ABOVE is a story about survival! Blythe Hallowell was just
sixteen years old when she was abducted and imprisoned in
an abandoned missile silo in Kansas. Her captor, Dobbs
Hordin is her school librarian who believes that the world
is ending and they will be the only survivors. For
seventeen years Blythe is keep underground. Her memories of
the world outside are slowly fading and hope of ever being
found is dwindling. The only light in the tunnel is Adam.
Adam is Blythe's teenage son who she would do anything to
give the life that she never had. Can Blythe and Adam
escape their captor? Will there still be a world to escape
to?
I am going to try not to give any spoilers away with my
review. ABOVE could have been split in two. The first
half of the book deals with Blythe's imprisonment. It shows
her downfall into madness and documents what her thoughts
are while she is trapped. The second half is about the
escape and the aftermath of the escape. I will say that
Isla Morley did a perfect job of capturing my attention
from the very beginning. There were a couple of times that
it dragged but other than that ABOVE is a captivating read.
My emotions were all over the place throughout the book.
There was a major plot twist when Blythe escapes that I did
not see coming at all. Isla Morley does a perfect job of
tying the two parts together at the end even if it did take
a little while to get there. The only thing that I will
complain about is I would have like to have more background
on Dobbs. He was a madman but I would have like to know
what made him tick. All in all ABOVE is a beautifully
written novel that will captivate the reader and hold until
the book is long over.
I am a secret no one is able to tell.
Blythe Hallowell is sixteen when she is abducted by a
survivalist and locked away in an abandoned missile silo in
Eudora, Kansas. At first, she focuses frantically on finding
a way out, until the harrowing truth of her new existence
settles in—the crushing loneliness, the terrifying madness
of a captor who believes he is saving her from the end of
the world, and the persistent temptation to give up. But
nothing prepares Blythe for the burden of raising a child in
confinement. Determined to give the boy everything she has
lost, she pushes aside the truth about a world he may never
see for a myth that just might give meaning to their lives
below ground. Years later, their lives are ambushed by an
event at once promising and devastating. As Blythe’s dream
of going home hangs in the balance, she faces the ultimate
choice—between survival and freedom.
Above is a riveting tale of resilience in which “stunning”
(Daily Beast) new literary voice Isla Morley compels us to
imagine what we would do if everything we had ever known was
taken away. Like the bestselling authors of Room and The
Lovely Bones before her, Morley explores the unthinkable
with haunting detail and tenderly depicts our boundless
capacity for hope.