Read & Breathe

I came across this book in September and it caught my interest from the beginning. I loved the idea of this crazy town kidnapping the three characters. I was so excited about it and maybe that is why I was so disappointed in the book. I expected to see the people in this town be nuts. Instead most of the book focused on Dee, the MC,  interacting with the mayor of crazy town's son, Joseph, and mayor of crazy town himself. Have no doubt, this town is a religious, fanatical cult. But, I wanted to see more of this town. 

The story starts out with Dee(MC) and  Luke( her boyfriend)going to a concert and then having a special weekend for their one year anniversary. Unfortunately, Luke's brother Mike tagged along as payment for him to get lie to Luke and his parents about what Luke was doing this weekend. They run out of gas because apparently none of them even thought about it, despite Luke being basically a genius. Okay so they hike into this town that has sirens going off and go to the gas station. It's all locked up and no one around. Anywhere. they find these houses and go into one of them and when they see no one is there, they decide to spend the night, despite the creepiness of this town. While in the house, they find a book on how to beat your kid to save him from the devils of imagination and fun. They leave in the early hours of the morning and runs into a kid(Joseph, crazy mayor's son) their age that basically tells them that his father wont let them leave and that he needs their help to get him and his sister out of the town. they refuse and are attacked. fast forwards hours later, Dee wakes up and she is being bled by Joseph and then passes out again. When she wakes up next she meets the crazy mayor, Elijah. he tells her she is now Rebekah and is his new bride, because he killed his wife recently. The rest of the story is her either talking with Joseph on how to escape and blaming him for this situation or her being with Elijah and him threatening Mike and Luke's lives if she isn't a good bride. So at one point she gets to spend time with Mike and Joseph helps them leave, only to find Luke is dead. After much crying and screaming, Mike, Dee, and Joseph are able to leave and go to a town, miles away. When Dee wakes up, Mike informs her that their is no proof of their story, Joseph disappeared, and that everyone thinks they  got in car accident and Luke died. 

I thought the entire book was disappointing because it didn't really show the town and the ending was just bad. It was too clean and neat. I was just extremely disappointed.