Descent is the debut adult novel from author/teacher Tim Johnston and a decent debut it is. It is the story of the Courtland family. Father Grant, mother Angela, and children Caitlin and Sean who are on vacation in the Colorado Rockies, when the unthinkable happens. Caitlin 18 a high school track star goes for a morning run in the mountains, with her brother Sean. There is an accident and only an injured Sean returns!
Caitlin was not found after Police and volunteers searched the area where Sean was found. As time passes each of the Courtland deal differently with the loss. Grant can’t leave the mountains and waits patiently for any glimmer of hope that his daughter is alive.
Angela and Sean return to their home in Wisconsin hoping to move on. But neither one can. Angela is haunted by the loss of her twin sister in a tragic accident where maybe she didn’t do enough to save her. While Sean feels the same way about Caitlin.
The questions abound: Is Caitlin alive? Is there hope? Should we just more on? Can they become a whole family again?
Bottom Line
Descent in my opinion may best be described as a thriller without thrills . As I read the reviews on Goodreads I think I come down more on the side of “Oh,well that was ok” rather than “Wow, what a great ride.”
I know the focus of the book was more on the disintegration of the Courtland family rather than Caitlin’s being. But for me the characters were not sympathetic enough for me to really like them. I don’t think that constantly referring to Sean as “the boy” did much to make me care about him.
As for Angela, maybe she was a little more sympathetic, as she was dealing with both the loss of her twin sister and her daughter. However, I don’t think I felt what I should for her.
I know that maybe if I went through the questions for discussion provided at the end of the book and thought about it more I could get more out of the book. But unfortunately that’s not me. When I finished, I was ready to move on to the next book! Actually, I was probably ready to move onto the next book in the middle of Descent!
Ratings
Descent has a 3.69 rating on Goodreads out of 5. That means that the rater was somewhere between “liked it” and “really liked it.” Which is probably where I am rating Descent. Initially I gave it 4 stars, but the more I think about how I felt during the middle of the book (waiting for something big to happen) I would probably go with 3 stars. If I average it out that’s 3.5 or close to the 3.69 that Goodreads readers gave the book. So, I’ll go with that – EKK Rating 3.69
If you’re into characters and emotions you may love it…..if you like thrills and chills you won’t!
Book Number 9 of 2017
Links for Further Explorations
Author’s Website
Amazon
Review: Publisher’s Weekly
Goodreads
Book Journey Discussion Questions
