Book: A Place Called Here
Author: Cecelia Ahern
Publication: Harper Collins Publishers
Price: Rs. 200
Pages: 387
Plot: A sock vanished and Sandy Shortt goes on a mission to find it. Sandy is obsessed with missing things. If this sock is not in her cupboard, washing machine, in the backyard or the piles of cloth, then where is it? Where do things go when they are missing? The question which haunts Sandy.
When Sandy was ten years old, her classmate Jenny May Butler disappeared. Her case became a mystery which was not solved. Since then the idea of something or someone lost haunts her. She wants to solve the mystery, and in this quest, she became a Garda and worked for the police force of Ireland. But she was not satisfied with that. So she left her job and started an agency which looks for missing people.
On the other hand, there is Jack Ruttle. Jack’s brother Donal has been missing since a year now. Everyone is trying to cope up with it. But for Jack, it is difficult. He asked Sandy for the help and felt that she can help him in finding his brother. But the day when their meeting was scheduled, Sandy did not turn up.
Where is she? Is this her habit, to disappear from time to time? What will happen if the person who is obsessed with looking for missing people goes missing herself? Who will look for her?
The book is about losing part of ourselves, our need to look for them, find them, bring them home and feel whole again.
My Views: The idea of the book is a fascinating one. Where do the missing things and persons go? Is there a mystery place where they find themselves and do their best to live happily?
With wonderful character development and an enchanting idea of the book, this book can grab the attention and keep anyone engaged. Every characters’ expressions, their feelings their thoughts are wonderfully depicted in the book. And the desperation of Sandy to solve the mystery of missing people will heighten the longing to read the book.
I loved the idea and the sound of a place called ‘Here’ where missing people and things reside. What exactly it is, where it is situated, we don’t know. But some people are looking forward to meeting their family, will they ever be able to meet them is what kept me going.
While the idea of the book is great, the book in itself is not so great. I found it quite long, and there were times when I got bored with it. I wanted to know the end, that was the only reason I finished it. But I can say that the book is not an engaging one.
I was even a little disappointed with the ending. It was something very different from what I expected and that too in a negative way. The book heightened my expectations and towards the end, it just went flat.
Keeping all this mind, I would still give credit to Cecelia Ahern for a prepossessing idea and wonderful quotes one can find here and there.
Overall, I would say it was an average book for me.
Recommendations: I would recommend it to people who love Cecelia Ahern’s books. If you have enough time and want to read a book for some good quotes and some beautifully written paragraphs, then go for this book.
Ratings: 2.5/5
If you are looking forward to reading a book which can refresh you, then here is my book review of one of the Paulo Coelho’s books ‘The Witch of Portobello.’
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