Thursday, March 23, 2023

Dark Room Etiquette

Dark Room Etiquette 
By Robin Roe 
HarperTeen, 2022. 505 pages. Young Adult 

Sixteen-year-old Sayers Wayte has everything: popularity, good looks, perfect grades--there's nothing Sayers' family money can't buy. Until he's kidnapped by a man who tells him the privileged life he's been living is based on a lie. Trapped in a windowless room, without knowing why he's been taken or how long the man plans to keep him shut away, Sayers faces a terrifying new reality. To survive, he must forget the world he once knew, and play the part his abductor has created for him. But as time passes, the line between fact and fiction starts to blur, and Sayers begins to wonder if he can escape... before he loses himself. 

Sayers is an easy character to dislike due to his entitled attitude with his very privileged life. But, it was fascinating to see how his mental state changed as time progressed and captivity changed how he viewed his life. The stakes were high, and then they got even higher! This book was hard to put down, so this is a great recommendation for those who like suspenseful young adult fiction. It definitely puts you on edge. As a final thought, do make sure your GPS is properly functioning before you venture into the middle of nowhere. 

If you liked Dark Room Etiquette, you might also like: 

By Emma Donoghue 
Little, Brown and Co., 2010. 321 pages. Adult Fiction 

Narrator Jack and his mother, who was kidnapped seven years earlier when she was a 19-year-old college student, celebrate his fifth birthday. They live in a tiny, 11-foot-square soundproofed cell in a converted shed in the kidnapper's yard. The sociopath, whom Jack has dubbed Old Nick, visits at night, grudgingly doling out food and supplies. But Ma, as Jack calls her, proves to be resilient and resourceful--and attempts a nail-biting escape. 

By Laurie Faria Stolarz 
Wednesday Books, 2020. 306 pages. Young Adult 

In chapters alternating between "then" and "now," 17-year-old Jane Anonymous chronicles the events leading up to her abduction and seven-month captivity and her painful return to family and friends. 

ACS

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