Fragile
Author: Lisa Unger
Publisher: Crown Publishing Group
Date Published: August 3rd 2010
From Goodreads:
Everybody knows everybody in The Hollows, a quaint, charming town outside of New York City. It’s a place where neighbors keep an eye on one another’s kids, where people say hello in the grocery store, and where high school cliques and antics are never quite forgotten. As a child, Maggie found living under the microscope of small-town life stifling. But as a wife and mother, she has happily returned to The Hollows’s insular embrace. As a psychologist, her knowledge of family histories provides powerful insights into her patients’ lives. So when the girlfriend of her teenage son, Rick, disappears, Maggie’s intuitive gift proves useful to the case—and also dangerous.
Eerie parallels soon emerge between Charlene’s disappearance and the abduction of another local girl that shook the community years ago when Maggie was a teenager. The investigation has her husband, Jones, the lead detective on the case, acting strangely. Rick, already a brooding teenager, becomes even more withdrawn. In a town where the past is always present, nobody is above suspicion, not even a son in the eyes of his father.
“I know how a moment can spiral out of control,” Jones says to a shocked Maggie as he searches Rick’s room for incriminating evidence. “How the consequences of one careless action can cost you everything.”
As she tries to reassure him that Rick embodies his father in all of the important ways, Maggie realizes this might be exactly what Jones fears most. Determined to uncover the truth, Maggie pursues her own leads into Charlene’s disappearance and exposes a long-buried town secret—one that could destroy everything she holds dear. This thrilling novel about one community’s intricate yet fragile bonds will leave readers asking, How well do I know the people I love? and How far would I go to protect them?
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Fragile is my first Lisa Unger book but it certainly won't be my last. Not the perfect thriller/mystery, yet it was entertaining.
What didn't make it perfect in my opinion:
1. Too many different voices throughout. It slowed down the pace, and I couldn't connect with all of them, so I wasn't interested in reading a chapter from some.
2. The aduction from long ago is more entertaining than what's currently going on with the disappearance of Charlene. I preferred discovering what happened years ago.
Aside from those two things I thought Maggie was a great character as well as her son, Rick. I liked that Rick fits the stereotypical teenage rebellion, but Ms. Unger could somehow show the true Rick. I along with Maggie quickly jumped to think Rick had nothing to do with his girlfriends disappearance (to find out if he did your just gonna have to read the book ;)).
As I mention above the pace would slow down because of all the characters being introduced, but it was still a quick read at a little over 300 pages. I'm glad that there wasn't much filler in between the meat of the story.
Fragile is a entertaining read. I now have a back log of Lisa Unger books to get through. :)
i do like a good mystery/suspense novel. i'll definitely keep this title in mind.
ReplyDeleteI saw this when it came out and it was shelved in Fiction. I've read two of her thrillers and loved them. She is a really good author.
ReplyDeleteYeah, I definitely wouldn't consider it a thriller, more like what Chelleyreads mentioned, mystery/suspense. What would just be considered fiction no subgenre, I wonder?
ReplyDeleteI heard this is different than her other books. I still Wang to read it though. I also have Beautiful Lies on my nook to read!
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