Lisa Gardner's Say Goodbye

I read this book as an audio book. I have about a half hour to commute to work, 5 days a week. This book gave me the creeps on multiple levels. I felt like I was going to be attacked by spiders while driving and probably looked like that moron that makes you laugh because they are making a face they don’t think others will see since we are all driving in our own little worlds. First, it is very well written and thought out novel. The plot unfolds slowly and at various angles and through various characters. For me, even the ending was not really an ending, there is closure and life moves on, but it’s just not conclusive I guess. Which, the topics raised by the author, there is no conclusion or ending, it’s a worldwide terror every parent prays won’t happen to their child. It is an ever growing web. That said; let me get back to my spine-chilling points.  . First is the subject matter…it is heavy. The Burger Man kidnaps little boys, rapes and terrorizes them, kills them and buries them, then moves on to the next. The families of these children will never get closure and Gardner has done such a good job writing about this excruciating topic that it was horrific to listen to and I just wanted to skip to the next track but knew I had to listen to the story, especially the story of the one boy the Burger Man decides to keep.  This book is not for the faint at heart or people who themselves have experienced this dark evil of life. The second set of creepiness in the book is the overall theme that is expanded on: Spiders. The reader is given very interesting and helpful facts about spiders at the beginning of each chapter. For instance how to tell what a black widow, distinguished by the red hourglass on the black body. However, the evil man throughout the book is a spider enthusiast and even things of himself as a type of spider. The scenes with the spiders (and I’m not going to ruin for those of you who are going to read the novel) just made me want to swat away invisible spiders, not drink my coffee while driving to work for fear there might be one in there, and just about gag in areas from the visual the author creates. Again, this novel is not for the faint of heart.

All that said Say Goodbye is a great novel because the author is able to put you there and I was so grossed out and horrified it was all I could do to finish the book or just explode about the book to my friends about what just happened. I recommend it, but want to caution those that may not be able to handle the subject matter.