Book: Seven Days
Author: Alex Lake
Pages: 416
Read on: Kindle
Read in: 4 hours
Plot Summary: In seven days, Maggie’s son, Max, turns three. But she’s not planning a party or buying presents or updating his baby book. She’s dreading it. Because in her world, third birthdays are the days on which the unthinkable happens… she loses her child.
For the last twelve years Maggie has been imprisoned in a basement. Abducted at age fifteen, she gave birth to two sons before Max, and on their third birthdays her captor came and took them from her.
She cannot let it happen again. But she has no idea how to stop it. And the clock is ticking.
Things I Liked:
1. This book's premise (a girl being held in captivity, raped and impregnated several times over) is not easy to read. Maggie's abduction and her ordeal at the hands of her unknown kidnapper is ghastly and traumatic! Plus, she has lost two sons on each of their third birthdays and has seven days to save her surviving son- Max. It is this race against time with very high odds that I really enjoyed about this book.
2. We get to see the present day events juxtaposed with those of the past, starting with the day when Maggie was abducted. We see the efforts of the local investigating team to find her over the years. We get to see Maggie's ordeal (but not in gory details- thank goodness!) at the hands of her abductor. We also get to see how her parents and younger brother coped with her disappearance.
3. The book is very 'realistic'. In the sense that Maggie does not have much to work with when it comes to her escape plan. Her kidnapper was a very careful man, who left nothing sharp or weaponisable in her little basement prison. So, Maggie's plan to save her son had to be ingenious, which, spoiler alert, it was!
4. Maggie was a well-crafted character. She was strong and pragmatic. She did her best to stay alive and to keep Max safe. She made the most out of an awful situation at such a young age! She was quite admirable in how she handled herself through the book.
Things I Didn't Like:
1. I didn't care too much about Maggie's brother (James') addiction issues. There were way too many chapters wasted on his addict friends and his addict lifestyle. I just skipped through those chapters.
Rating: 3.5/5
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