‘Late one summer, the town of Monta Clare is shattered by the abduction of teenager Joseph 'Patch' Macauley. Nobody more so than Saint Brown, who will risk everything to find her best friend.
But when she does: it will break her heart.
Patch lies alone in a pitch-black room - until he feels a hand in his. Her name is Grace and, though they cannot see each other, she lights their world with her words.
But when he escapes: there is no sign she ever even existed.
Left with only her voice and her name, he paints her from broken memories - and charts an epic search to find her.
As years turn to decades, and hope becomes obsession, Saint will shadow his journey - on a darker path to hunt down the man who took them - and set free the only boy she ever loved.
Even if finding the truth means losing each other forever...’ (Synopsis courtesy of Orion Books.)
Wow. That one words sums up this novel for me. I’ve seen other reviews where they praise this novel for being a modern-day ‘classic’; a ‘masterpiece’; ‘haunting’ and ‘epic’, it’s absolutely all these things and more. I know this is a novel which will stay with me, it’s profound, moving, beautiful.
Patch is a 13 year-old boy who believes he’s a pirate due to missing an eye. One day he finds himself interrupting a kidnapping attempt of popular and wealthy local girl, Misty. Whilst she is saved thanks to Patch, he is taken and his life will never be the same again. He’s not the only one that’s been taken, there’s Grace too - a girl who is pivotal to Patch surviving his ordeal, physically and mentally. Patch and Grace are held in a darkened room and never actually see one another in the light. When Patch is finally free he vows to find Grace again, and will risk everything to do so. Until then he’ll paint her from his darkened memories, descriptions and touch.
Then there is Saint, Patch’s best and only friend, at least until he is taken. She makes it her mission to find Patch and subsequently find the person responsible for taking him and the others. I adored Saint and how much love she had for Patch throughout his life.
This novel manages to be a crime novel, a thriller and a love story all in one and given it spans several decades, it’s executed so well; it was such a perfect concoction! It is a long book but never felt overly so and the chapters are nice and snappy, I was invested from the first few pages, in solving the crime and in Patch and Saint as wonderful characters – it is the characters that make this. I was emotionally drained as the novel closed but in such a satisfying way. Recommended!
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