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Audiobook7 hours
The Bright Forever: A Novel
Written by Lee Martin
Rating: 3.5 out of 5 stars
3.5/5
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About this audiobook
A dark, harrowing novel about a nine-year-old girl's disappearance and the lasting impact it has on her close-knit community
On an evening like any other, nine-year-old Katie Mackey, daughter of the most affluent family in a small town on the plains of Indiana, sets out on her bicycle to return some library books.
This simple act is at the heart of The Bright Forever, a deeply affecting novel about the choices people make that change their lives forever. Fact, speculation, and contradiction play off one another as the details about Katie's disappearance--and about the townspeople--unfold, creating a fast-paced story that is as gripping as it is richly human. A nuanced portrayal of the complicated give and take among people struggling to maintain their humanity in the shadow of a loss, The Bright Forever is a compelling and emotional tale about the human need to know even the hardest truth.
On an evening like any other, nine-year-old Katie Mackey, daughter of the most affluent family in a small town on the plains of Indiana, sets out on her bicycle to return some library books.
This simple act is at the heart of The Bright Forever, a deeply affecting novel about the choices people make that change their lives forever. Fact, speculation, and contradiction play off one another as the details about Katie's disappearance--and about the townspeople--unfold, creating a fast-paced story that is as gripping as it is richly human. A nuanced portrayal of the complicated give and take among people struggling to maintain their humanity in the shadow of a loss, The Bright Forever is a compelling and emotional tale about the human need to know even the hardest truth.
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Reviews for The Bright Forever
Rating: 3.571100818348624 out of 5 stars
3.5/5
218 ratings14 reviews
- Rating: 2 out of 5 stars2/5I kind of figured out what was going to happen... and in the end I was right. I was kind of hoping I wasn't right, but I was. That was disappointing. I couldn't sympathize with any of the characters. I didn't like any of them... but yet I finished the book even though I didn't want to. Maybe I wasn't supposed to like the characters? I am not really sure. This book really didn't do much for me......This book slightly reminded me of The Lovely Bones... which I didn't like.....
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5In a small rural Indiana town a little girl disappears. The mystery of who took her and why unravels in a relatively unique manner. Most novels of this sort are narrated by at lead detective or some other "hero." In The Bright Forever, the narrators are the three "guilty" parties. Guilt in this instance is defined broadly to include not only her actual abductor(s), but also her brother whose irritated tattling sent her out of the house that night.
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5What a great story!!! It takes place somewhere around 1960 in a small town, any small town will do. The writer plants us firmly there and then by the many references to news, products, songs and attitudes that were abundant at that time in history. It was a time when something like this could and did happen, certainly a more trusting and complacent time. Told through the eyes and memories of the people actually involved, chapter by chapter, each voice haunting, each narrative riviting, the tension builds steadily. I felt I was there. Myself, one of the many townspeople that experienced this sad saga firsthand, only more so, given the insight into every thought and motive. How we all wish at various times in our lives, that we could go back and change the subtile timing of events to alter the destructive course that follows. How we wish that in this story!!! Regardless, all the pieces fell togethter as they did and the momentum was unstoppable. I could NOT put this book down!!! Until the truth is finally revealed, a surprise, in the final chapter. I only wish ALL books could be this well done! BRAVO!
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5I just finished reading this book- it took me all of a few hours. I LOVED it! I loved the characters, I loved the storyline, I loved the plot twist, I loved the writing. This book was definitely a page turner!
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Unusual handling of the story of a missing child. You think you know who did it and then you have to wonder. Characters very well developed and many twists and turns. Its tests your ability to sort out truth from lies. Could not put it down. Read it in two sittings.
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5A little girl makes a trip to the library to return some books and never returns home. Every time Lee Martin writes a book it's the best of the year. It is extremely touching and suspenseful.
- Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Evidently, this book was nominated for the Pulitzer Prize, which surprised me somewhat. The town and locals of that era were painted very well, and I could see the "light" and feel the heat of the days covered by the story. The story is told by several narrators, and each has a recognizable voice, and they tell the story well. There is some jumping around in time, but it is still easy to follow. It illustrates how one tiny thing...Gilley tattling that his sister didn't return her library books...can trigger a whole series of events. However, there wasn't going to be a good outcome in this situation. Obsession rarely has a good end. It was a good read, but not as spectacular as I might have expected.
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Author does a great job of catching small town Indiana in the mid-twentieth century--an orderly, predictable world that sometimes has trouble just below the surface--and is quick to hide all signs when it surfaces. Well written and creepy.
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5I expected something upbeat from the cover, but immediately, this story reminded me of The Lovely Bones! It just gave me the creeps - highly engrossing -- the would-be villians are actually quite likeable, but by the end, I was somewhat disappointed that I didn't care more about all the characters.
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5This book tells the story of the kidnapping of a young girl. The book is told from the perspectives of several different people who are close to the girl and/or the kidnapper which makes for a fascinating read. Each narrator adds a little to the story and sometimes that changes how you view what the previous narrator has already said. In addition, little loose ends pop up every now and then that keep you guessing until the very end. A wonderful book.
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Lee Martin's novel, The Bright Forever, is captivating. It grabs the reader by the throat and compels them to continue reading despite knowing that the end will not be a happy one. Martin uses multiple points of view to tell the story of nine year old Katie Mackey who disappears one bright day in her small Indiana town. At once horrifying and far too real, the novel reveals what happened to Katie through the senses of its various characters. The reader will feel like a voyeur while watching the story unfold - much like the ravenous public in today's world who watch hours of footage revealing the latest headline tragedy.Henry Dees, a private tutor who has been teaching Katie and become obsessed with her, is the primary narrator. He appears both cunning and painfully lost and by the end of the novel, the reader will question his reliability to tell the truth. Henry, along with all the characters, harbor secrets which they reveal as the story unfolds.Well-crafted, suspenseful, a real page-turner - The Bright Forever will be a novel not easily forgotten.Recommended.
- Rating: 2 out of 5 stars2/5Reminiscent of lovely bones and Mystic River. Frustrating characters and sad story.
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5A confessional type of whodunit... narrated by several people from small town Indiana about the disappearance of 9-year-old Katie Mackey one lovely summer evening when she rides off on her bike to return her library books. The book takes place in the early 70s -- idyllic years of childhood freedom and the taken-for-granted safety of a town where everyone knows you -- references abound to music, clothing styles, cars, and current events allowing the reader to be grounded in the time period. Despite the appearance of normalcy and status quo, there are many undercurrents in town about changing social mores, class, and status. Multiple people are culpable in Katie's abduction: as the author states: "where does responsibility start and end?" Not only are present situations to blames, but past sins linger too. Despite the difficult-to-read subject matter, the story is beautifully, almost poetically written with reflection and honesty and the reader feels privileged to be in the know.
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Early in Lee Martin’s The Bright Forever, one of the narrators says “I warn you: this is a story as hard to hear as it is for me to tell.” You may dismiss that when you first sit down to read the book, but it's true. This is a story that will stay with me for a long time, and it was a hard one for me to read even while it sucked me in and didn’t let me go. The Bright Forever is a story of choices and turning points -- so of course it’s a story of guilt too. Told through the eyes of different characters as they remember the events that led up to and followed the disappearance of nine-year-old Katie Mackey, all of the narrators feel in some way responsible for the story’s outcome.
Lee Martin’s writing is spare but beautiful -- each word seems chosen carefully to build his characters while crafting a book that is as tragic a tale as I’ve read in a while. As always when I’m reading something by Martin, what strikes me is his ability to make his characters heartbreakingly real in what seems to be an effortless manner. Even the most periphery people in the story are multidimensional – characters you’re liable to recognize from your own hometown with all of their flaws, secrets, and regrets wrapped into seemingly simple lives.
One of the most beautiful and poignant quotes in The Bright Forever comes from Clare – a woman others in the story view as quite ordinary, but whose observations constantly grabbed me and left me scrambling for a pen so I could come back to them when the story was done. In dealing with life after a loss, Clare says, “But always there’s that glimmer of light – the way of living you once knew – sort of faded and smoky like the crescent moon on a winter’s night when the air is full of ice and clouds, but still there, hanging just over your head. You think it’s not far. You think at any moment you can reach out and grab it.” That sense of possibilities just out of reach is one that permeates this novel and builds until you get to the end and join the characters in the book in thinking “if only.”