ARC Review: Evidence of Things Not Seen by Lindsey Lane

Evidence of Things Not Seen by Lindsey Lane
September 16, 2014
Goodreads
ARC from NetGalley and publisher for honest review

Summary

When high school junior Tommy Smythe goes missing, everyone has a theory about what happened to him. Tommy was adopted, so maybe he ran away to find his birth parents. He was an odd kid, often deeply involved in his own thoughts about particle physics, so maybe he just got distracted and wandered off. He was last seen at a pull-out off the highway, so maybe someone drove up and snatched him. Or maybe he slipped into a parallel universe. Tommy believes that everything is possible, and that until something can be proven false, it is possibly true. So as long as Tommy’s whereabouts are undetermined, he could literally be anywhere.

Told in a series of first-person narratives from people who knew Tommy and third-person chapters about people who find the things Tommy left behind—his red motorbike, his driving goggles, pages from his notebook—Particles explores themes of loneliness, connectedness, and the role we play in creating our own realities.

EVIDENCE OF THINGS NOT SEEN starts with a boy who lives in his head, takes everything all too seriously, but is content- happy even- missing. Nobody knows where he went. I mean, sure everyone has their theories. Along the books ‘plot’ people begin to find things that this boy lost. They connect this to their own life and in a way, they use these as hope and shape their own reality.

Now what I thought of the book. I honestly don’t think much. I wasn’t entertained as much as I had hoped I would be. There wasn’t a real plot. I was wondering where he was the entire book and we never really heard anything from his point of view. It was all from people who had seen, knew or found things he had lost. It was interesting to see how everything connected but this book really couldn’t keep me interested.

Overall, sadly, this book isn’t going to find a place in the books I want to recommend or books I plan to read again.

 Yup. This book (besides the rather epic cover) did nothing for me. I wanted to like it, but, it just didn't happen.