Review: The Half Life of Ryan Davis by Melinda Szymanik

The Half Life of Ryan Davis by Melinda Szymanik
Publisher: Pear Jam Books
Publication Date: October 28, 2011
Book Format: Paperback
Number of Pages: 184
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
Synopsis: A contemporary psychological mystery/thriller for young teens.

Playing second fiddle to a 'missing, presumed dead' sister is soul-sucking for fifteen year old Ryan. As he tries to move on with his life he begins to appreciate just how difficult growing up can be. And now there's a stranger watching him. Will his family ever be whole again? Or did Mallory light the fuse that will blow it apart forever.



My Review: I received The Half Life of Ryan Davis by Melinda Szymanik for review from Readers Say Reviews, and these are my honest thoughts about it.

I literally just finished this whole book in one sitting, that right there should tell you to go find the book and read it right away! The Half Life of Davis is about a young boy named Ryan whose sister Mallory has recently gone missing. When the book starts it has been three years since her disappearance and everyone assumes that she is dead, which is probably the easiest thing to assume instead of hoping for her to come back everyday. Anyways ever since she’s been gone Ryan’s mom has been desperate for Mallory to come back, it gets so bad that she literally starts comparing everything Ryan and his younger sister Gemma do to their older sister which as you can imagine get’s really unbearable for them.

I have to say I really enjoyed the story of Ryan's life after his sister's disappearance. At first I thought that it would depress me because the book would just be a sob story about her being kidnapped, but it was not at all and I am happy about that. Ryan seems like a normal teenage boy he has his best friend Alex and his girlfriend Kim to stand by him yes he has his problems with both these people but what teenage boy doesn’t? But there was a lot more to Ryan than meets the eye, he is having some crazy problems at home dealing with his crazy mother and I don’t blame him for feeling the way he does during the book.

Let’s just talk about Ryan’s mother for a minute. I understand that she was upset about losing her oldest daughter but even so she was an absolutely terrible mother to her two remaining kids. In the beginning of the book her attitude seemed bearable because of the circumstances but as the book went on I grew more and more disgusted with the way she was treating Ryan, I felt very sorry for him. I almost wish I could have jumped in the book and screamed at her myself!

I obviously am not going to tell you what happens in the book, but I must say that I really did love how brave both Ryan, and Gemma and even Mallory was and you’ll see what I mean after I read the book. Overall it gets a 5 out of 5 stars I will definitely check out more books by this author in the future!

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