Disappearance at Devil's Rock by Paul Tremblay (thoughts)

Summary from Goodreads:

"Late one summer night, Elizabeth Sanderson receives the devastating news that every mother fears: her fourteen-year-old son, Tommy, has vanished without a trace in the woods of a local park.

The search isn’t yielding any answers, and Elizabeth and her young daughter, Kate, struggle to comprehend his disappearance. Feeling helpless and alone, their sorrow is compounded by anger and frustration. The local and state police haven’t uncovered any leads. Josh and Luis, the friends who were with Tommy last, may not be telling the whole truth about that night in Borderland State Park, when they were supposedly hanging out a landmark the local teens have renamed Devil’s Rock— rumored to be cursed.

Living in an all-too-real nightmare, riddled with worry, pain, and guilt, Elizabeth is wholly unprepared for the strange series of events that follow. She believes a ghostly shadow of Tommy materializes in her bedroom, while Kate and other local residents claim to see a shadow peering through their own windows in the dead of night. Then, random pages torn from Tommy’s journal begin to mysteriously appear—entries that reveal an introverted teenager obsessed with the phantasmagoric; the loss of his father, killed in a drunk-driving accident a decade earlier; a folktale involving the devil and the woods of Borderland; and a horrific incident that Tommy believed connected them all and changes everything.

As the search grows more desperate, and the implications of what happened becomes more haunting and sinister, no one is prepared for the shocking truth about that night and Tommy’s disappearance at Devil’s Rock."

My Thoughts:

I don't even know how to begin sharing my thoughts on this book.  It was a reading experience that I won't be forgetting about anytime in the near future-that is one great way to describe it!  I went into this book expecting a thriller and you could definitely describe it that way.  But it was also one of the most dark and disturbing books that I have read in a very long time.  I tweeted about this book at one point while reading and I think that this describes it best: a dark and haunting read that was not always easy to read but hard to put down.  That describes this book so perfectly in my opinion.  I cannot tell you how horrifyingly real I found this book at times especially when the author talked about the way that this young boy pulled away a bit from his mother.  Here she thought that she knew everything that was going on in his life and to find out otherwise was just terrifying for her.  As a mother myself I can't even begin to tell you how hard this was for me to read.  There were quite a few times where I just wanted to stop reading and set this book down.  The author made this book so readable though and I just couldn't.  I needed to see what was going to happen next even if I didn't really want to know.  I don't know how to explain it any other way.

From the very beginning of this book, the author created this feeling where you know something bad is going to happen but you don't know what or how (well you kind of know if you read above summary but you are left wondering what else might happen).  That feeling intensified throughout the entire book.  It was so creepy and I was honestly worried at one point that I might end up with nightmares from this book.  That is how spooky I found it to be.  There were just all of these questions that the author was creating in regards to Tommy and what had happened that dark night.....it set such a dark tone and feeling to this book.  I can't describe it any other way.  The ending of this book had me reading at such a frantic pace because by that point I was so invested.  I don't even know if I can share my thoughts on the ending in a way that makes sense without spoiling anything for anyone?  It was good- very good and I felt that it fit with the story that the author had been telling perfectly.  I was left with a few questions which really made me wish that I could discuss this with other readers.  If you've read this book, please let me know what you think about the ending of this book!  I want to know!  It has been close to a week now since I've finished this book and I'm still thinking about it.  That should tell you something!

Overall, I feel like this is a book that made me want to read more by this author.  It wasn't an easy read especially for me as a mother of a pre-teen boy.  It is one of those books that won't be for everyone and that is okay.  I think that you should probably go into reading this one in the right frame of mind.  Think Gillian Flynn and how dark her books can be.  That's a decent comparison in my opinion although two very different kind of writers.  The darkness of subject matter though is why I say that.  I myself will be reading more by this author in the future for sure.  I will also be waiting a decent amount of time and will mentally prepare myself.  Ha!  Funny but so very true.  I would recommend this one but with a word of caution.  Be ready for a dark and haunting read!

Bottom Line:  A book that left me thinking about it for days.

Disclosure:  I received a copy of this book thanks to the publisher as part of a TLC book tour.