Travis Thrasher's Solitary ~ Reviewed

Solitary
Book I of the Solitary Tales
By Travis Thrasher
David C. Cook Publishing, 2010
ISBN: 978-1-4347-6421-8

Reviewed by: Michelle Griep

When Chris Buckley moves to Solitary, North Carolina, he faces the reality of his parents’ divorce, a school full of nameless faces—and Jocelyn Evans. Jocelyn is beautiful and mysterious enough to leave Chris speechless. But the more Jocelyn resists him, the more the two are drawn together.

Chris soon learns that Jocelyn has secrets as deep as the town itself, secrets more terrifying than the bullies he faces in the locker room or his mother’s unexplained nightmares. He slowly begins to understand the horrific answers. The question is whether he can save Jocelyn in time.

This first book in the Solitary Tales series will take you from the cold halls of high school to the dark rooms of an abandoned cabin—and remind you what it means to believe in what you cannot see.

If you’re a Peretti or Dekker fan, here’s another author to add to your favorites list. Creepy. Intriguing. Sometimes downright chilling. Solitary is a solid scare-your-pants-off kind of book.

And I loved it.

Thrasher’s portrayal of high school angst is totally believable, right down to the dialogue between teens. In fact, so believable that I recommended it to my tenth grader. She read the book in two days, which is quite the thumbs-up from her.

I particularly liked how the hero, Chris, was skeptical about the entire situation at first. This made him all the more real of a character, because as a reader, I was skeptical myself.

Without giving anything away, my biggest grump was the ending. Just gotta say, I didn’t personally like it. I’m hoping, though, that the second book will redeem what happened. I have high hopes that it will.