The Opposite of Here
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- $15.99
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- $15.99
Publisher Description
"A taut, evocative thriller that's surprising to the last page."
--Karen M. McManus, New York Times bestselling author of One of Us Is Lying
There's no hiding on a cruise ship--not even from yourself.
Natalie's parents are taking her and her three best friends on a cruise for her seventeenth birthday. A sail-a-bration, they call it. But it's only been a few short months since Natalie's boyfriend died in a tragic accident, and she wants to be anywhere but here.
Then she meets a guy on the first night and sparks fly. After a moonlit conversation on a secluded deck of the ship, Natalie pops down to her cabin to get her swimsuit so they can go for a dip. But when she returns, he's gone. Something he said makes her think he might have . . . jumped? No, he couldn't have.
But why do her friends think she's crazy for wanting to make sure he's okay? Also, why do they seem to be hiding something from her? And how can she find him when she doesn't even know his name? Most importantly, why is the captain on the intercom announcing the urgent need for a headcount?
With her signature thrilling storytelling, the author of The Leaving and The Possible explores our vulnerability to the power of suggestion--and the lies we tell others and ourselves--in a twisting, Hitchcock-inspired mystery with high stakes and dark secrets.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Altebrando (The Leaving) gives a nod to Alfred Hitchcock in this taut thriller set over the course of a seven-day cruise. Natalie's boyfriend recently died in a car crash, and her parents take her and three best friends on a birthday "sail-a-bration" in an effort to help her move on. Within hours of leaving port, Natalie meets a handsome, mysterious boy and for the first time she feels interest in someone new but he soon disappears, and he may have gone overboard. Altebrando writes in a spare, detached prose style, befitting her emotionally distant protagonist and the unsettling circumstances. The cruise ship setting becomes increasingly claustrophobic, as Natalie and her friends struggle under the weight of their own secrets. An eeriness pervades each reveal, as Natalie searches for the mystery boy and uncovers clues even as her friends begin to wonder if he actually exists. Natalie's romance with another boy on the ship somewhat detracts from the psychological intensity of the story, but this is a fast-paced and complicated mystery filled with uncertainty and dread. Ages 13 up.
