Follow Me Back

By Author / Illustrator

Nicci Cloke

Genre

Real life

Publisher

Hot Key Books

ISBN

9781471405082

Format

Paperback / softback

Published

04-02-2016

Synopsis

A thrilling read, for fans of Gone Girl and We Were Liars.There was no sign of a struggle, they whisper to each other. She took her phone but left her laptop behind.Apparently, she'd met someone online, they write to each other in class, phones buzzing.She ran away. She was taken.The first time Aiden Kendrick hears about Lizzie Summersall's disappearance is when the police appear at his front door. He and Lizzie used to be friends; they aren't anymore. And when Aiden finds out that Lizzie had been talking to strangers on Facebook; that the police think she went to meet one of them, he begins to wonder how well he ever really knew her, and Aiden doesn't know it yet, but with Lizzie's disappearance his life is about to take a twisted and desperate turn.

Reviews

This is full of fast benders and U-turn that will always keep you hook. Without the boring "wittering" that most books like this fall into. I like the way that this is told through Facebook chat groups and various points of view from all the main characters.

Suggested Reading Age 5+

The main narrator of Follow Me Back is Aiden, a good looking, sporty, intelligent boy with temper issues. Other voices in the book are Lizzy (the missing girl), Marnie (her best friend) and Scobie (Aiden's best friend). The story is this: Lizzy goes missing in London. The police get involved. Aiden is a suspect. Hal is a suspect, but who is Hal? Lizzy's sister is on a television reality show and is using her sister's disappearance to gain a bigger amount of the TV show. Dean, a boy in the same year of Aiden, he is jealous of Aiden's sporting skills and so loves to wind him up to bursting point. The story carries on trying to find out whether Lizzy chose to go missing or whether she was abducted, is Lizzy alive or dead? Where is she? And if Lizzy was taken, why and where is she? The book glances over the consequences of unprotected sex and drinking too much but glares at the magnitude of internet surfing and meeting up with people that you don't know. The story is good; I read it twice because the first time I read it, I found the Facebook interactions between Lizzy and Aiden dragged on. The second time I read it, I skipped those and the story was far more pacey. Social media fans may find the FB pages more interesting and revealing than I did. The best part (in my opinion) is when Aiden is lured to London, that part is a powerful piece of suspense and good writing. There are clues as to the identity of Hal all the way through the book, but there aren't any here! I would say mature 13+ would enjoy this story. Girls more than boys. It's not scary, girly or cliched. 336 pages / Ages 13/14+ / Reviewed by Paula Hazlehurst, school librarian.