WHERE SILENCE GATHERS

In the follow-up companion to her daring debut (Some Quiet Place, 2013), Sutton offers readers the same formula: Teenage girl falls in love with a personified emotion she can see but never touch.

Eighteen-year-old Alexandra Tate, like Elizabeth Caldwell before her, can see emotions. Appearing human in form, these creatures “from the other plane” have cluttered her world for as long as she can remember. Yet one in particular, Revenge, has stood steadfastly by her side ever since she put a face to the man who killed her family in a drunken driving accident. And now that Nate Foster has finally been released from prison, Alex, emboldened by the intoxicating power of her otherworldly best friend, is on the brink of exacting her own brand of justice on the man who stole her family from her. So why can’t she pull the trigger? Unfortunately, what could have been an intense and intriguing love triangle among Alex and her ghostly suitors, Revenge and Forgiveness, is never allowed to blaze. Instead, it is watered down by distracting and unsatisfying secondary plotlines. The story tries to be too much at once, and it costs the novel its heart and soul.

The only emotion that will sit with readers this time around is Disappointment.