Sunday, October 18, 2015

Magic Hour

Magic Hour
by Kristin Hannah

Genre: Fiction

Synopsis: In the rugged Pacific Northwest lies the Olympic National Forest-nearly a million acres of impenetrable darkness and impossible beauty.  From deep within this old growth forest, a six-year-old girl appears.  Speechless and alone, she offers no clue as to her identity, no hint of her past.

Having retreated to her western Washington hometown after a scandal left her career in ruins, child psychiatrist Dr. Julia Cates is determined to free the extraordinary little girl she calls Alice from a prison of unimaginable fear and isolation.  To reach her, Julia must discover the truth about Alice's past-although doing so requires help from Julia's estranged sister, a local police officer.  The shocking facts of Alice's life test the limits of Julia's faith and strength, even as she struggles to make a home for Alice-and for herself.  In Magic Hour, Kristin Hannah creates one of her most beloved characters and delivers an incandescent story about the resilience of the human spirit, the triumph of hope, and the meaning of home.
from the back of the book

Review: This book was so captivating.  The story just drew me in with this little girl who was hurting so much and who had been denied so much of her formative years.  They psychology of it just fascinated me!  The other stories going on about Julia's sister, Ellie, and about other characters were ones that I didn't care so much about.  I much rather would have focused solely on Julia's relationship with Alice and with Alice's internal dialogue, which we do see in some parts of the story.  This story pulled at my heartstrings and really left me torn about things that happened later in the book.  I thought I knew what was going to happen and I tried to remove myself from the emotional state that I thought I was going to be in.  But then the author pulled a fast one on me in the last 4 pages (not counting the epilogue) and threw in a game changing twist.  Up until this point, I loved the book.  But once this happened (and I can't tell you what happened because that would be giving away the book) I felt like the author just missed the mark completely and made the ending so that the readers would like it and not what was believable.  This book was so close (4 pages away!) from being a 5 star book.

Rating:  4 stars

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