The Three
By Sarah Lotz
(Little, Brown and Company, Hardcover, 9780316242905, May 2014, 480pp.)

The Short of It:

Three strange children, four plane crashes and a media frenzy gives this a ripped from the headlines feel.

The Rest of It:

Four commercial airlines crash within minutes of each other. There are only three survivors, all of them children. Their families don’t know what to make of it, when their personalities prove to be different from how they were before the crash. Religious fanatics think they are the devil or that they are a sign that the end days have begun. The media, ever-present, want answers to all of the numerous questions being asked. Why these three? Are they the chosen ones?

With the Malaysian flight disappearing and then the other Malaysian flight getting shot down, commercial airlines have been in the headlines for quite a while and I happen to read this book between the two events, which gave it a surreal feel, to say the least. But based on the reviews I’ve read, I expected a more horrific read. One blogger said it was “terrifying” and another said it was worthy of nightmares. Really? I thought it was pretty mild as far as plot.

Much of it takes place after the event and with the media presence and the journalistic format of the novel itself, I felt a little detached from what was taking place between its pages. You know how it is. After a major disaster, the TV channels are overrun by footage and first hand accounts. At some point, there is no new info and you just can’t take it anymore. That is how I felt with this novel. About 3/4 of the way through, I got tired of it and moved on to another book. I only decided to finish it just to see if there was any resolution and even that is debatable.

As a quick summer read, it’s entertaining and a page turner but I would have liked the format to be a little more varied. It had too much of a newsy feel to me but I know a lot of readers that really liked that aspect of the book so obviously, it’s my own personal opinion.

Have you read The Three? Want to discuss the ending? If so, leave a non-spoilery comment and I will send you an email.

Source: Borrowed
Disclosure: This post contains Indiebound affiliate links.