When Jeff Comes Home

Few stories about kidnapped teens deal with molestation of the victim and its aftermath, especially not in a novel for teens. Catherine Atkins treats the more lurid aspects delicately and carefully, and reserves the hard-hitting realism for Jeff's emotional state after his return, which she handles without a misstep or false moment, though the absence of a therapist seems odd. The major characters are three-dimensional, each with failings to match his strength and patience.

But it is Jeff whose feelings ring truest. The most powerful moment in the story is early, when his little brother Brian nags him into playing a game, and Jeff resurrects a nasty version of Staredown that Ray would force him to play. As Jeff sits on the sofa, filled with self-loathing, the horror and empathy his siblings feel over what he has endured is shown clearly when a shaken and tearful Brian immediately apologizes for making him remember it. Moments like that make this book hard to put down -- and hard to forget.