3 stars, but in reality it is probably 3.5 stars. This book is just a really, really emotional piece of work.

Five stories going back and forth through time.....ending, or focusing, on the disappearance of 12-year old Leonora Coulter...deemed a "good" girl by her family and friends...a girl who got caught in a 'twist of fate"

Five sets of characters who interact with each other in unexpected ways throughout the book.

Awkward, damaged people going through life with enough "baggage" to down an airplane.

Small town life...the flip side of Bucolic

The awkward style of this book bothered, and distracted, me...until i realized it was perfect for these characters...most of whom are searching for reinvention...seeking acceptance, and comfort, and a sense of identity. The surprising ways in which they interact and separate remind me of broken glass on the sidewalk....that, in spite of the separateness of the pieces, the whole splintered mess, in fact, forms a weird kind of Whole

This wasn't an easy read and these people are not lovable......the atmosphere was desperate, claustrophobic, and strange....In an odd way I like it, and respect Ms Braunstein for letting her characters speak in their own tongues...

*this was an ARC from Library Thing Early Readers*

3 stars