The Rendition Experience

This was the first time I ever bought a book that came as a suggestion in a magazine. I read the mini description and just felt like buying something on impulse.

When I got it, it had a big sticker mentioning how it had been advertised on Richard and Judy's show. I started growing a little skeptical of my new acquisition.

Please forgive me if I leak too many spoilers.

The book starts as this teenage girl (Cynthia) wakes up to find her house completely empty. It then jumps forward 25 years later where

At first the book seemed to be about this girl (now a woman) and the way she is coping with her family disappearance. There's a coziness about the way the author writes that makes me want to know about all of the character's habits, insecurities and fears. I could have kept reading if it was just about the emotional and psychological gripes of her everyday life.

So it was a bit of a surprise when that carpet of coziness got taken from under my feet even though at the back of the book it said something like “She goes looking for her family but will end up regretting it..." (Not so eloquently put obviously).

The book is written from the point of view of her husband after the first, maybe the second chapter too. Through him we get what the world sees of her without ever penetrating into her psyche. When she mentions any strange events we see them as her own paranoia due to the events that scarred her 25 years earlier.

As it becomes more obvious that the strange events are not her paranoia, some doubt arises as to whether she has something to do with what is happening just to get attention.

All throughout the book Cynthia keeps mentioning dreams where she can hear her family talk. In between chapters you also get anonymous dialogues full of evilness and creepiness. Despite these being anonymous, you get hints and it seems like the voices off Cynthia's dreams, like it is her family talking about her without her being there. It got me so intrigued as there was no hint earlier that her family was anything but a loving normal family until they had disappeared.

It was cleverly written so that you get surprise after surprise right to the last page when you think all it is over. I could keep on writing about how each chapter surprised me and made me want to read every single word, but I think I have done enough spoiling.