Publisher's Weekly Review
These four stories told in one collection, part of the Outlaw Chronicles series, convincingly blur the lines between illusion and reality. Who are you? is the probing question woven throughout the journey of best friends Austin and Christy, two seventeen-year-old orphans who can't remember their past. In a tragedy of errors, Austin and Christy accidentally wind up in a psychiatric ward, where doctors on staff refuse to believe their identities, and resubmit the teens as lost patients Alice and Scott. Using subterfuge and manipulation as well as deprivation, the doctors work to convince Austin and Christy they are hideous. A mysterious stranger, the Outlaw, fights to save them even as the doctors hurry to destroy their minds. While the villainous doctors felt heavy-handed at times, this is classic Dekker, ripe with suspense, mammoth twists, and lightning-fast pacing. Agency: Creative Trust. (Jan. 28) © Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.
Library Journal Review
Friends Christy Snow and Austin Hartt are teen orphans trying to figure out who they are and where they belong. The two meet regularly in an abandoned part of an old hotel, now a psychiatric hospital, to commiserate about their lives. One day, Christy falls through a trapdoor at their usual spot and calls Austin for help but leaves an incomplete message before her phone dies. Mistaken for an escaped patient, the teen ends up in a ward in the hospital. Austin comes to her rescue and is detained as an escapee as well. What ensues is a series of wild twists and turns, in which it is very difficult to ascertain what is reality. Nothing is as it seems, and anything can happen-and does. VERDICT Hold on for the ride of your life with this first installment in suspense master Dekker's new series. This fast-paced adrenaline rush will keep readers trapped until the end. For fans of Dennis Lehane's Shutter Island. (c) Copyright 2014. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
