Descent is one of those rare journeys that reinvigorated my appreciation for the written word and sparked some self-reflection in regards to my reading habits. Unexpected is the best descriptor here from impact and overall experience to the unnerving ending, this book far exceeded any expectations that I allowed to tag along for the ride. Most surprising is Caitlin’s younger brother, Sean, who moves from place to place in an attempt to leave behind the ugly memories of that pivotal morning. ![]() The disappearance of her daughter has revived old wounds for Angela, making it all too easy to turn inward. For Grant, it's the continuous search for his daughter that keeps him going and subsequently a new makeshift life in Colorado. The coping mechanisms deployed by each member of the family following Caitlin’s disappearance is what brings heart and hurt to the pages. The result is both emotionally impactful and fear-inducing, but ultimately redemptive. Non-linear-time, place and perspective are fluid-the author’s mesmerizing style demands attention. During an early morning run, and under the guise of getting help, Caitlin is taken. What was intended to be a celebratory gift for Caitlin before heading off to college, becomes the backdrop for the family's worst nightmare. ![]() Which is where Grant and Angela find themselves, wishing they could take back the decision to bring their daughter, Caitlin, and son, Sean, to the Rocky Mountains. When things take a turn for the worse, we tend to regret the choices that brought us to that moment. Who would bring his family-his children-to such a place? Now Grant understood that, like the desert, like the ocean, the mountains were a vast and pitiless nowhere. They’d come to the Rockies thinking it was a place like any other they might have chosen: chronicled, mapped, finite. This fantastically written novel not only presents a quest for answers, but also explores a family’s heart-wrenching and emotional *descent* into despair. This piece of fiction is fitting for those readers who thrive off the thrills and chills but also harbor a craving for something deeper and more meaningful. Although, if literary fiction isn't your thing, I'd say pass. In my eyes, Descent raises the bar-whether good or bad-making the domestic and missing person storylines dominating the suspense space now seem bland or even shoddy in comparison. Tim Johnston strikes a remarkable balance here, showcasing his literary prowess while simultaneously catapulting readers into pulse-pounding territory with his suspenseful plotting. He is the recipient of the 2015 Iowa Author Award, and currently lives in Iowa City, Iowa. A carpenter for most of his adult life, he has also taught creative writing at The George Washington University and the University of Memphis. Tim holds degrees from the University of Iowa and the University of Massachusetts, Amherst. Tim’s stories have also appeared in New England Review, New Letters, The Iowa Review, The Missouri Review, Double Take, Best Life Magazine, and Narrative Magazine, among others. In 2005 the title story, “Irish Girl,” was included in the David Sedaris anthology of favorites, Children Playing Before a Statue of Hercules. Henry Prize, the New Letters Award for Writers, and the Gival Press Short Story Award, while the collection itself won the 2009 Katherine Anne Porter Prize in Short Fiction. A New York Times, USA Today, and Indie national bestseller, Descent has been published internationally and optioned for film. Tim Johnston is the author of the novels THE CURRENT and DESCENT, the story collection IRISH GIRL, and the YA novel NEVER SO GREEN. ![]() Why weren’t they more careful? What has happened to their daughter? Is she alive? Will they ever know? Caitlin’s disappearance, all the more devastating for its mystery, is the beginning of the family’s harrowing journey down increasingly divergent and solitary paths until all that continues to bind them together are the questions they can never bring themselves to ask: At what point does a family stop searching? At what point will a girl stop fighting for her life? But when Caitlin and her younger brother, Sean, go out for an early morning run and only Sean returns, the mountains become as terrifying as they are majestic, as suddenly this family find themselves living the kind of nightmare they’ve only read about in headlines or seen on TV.Īs their world comes undone, the Courtlands are drawn into a vortex of dread and recrimination. For eighteen-year-old Caitlin, the mountains loom as the ultimate test of her runner’s heart, while her parents hope that so much beauty, so much grandeur, will somehow repair a damaged marriage. The Rocky Mountains have cast their spell over the Courtlands, a young family from the plains taking a last summer vacation before their daughter begins college.
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