Arkansas: Where Things Come Back by John Corey Whaley

Book Review via Amazon.com. In the remarkable, bizarre, and heart-wrenching summer before Cullen Witter’s senior year of high school, he is forced to examine everything he thinks he understands about his small and painfully dull Arkansas town. His cousin overdoses; his town becomes absurdly obsessed with the alleged reappearance of an extinct woodpecker; and most troubling of all, his sensitive, gifted fifteen-year-old brother, Gabriel, suddenly and inexplicably disappears.

Meanwhile, the crisis of faith spawned by a young missionary’s disillusion in Africa prompts a frantic search for meaning that has far-reaching consequences. As distant as the two stories initially seem, they are woven together through masterful plotting and merge in a surprising and harrowing climax.

This extraordinary tale from a rare literary voice finds wonder in the ordinary and illuminates the hope of second chances.

And now it’s time for Arkansas in my Reading Challenge. I have to be honest with y’all, after finishing this book at 3 AM I have been trying to figure out what to talk about. The organization of content, though confusing at first, comes together towards the end and leaves me awestruck as to how it happened. The characters are also quite relatable; Benton’s crisis of faith, Cullen’s loss of hope on his brother’s fate, and even Lucas’ avoidance of reality. If you have read the other posts, then you know how relate-ability (is that a word?) is important to me, especially in YA Lit.

So why am I having such a problem writing about this? Is it that I don’t get the book? I mean...I felt I got the book, such as the title being a reference to Lilly, AR as the place where...you know...things come back. This proved true for multiple characters like Gabriel (Cullen’s brother), Alma Ember (the photography student), and of course Lazarus the allegedly extinct woodpecker.  The theme surrounding the meaning of life and how that has a different meaning for each person is a common thread and in this book it is done well.  So what’s my problem?!

I guess I am wondering how teens would feel about this book. I think this would be a great opportunity to have a YA book club read the book and then report their feelings on it. Kind of like a testing group. I can’t figure out if this book can keep teens interested in it long enough to see the two plots come together. Remember that engagement is an issue for most readers (especially reluctant readers) and if a book kind of slugs in the middle, even if the plot and writing are good, you could lose readers. Perhaps that was my problem; I had no idea where the book was going with any of it until the two plots came together. I did enjoy trying to guess how they come together, like I try to guess who the killer is on the TV Show “Castle.” It’s just by the middle of the book I would like to have some idea of where this is all going. Now I say this, but perhaps that was the whole point! Keep us guessing, trying to figure out the common thread. Though I had some problems getting through the middle of the book most definitely, I am wondering if teens would have the same problem. 

Well, I finished the A’s! Next is California. That’s 4 down, 46 to go.