The Keeping
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3.8 • 4 Ratings
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- $3.99
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- $3.99
Publisher Description
High school senior Sierra Hart wakes up in a bomb shelter with no idea how or why she is there. She has been provided food, water, and essentials to survive. Through Sierra’s abduction journals, police reports, her parents, boyfriend’s and friend’s perspectives, you will slip into each of their shoes to try and understand what happened to Sierra. Everybody has secrets they’ve kept and reasons to keep them. If it happened to you, could you rise above for love? Gone Girl meets Gossip Girl.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
At the start of Ransom's clunky debut, teenager Sierra Hart wakes up in a small, locked room with absolutely no recollection of how she got there. What follows is an investigative journey through her family history and current romantic entanglements. Sierra's life in Laketown, N.Y., is revealed through a detailed diary she keeps while imprisoned and the narratives of those closest to her: her parents, Patrick and Dr. Laura Hart; her ex-boyfriend, Dave Braun; and the new boy in her life, Gavin Ross. Unfortunately, not all of the narratives serve the purpose of moving the story forward, and the immense amount of backstory negates the suspense. Awkward prose doesn't help ("The water pooled in a small, deep, divot as the fear exploded up her throat, across her tongue and out of her mouth in a desperate shrill wail that fell flat, in the trapped air"). (BookLife)
Customer Reviews
The Keeping Keeps You Wondering
If I were to describe The Keeping in one word, it’d probably be: unexpected.
I didn’t know much about the book when I bought it (other than loving the Gone Girl meets Gossip Girl description), so I wasn’t sure what I’d get. I love, love YA books, but they don’t always handle things super believably or sensitively. What I got in The Keeping was a YA book that unapologetically tackles a controversial situation and takes an unexpected perspective on forgiveness and family.
The plot explores the abduction of 17-year-old Sierra Hart, detailing the investigation and events leading up to her kidnapping. The prologue is in third person, but the rest is told through first person accounts, journal entries, and interviews that alternate between characters. Being from New York myself, I kind of wished the book had a stronger sense of my home state, but The Keeping is really about the characters.
I loved the idea of telling a story from their multiple perspectives; it’s a very Gone Girl-esque concept for a plot that has plenty of opportunity for mystery and which concludes in one seriously twisted ending.
The book deserves 5 stars just for how much fun it was discussing with friends once I finished. So there’s nothing to “keep” you from giving The Keeping a try (sorry, couldn’t resist the puns!).