Ally Malinenko

“This is it. This is where everything starts. Are you ready? In my home, some doors lead to other rooms. Some doors lead nowhere at all. Some doors lead back in time. Some doors can be made to go wherever you want them to go, whenever you want. This door,’ he tapped a finger on the red painted wood, `leads to your past. Yours and yours alone.”

{my thoughts} - This book was different for me. I typically read books about vampires, werewolves, etc. This book is about a 12 year-old girl named Lizzy and her best friend Sammy. They are kidnapped one night when Sammy is sleeping over by a man named Johnathan Muse. They are then dropped into an unfamiliar world in which reality merges with Mythology.

Lizzy is a smart child and isn’t very trusting of people that she doesn’t know, whereas Sammy seems to believe everything that he is told by Johnathan. A short while after they arrive there she is informed by Johnathan that she is the last living descendant of William Shakespeare. This news catches her off guard and she finds it hard to believe, however Sammy finds it to be cool.

Shortly after we are introduced to the Dmitri Marlowe – He tells Lizzy that everything Jonathan has said is a lie and that she shouldn’t trust him. This is where things start to get interesting. She is forced to make the choice of who to believe or trust the most. Should she trust Dmitri a guy she has seen before that her father didn’t seem to trust or Johnathan the Muse that has been nothing but nice to her and Sammy since they were kidnapped?

This book leads her on the journey of self discovery, it shows that she is strong willed, that she is willing to fight for what she believes in and that she will not give up until she has no other option. Once she sets her mind to the quest to find her father she will stop at nothing until she does. It’s a very smooth read and extremely engaging to the reader. My 9 and 7 year-old enjoyed me reading it to them. They were hooked on it from chapter one.

{reason for reading} - I was given a copy of this book in return for an honest review.… (more)

{my thoughts} – Colin Leventhal was very much in love with Sarah Evans. On the day she disappeared he lost his mind. His world collapsed, he lost his will to live, he lost his ability to care and he was crumbling from the inside out. He kept holding onto the thought that maybe just maybe Sarah was still out there and that he had to be the one to save her. He spent countless days calling her phone hoping she would answer and then one day her voicemail had managed to pick up this was one year after she’d gone missing. He kept calling her after that leaving her messages hoping that she would call back but she didn’t and he kept holding onto hope, hope that she was out there, hope that he just needed to find her, hope that in a sense she was alive.

Claire Evans was a Sarah’s younger sister. She had always wished that she had what Sarah had including Colin. Claire learns how hard it is to live through the loss of her sister and in her own way she wanted to help Colin. She had always loved Colin and wanted him to be okay. She did a lot of not smart things throughout the book that could get her in a lot of trouble but in the end she didn’t have anything to do with her sister going missing.

The two of them struggle with accepting that Sarah isn’t coming back and it isn’t until the end of the book that for both of them they are finally able to let go. They can finally let Sarah go and start living their lives for themselves instead of everybody else. Well Colin wasn’t living for everyone else he was stuck in this world where Sarah was alive in his head and as long as she was there everything was okay because he didn’t have to let go. Claire was the one living for everyone else and because of that things were not well for her. Her mother left, her father wanted to pack up and move away, the uncertainty of not knowing what happened to Sarah is what was tearing the family apart. Because of all that uncertainty no one knew how to deal with what was all taking place. No one knew really how to heal or accept it all and because of all that it made it difficult to move on.

This book is a wonderfully well written book. It’s tone is perfect and it does have it’s moments where it may make you tear up or even cry. It is a good book for anyone to read that had been forced to deal with the loss of a loved one. The loss of someone that you have no answers for because they are simply gone and aren’t coming back. There are so many more things that could have been covered in this book in regards to this topic, but the things that were covered helped to make a good book. The most important thing I got out of reading this book is that you need to accept what is going on before you can move on and heal. Acceptance is that last part of the healing process and getting there can sometimes be an overwhelming and bumpy road. This book can help other’s to know that they are not alone and that others too have been through what they are going through, it can maybe help others to learn to live their lives again.

Quotes i liked} –
01} “I’m eighteen, about to graduate, and, in a few months, I’m suppose to go to college and pretend that everything is okay. I can’t wrap my brain around that. Nothing is okay. It hasn’t been the same since the last time I saw Sarah. That was when time cracked, splintered like a broken bone, and no matter how hard I try to hold it together, everything falls apart. -Colin

02} In a single moment, Sarah vanished, and the world shifter forever on its axis. It can do that. It can keep going on for everyone else, spinning around, day in day out: morning, school, home, bed, morning, school, home, bed, lather, rinse, repeat. It goes on for everyone else, but then for some of us, like me, it comes to a screeching halt. -Colin

03} I used to be jealous of how Sarah was, but now I felt guilty for even thinking such a thing. All the complex emotions vanished when Sarah disappeared. I only wanted one thing- to get her back, to get our life back to normal. – Claire

04} Sometimes I wondered if every time I came in this room, I made it a little less Sarah’s. Like my being here pushed her out. I didn’t want to push her out; I just wanted to bring her back. – Claire

05} High School wasn’t the kind of thing you just float through. It was a jungle, something my parents didn’t understand. – Claire

06} It’s so easy to be unnoticeable. It’s actually comforting, like floating downstream. I didn’t have to make any decisions because the current would just carry me wherever it needed.It felt peaceful the way one day passed into the next, seamless like the overlapping petals of a flower. – Colin… (more)

“This is it. This is where everything starts. Are you ready? In my home, some doors lead to other rooms. Some doors lead nowhere at all. Some doors lead back in time. Some doors can be made to go wherever you want them to go, whenever you want. This door,’ he tapped a finger on the red painted wood, `leads to your past. Yours and yours alone.”

{my thoughts} - This book was different for me. I typically read books about vampires, werewolves, etc. This book is about a 12 year-old girl named Lizzy and her best friend Sammy. They are kidnapped one night when Sammy is sleeping over by a man named Johnathan Muse. They are then dropped into an unfamiliar world in which reality merges with Mythology.

Lizzy is a smart child and isn’t very trusting of people that she doesn’t know, whereas Sammy seems to believe everything that he is told by Johnathan. A short while after they arrive there she is informed by Johnathan that she is the last living descendant of William Shakespeare. This news catches her off guard and she finds it hard to believe, however Sammy finds it to be cool.

Shortly after we are introduced to the Dmitri Marlowe – He tells Lizzy that everything Jonathan has said is a lie and that she shouldn’t trust him. This is where things start to get interesting. She is forced to make the choice of who to believe or trust the most. Should she trust Dmitri a guy she has seen before that her father didn’t seem to trust or Johnathan the Muse that has been nothing but nice to her and Sammy since they were kidnapped?

This book leads her on the journey of self discovery, it shows that she is strong willed, that she is willing to fight for what she believes in and that she will not give up until she has no other option. Once she sets her mind to the quest to find her father she will stop at nothing until she does. It’s a very smooth read and extremely engaging to the reader. My 9 and 7 year-old enjoyed me reading it to them. They were hooked on it from chapter one.

{reason for reading} - I was given a copy of this book in return for an honest review.… (more)

{my thoughts} – Colin Leventhal was very much in love with Sarah Evans. On the day she disappeared he lost his mind. His world collapsed, he lost his will to live, he lost his ability to care and he was crumbling from the inside out. He kept holding onto the thought that maybe just maybe Sarah was still out there and that he had to be the one to save her. He spent countless days calling her phone hoping she would answer and then one day her voicemail had managed to pick up this was one year after she’d gone missing. He kept calling her after that leaving her messages hoping that she would call back but she didn’t and he kept holding onto hope, hope that she was out there, hope that he just needed to find her, hope that in a sense she was alive.

Claire Evans was a Sarah’s younger sister. She had always wished that she had what Sarah had including Colin. Claire learns how hard it is to live through the loss of her sister and in her own way she wanted to help Colin. She had always loved Colin and wanted him to be okay. She did a lot of not smart things throughout the book that could get her in a lot of trouble but in the end she didn’t have anything to do with her sister going missing.

The two of them struggle with accepting that Sarah isn’t coming back and it isn’t until the end of the book that for both of them they are finally able to let go. They can finally let Sarah go and start living their lives for themselves instead of everybody else. Well Colin wasn’t living for everyone else he was stuck in this world where Sarah was alive in his head and as long as she was there everything was okay because he didn’t have to let go. Claire was the one living for everyone else and because of that things were not well for her. Her mother left, her father wanted to pack up and move away, the uncertainty of not knowing what happened to Sarah is what was tearing the family apart. Because of all that uncertainty no one knew how to deal with what was all taking place. No one knew really how to heal or accept it all and because of all that it made it difficult to move on.

This book is a wonderfully well written book. It’s tone is perfect and it does have it’s moments where it may make you tear up or even cry. It is a good book for anyone to read that had been forced to deal with the loss of a loved one. The loss of someone that you have no answers for because they are simply gone and aren’t coming back. There are so many more things that could have been covered in this book in regards to this topic, but the things that were covered helped to make a good book. The most important thing I got out of reading this book is that you need to accept what is going on before you can move on and heal. Acceptance is that last part of the healing process and getting there can sometimes be an overwhelming and bumpy road. This book can help other’s to know that they are not alone and that others too have been through what they are going through, it can maybe help others to learn to live their lives again.

Quotes i liked} –
01} “I’m eighteen, about to graduate, and, in a few months, I’m suppose to go to college and pretend that everything is okay. I can’t wrap my brain around that. Nothing is okay. It hasn’t been the same since the last time I saw Sarah. That was when time cracked, splintered like a broken bone, and no matter how hard I try to hold it together, everything falls apart. -Colin

02} In a single moment, Sarah vanished, and the world shifter forever on its axis. It can do that. It can keep going on for everyone else, spinning around, day in day out: morning, school, home, bed, morning, school, home, bed, lather, rinse, repeat. It goes on for everyone else, but then for some of us, like me, it comes to a screeching halt. -Colin

03} I used to be jealous of how Sarah was, but now I felt guilty for even thinking such a thing. All the complex emotions vanished when Sarah disappeared. I only wanted one thing- to get her back, to get our life back to normal. – Claire

04} Sometimes I wondered if every time I came in this room, I made it a little less Sarah’s. Like my being here pushed her out. I didn’t want to push her out; I just wanted to bring her back. – Claire

05} High School wasn’t the kind of thing you just float through. It was a jungle, something my parents didn’t understand. – Claire

06} It’s so easy to be unnoticeable. It’s actually comforting, like floating downstream. I didn’t have to make any decisions because the current would just carry me wherever it needed.It felt peaceful the way one day passed into the next, seamless like the overlapping petals of a flower. – Colin… (more)