Horror
Celia is an art therapist that works with trouble kids in a small town in Oregon. She lives with her husband Jack overlooking a valley, far removed from the town centre. Celia spends more and more time alone because her husband is cheating on her, which causes her to bring home her work more often. When Davy, a new elective mute, is brought to her centre she works with him and reviews his art to see what his story is. She also meets Davy's pushy step-father Chet. As Davy learns to trust Celia, she learns more through his drawings and starts to suspect Chet of abuse. Chet can't allow this secret to get out though and has some nasty plans for Celia.
This wasn't the best written book and you knew what was going to happen. The scene where Chet finally decided to deal with Celia was very graphically written, which I suppose was the whole point of the book. That being said, I didn't feel like the story line was engaging enough and didn't feel any connection to Celia to really care if she lived or die. Nothing about this book was original, it just felt like a bad horror movie.
First Line: "Davy Boyce climbed on top of another gray stump and fired again."
Rating: 
(2.5/5)
Shep Knacker has been planning his 'Afterlife' for a very long time. Ever since he was taken to Africa as a kid and realized that you can live on a couple of dollars a day, Shep made a plan to return in his adulthood and settle down. Shep sells his company and house in preparation but has to keep putting off his trip. When he finally purchases the tickets and gives the ultimatum to his wife Glynis, she can either come or stay behind, Glynis tells him she has cancer. This forces Shep to put the Afterlife on hold again, possibly forever, because Glynis needs him, his money, and his limited health insurance to live. 
Nine year old Conor comes to James as an autistic child in need of help. James, a psychiatrist, starts with play therapy and discovers that Conor is not autistic but is very, very troubled and emotionally disturbed. Little by little Conor who feels very safe in James' play therapy room starts to communicate. He sees ghosts and is haunted by them.
On what seemed like a normal trip with his friends outside his home village of Mattru Jong, Sierra Leone, the rebels come into his village and start killing anything that moves. When he thinks it is safe, Ishmael and his friends head back to his Mattru Jong to search for the families but find only bodies littering the street. When they can't find their families, the group of boys search for food from nearby villages. They quickly learn that groups of boys are looked upon suspiciously because that's what the rebel forces travel as. 
Lake Warren is going through a messy separation with her husband Jack. After settling for shared custody he is now suing for full custody of their two children. Things, however, are going well with her job at a fertility clinic as a marketing consultant. The fertility clinic specializes in helping the over-forty crowd conceive. When the new doctor on staff Dr. Keaton starts flirting with her Lake responds and finds herself in his bed. But the next morning finds him with his throat slashed and Lake find herself in a world of trouble.