[simpleazon-image align=”left” asin=”0307743934″ locale=”us” height=”500″ src=”http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51FbzV1a8sL.jpg” width=”324″][simpleazon-link asin=”0307743934″ locale=”us”]Close Your Eyes, Hold Hands (Vintage Contemporaries)[/simpleazon-link]

My rating: 4 of 5 stars
(Note: Mature themes and foul language)

Close Your Eyes, Hold Hands is a different kind of dystopian novel in that it feels like something that could happen tomorrow in any city or town. The events that destroy Emily Shepard’s family and town are described so well that I kept having to remind myself that I was reading a work of fiction. Emily, rendered homeless by the tragedy that befalls her town, grabs the reader’s attention with her uncensored honesty and toughness. Her story is dark, disturbing, unsettling, tragic, painful and gripping. The point of view of this young girl as she reflects on the events leading up to her current state is at once hard to read and impossible not to read. Being in her head helps the reader to understand and feel her fear and motivation. A remarkable story of desperation and survival that leaves the reader reeling.

“Cheerios. What a weirdly happy memory Cheerios have become for me. Eating them once upon a time had just seemed so normal” (p. 20).

“The leaves don’t fall one by one. They fall in drapes. There’s a breeze or a gust and a thousand break off at once” (p. 73).

“As a species, we’re either very resilient or super callous” (p. 139).

“The problem with writing all of this down for you? It just makes me tired and sad” (p. 173).

Author’s Website: http://www.chrisbohjalian.com/
Follow Bohjalian on Twitter: @ChrisBohjalian or Facebook.