Courtney Elizabeth Mauk

This is a novel about a mother, father and brother of a missing girl who are attempting to copy with her disappearance a year after she disappeared. As the story begins, the police have just called and have found a boy that they think may be the daughters. After a year of barely living, this news causes the family to implode.

Carol, her mother, dresses up in her daughters clothes and frequents the clubs that her daughter went to in hopes of finding her killer. Drew, her father struggles with show more his inadequacies as a parent to both of his children and Ben, her brother, spends time with his sister's old friends to try to recover from the loss of his sister. The family each goes their own way to try to deal with the loss and there is little or no connection or shared grief. To me that was one of the saddest parts of the book.

This is a difficult book to read and it just keeps getting more desolate as it continues. I didn't like Carol at all and wasn't too happy with Drew until the end. Make sure that you have a happy book to read when you finish this one - you are going to need the change of pace.

Thanks to goodreads for a copy of this book in exchange for a fair and honest review. show less

The Special Power of Restoring Lost Things chronicles the devastating effect on a family – mother Carol, father Drew and sixteen year old Ben – when their twenty-two year old daughter Jennifer vanishes. Set in New York City, the novel opens a year after the girl has disappeared after an evening of partying. Told with a point of view that rotates among the three surviving family members, all of whom are struggling to deal with their loss. It’s an emotionally gripping story about the show more collateral damage a family endures long after the world has moved on. show less

Total garbage. I cannot imagine anyone, anywhere, at any time, reacting the way this mother and son react to the loss of their daughter/sister. The story was short, which accounts for why I even finished it. I kept thinking in the beginning that the story or characters might develop, but alas they do not. That is about four hours of my life that I would like to get back.