by Faith Gardner
Synopsis:
Ava's disappearance was the crack in the Rivers family glacier. I wish I could explain to you how we were before, but I can't, because the before is so filmy and shadowed with the after.
The after is all Vera remembers. When her twin sister, Ava, disappeared one Halloween night, her childhood became a blur of theories, tips, and leads, but never any answers. The case made headlines, shocked Vera's Northern California community, and turned her family into tragic celebrities.
Now, at eighteen, Vera is counting down the days until she starts her new life at college in Portland, Oregon, far away from the dark cloud she and family have lived under for twelve years. But all that changes when a girl shows up at the local hospital.
Her name is Ava Rivers and she wants to go home.
Ava's return begins to mend the fractures in the Rivers family. Vera and Ava's estranged older brother returns. Vera reconnects with Max, the sweet, artistic boy from her childhood. Their parents smile again. But the questions remain: Where was Ava all these years? And who is she now?
(cover image and synopsis lifted from Goodreads)
Series: Standalone
Publisher: Razorbill
Publication date: August 28th 2018
Source/Format: eARC/Netgalley
Purchase links: Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Indiebound | Book Depository
Trigger warning: child rape is clinically mentioned but not graphically described
My Rating: ★★★★☆
My Thoughts:
“You ever felt like you’re living in a Lifetime movie?” At least twice, the book’s characters gave reference to movies adapted from real-life kidnapped girls in Lifetime. As a person who had a fair share of watching movies the likes of "Girl in the Box" and "I Am Elizabeth Smart", I may say so that yes, “The Second Life of Ava Rivers” felt somewhat like a Lifetime movie in book form. And no, I am not saying that it is a bad thing.
The book is narrated by Vera Rivers. She is the fraternal twin sister of the titular Ava Rivers. For a long time, the shadow of Ava’s disappearance loomed large on the Rivers’ household and every member folded into each of their own despair. Dad quit his marketing job and became a basement hermit running the PR back-end of the case including the website FindAvaRivers.com. Mom became the front person and aside from bringing out fresh flyers on a regular basis, she became very involved with volunteer work. Guilt-wracked older brother Elliot decided to lead a gypsy life and is possibly a druggie. Vera practically became a furniture in her own house. Every year on Ava’s birthday, which is of course Vera’s birthday too, the family gathers in a tradition of flying balloons with sweet notes meant for Ava.
At the beginning of the book, Vera is low-key thrilled to leave soon for college in Portland. The future is such a promise, a sweet offer to bury a tragic past. But the past doesn’t wanna seem to let up that easy because just as she is packed up and has barely a week to go, Ava is found alive. She was kept captive all these years in some stranger’s attic.
The book has mystery elements blended well into a family drama. Having your family’s back is a large chunk of what the book is about. The dysfunction that has become of the Rivers house is transformed into a well-coordinated team effort to make Ava recover and well-adjusted back to their family. Vera, for one, selflessly decided to defer her enrollment to college to help Ava in almost everything. I’ve never expected to like such a passive character such as Vera. What she lacks in verve, she makes up for genuine kindness. At first, I felt that it was an odd choice to narrate from Vera’s point of view but coming now from having finished the book already, I say it’s this choice that made it effective on unraveling of what’s become of Ava Rivers.
Ava Rivers’ resilience and child-like wonder to the real world is an amalgamation of the Brie Larson and Jacob Tremblay duo in another kidnapped girl film, the well-acclaimed “Room”. (I’ve watched the film but never read the book yet.) She is those two characters rolled into one and something else. That something else is what Vera (and the reader) has to figure out. While reading, I know that there’s more to what Ava is letting up but I just cannot put my finger on it. I had my guess and I thought I already knew what’s what, but the book managed to keep its secret from me before proper reveal time. And that’s one reason that made this book an enjoyable mystery read for me.
Each chapter is brief so a focus-deficient reader like me did not wear out easily. The writing is concise with graceful touches to it. Here’s a quote expressing the fragility of Ava’s recovery: “The facade of recovery, of healing is so delicate. Each joy, each horror so fleeting.” And here’s an empowering line about overcoming a painful ordeal: “Monsters live, monsters die, but survivors? They survive.” So yes the book may or may not be bordering the territory of a cheesy Lifetime TV flick, but the really important thing to note here is that I ate it all up and I liked it.
Diversity Watch:
Setting: Berkeley, CaliforniaVera Rivers - Physical description is auburn hairs and hazel eyes. Explicit in text that Vera is bisexual. Her mom is half Mexican, half Persian.
Ava Rivers - Physical description is blonde, dusty blue eyes, olive skin.
Max Spangler - Ava’s bestfriend when they were young. Physical description is freckled brown face and blonde tipped Afro. He is bisexual.
Flora Daly - talk show host. Physical description is brown skin with layered hair.
While strolling the city, it is mentioned that there are many young Asian people in backpacks in periphery.
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I'd love to hear from you!
Have you read this book yet? What are your thoughts about it? What other YA books about strong female survivors would you recommend me? Or yeah, go ahead and recommend me your favorite Lifetime movie as well.
Have you read this book yet? What are your thoughts about it? What other YA books about strong female survivors would you recommend me? Or yeah, go ahead and recommend me your favorite Lifetime movie as well.
