Book Review: IN THIS WAY I WAS SAVED

IN THIS WAY I WAS SAVED by Brian DeLeeuw

Review:

Imagine your best friend: always there when you need him, supportive, listens to your problems, gives great advice… You trust him completely, even with your life.  But what if your best friend turns that trust against you, then what? How long would it take you to notice? And what, if anything, would you do about it?

In This Way I Was Saved, Brian DeLeeuw’s first novel, takes readers on a psychological journey of a questionable friendship, full of strange twists and turns. Told from an unusual point of view, the story of Luke and Daniel will leave you with an unsettled, hair-standing-on-the-back-of-your-neck feeling.

If you enjoy creepy, well-written novels, this is a book for you.

Synopsis:

On a chilly November afternoon, six-year-old Luke Nightingale’s life changes forever. On the playground across from the Metropolitan Museum of Art, he encounters Daniel. Soon the boys are hiding from dinosaurs and shooting sniper rifles. Within hours, Luke and his mother, Claire, are welcoming Daniel into their Upper East Side apartment—and their lives.

Daniel and Luke are soon inseparable. With his parents divorcing, Luke takes comfort in having a near-constant playmate. But there’s something strange about Daniel, who is more than happy to bind himself to the Nightingales. The divorce has cut Luke’s father out of the picture, and as his increasingly fragile mother struggles with the insidious family depression, Daniel—shrewd, adventurous, and insightful—provides Luke both recreation and refuge.

As Luke grows from a child to an adolescent to a young man, he realizes that as much as his mother needs him, Daniel needs him more. Jealous of Luke’s other attachments, Daniel’s gestures of friendship turn into increasingly sinister manipulations. In the end, Luke finds himself in a daily battle for control of his own life—wondering whether he or Daniel will emerge victorious.

Brian DeLeeuw’s debut, a haunting and provocative story of a family’s love and madness, is a book you will not be able to put down.

Intrigued? Check out the Chapter 1 Excerpt available on the author’s web page.

Available in Simon & Schuster Trade Paperback August 10, 2010.