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Monday, October 1, 2012

Review: The Raising by Laura Kasischke

Author: Laura Kasischke

Publisher: HarperCollins Perennial
Audiobook: Blackstone Audio
Narrator:
Date of Publication: March 2011

Last year Godwin Honors Hall was draped in black. The university was mourning the loss of one of its own: Nicole Werner, a blond, beautiful, straight-A sorority sister tragically killed in a car accident that left her boyfriend, who was driving, remarkably—some say suspiciously—unscathed.


This book was a lot different than I was expecting.  I thought I was getting a ghost story, but instead I got an intriguing mystery  with conspiracies and some ghost story elements.  The Raising was a pretty good book.  The year before, Nicole Werner was killed in an accident, but now people are still seeing her.  The one witness to the accident swears that the newspaper account has reported what happened incorrectly.  No one will listen to her.  Nicole's boyfriend, Craig, has been blamed for her death, but he can't remember what happened.   

The truth about that night is told through flashbacks as well as through the perspective of several characters.  Sometimes, I find this confusing, but the author made the time changes flawless.  I really had no idea what to expect in the end and was pretty surprised by the ending.  My only disappointment was we aren't told definitively what really happened to Nicole.  The reader is left with a few questions. Personally, I decided that I liked Mira's explanation and chose to believe that is what transpired. The epilogue, I felt, was unneeded and kind of took away from the story.  Had I skipped it, I would have been more satisfied with the ending.

This book has been on my TBR pile for a while.  I finally was able to find an audio version of the book. Renee Raudman did a wonderful job narrating.  This is that first book I have read by Ms. Kasischke. I look forward to seeking out more of her works.


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