The Divide

The Divide
Author: Nicholas Evans
Pages: 403
How long: 5 days

So, I'm a huge fan of Nicholas Evans for the only reason that he also wrote "The Horse Whisperer." This book comes in a close second to it. "The Divide" is the type of story that gives away the ending at the beginning and then backtracks to show you how the end came about. I see no other way for Evans to have written this book, but it still would have been that much more dramatic and that much more hard hitting if he could have saved the climax for the end.

That being said, it's still a really enjoyable, emotional, fast read. The story is about a family of four: Ben and Sarah and their two children, Abbie and Josh. The marriage has settled into that routine lifestyle where each of them play games to piss each other off because they know how to do it best. Their love life is so bleak that Ben now only focuses on his proudest asset, Abbie. The same goes for Sarah and Josh. Still, Sarah believes Ben is the love of her life and would never think otherwise. However, Ben can't stop thinking about how crappy his marriage is.

The explosions start when Ben meets a woman during his family vacation and, within a year, walks away from his family for his happiness. The revelation of this to his family is heartbreaking and powerful.

Because Abbie had that amazing relationship every daughter hopes to have with her father, Ben's actions became the catalyst to Abbie's dramatic change. Once the sweet girl everyone loved, she becomes enveloped in anger. The author's shameless portrait of her pain and how powerful it affected her was devastating to read.

What Abbie starts doing to forget her pain makes her a wanted criminal. How the family deals with her actions and how Abbie is finally stopped is played out in the rest of the book. I'd go on, but I don't want to spoil anything else in case you do read it.

But if you're curious to see how one person can so quickly become a completely different person, read this book. If you're interested in seeing how family is ripped apart and slowly, ever so slowly, makes its way back to loving each other, then read this book. And lastly, if love a great read, read this book.