Cemetery Girl Paperback – October 4, 2011

The story starts out promisingly but it soon becomes apparent that the characters lack depth making it hard for the reader to sustain interest in what happens to them. Their motivations and relationships remain superficial and nebulous throughout.

I can get past the typos throughout the book. I can even get past the below average writing, but what I can't get past is the awful storyline and unrealistic characters. This book may take the cake for being the worst book I've ever read. I'm trying to think back, mentally wading through all the books I've read, and I can't think of another one as awful as this one. I'm not usually too picky, and I tend to find positive aspects of a book, but there is so little depth here, and the characters are so pitifully written, that I can't muster up one compliment. And the dialogue...don't even get me started on that.*SPOILER ALERT*Right away, I was annoyed with the main characters. By chapter 4, I was rolling my eyes at their stupidity, but I kept truckin' along, certain that things would improve. The first really ridiculous part of the book comes when Tom and Abby find their daughter and meet her at the police station. Tom is already making seriously stupid promises and acting like a fool, but okay...whatever. Everything was painfully unrealistic.Then comes the hospital visit. This is when I KNEW I was working with an author that doesn't like to do research, and who clearly got his very short span of information on the female body from an outdated medical journal written in 1802. When detective Ryan comes out of the hospital room and tells Tom and Abby that Caitlin must have been raped because her hymen is broken, I nearly slammed the book closed. OH MY GOD! Are you kidding me?First of all, that kind of information wouldn't come from a detective. It would come from the doctor standing in the next room. Second, most 16-year-old girls have no hymen, and it may very well not be due to sexual activity at all. Without being too graphic, it's pretty obvious if you think about why this makes zero sense. Has David Bell been living in the dark ages?Point is: if you're going to write a book about this type of subject matter, and you're bringing into question whether or not the "victim" has been raped, you never write a scene in which some hulking, meat-head detective walks up to the parents and says something award-winningly stupid, like: Tom, I hate to tell you this, but Caitlin has no hymen.This was some of the worst dialogue I've ever had the misfortune of reading.As if that wasn't bad enough, Tom and Abby fight over the silliest, most unrealistic things throughout the entire book. Abby keeps bringing around this creepy pastor dude named "Pastor Chris," and no matter how annoyed he makes Tom, he's continually allowed access to their daughter, and he's allowed to move in on Tom's territory at every turn.Then there's Buster, Tom's brother. This is another turd of a character. He's involved in Caitlin's abduction (to one degree or another), yet Tom doesn't mind and won't even tell the police where his brother is, despite the entire book being centered around Tom wanting to find out the truth regarding his daughter's abduction. Sure...'cause that's totally believable.That brings me to the worst aspect of this book. The story isn't really about Caitlin coming home or her transition into her former life. No, no. That would have made too much sense. No, the story is about a father. A father who wants his daughter to return home more than anything in the world, yet when she does, he's not too happy about the young woman she's become. Then, the focus of the book (Tom's goal) becomes finding out what the abductor (whom Caitlin is in love with, by the way) did to her during the four years he had. I was particularly impressed by the scene in which Tom takes a drive out to the abductor's home and has, what seemed to be, an all too pleasant conversation with the very man who took his little girl 4 years prior.Fast forward to the end of the book: Tom's so obsessed with finding out if the abductor had sex with his daughter that he's willing to give her back to him if he'll tell Tom everything he did to her. At the last minute, Tom realizes that he can't let Caitlin go again; he loves her too much. The cops nab the abductor, Buster seems to have gotten away with whatever the hell he did to involve himself in the abduction (it was never really explained), Abby moves into the church with Pastor Chris and Caitlin, and Tom sees Caitlin on weekends.No exaggeration, this was a terrible, awful, stupid, silly, pathetic excuse of a novel. I feel pretty confident that most 12-year-old children could write more realistic dialogue than David Bell. And to think: before reading this book, I nearly ordered more of his novels. This has taught me one thing, though: some of the reviews on Amazon are WILDLY misleading. To each his or her own, I guess.

"Cemetery Girl" was written by David Bell. Mr. Bell is an Assistant Professor of English at Western Kentucky University in Bowling Green, Kentucky. While Mr. Bell has been writing for several years, it appears that "Cemetery Girl" is one of several novels.The book is written in the first person by the main protagonist. Other character dialog is interspersed and identified with the person speaking. The writing is straight forward and not complex; it should be acceptable to a wide audience.The main characters in the story are Tom Stuart, his wife Abby, Tom's half brother `Buster', twelve year old daughter Caitlin, and Frosty the family dog. As the story opens, we find that Caitlin had taken Frosty for a walk in the park near her home and has disappeared without a trace. Tom and Abby search unsuccessfully to find her and Abby has reached the end of her hope and apparently her marriage to Tom. Abby arranges for the symbolic death of her daughter by having a "cenotaph" erected at the local cemetery. Tom abhors the idea because he believes Caitlin will be found - and one day, some four years since her disappearance, Caitlin simply reappears, now reluctant to rejoin her family! This then begins the search for knowledge; a quest for meaning and understanding of what happened to Caitlin.This novel is a dark story of a parent's worst nightmare - the unexplained disappearance of a daughter when she is only twelve. The characters in the story all seem to have some peculiar personality problems. Tom Stuart, a weak and pitiful victim of an abusive step father; Buster, Tom's half brother involved in nefarious dealings, including drugs and exposing himself; Abby, Tom's wife substituting the church for her lost child and abandoning her husband in the process as she becomes enchanted with the young church pastor; John Colter, a pedophile and psychological master mind; and Caitlin, a child who at twelve years old, possesses unnatural adolescent behavior, disdain for her family, and a mind incapable of perceiving evil. All and all a cast that confounds the reader with a hapless dichotomy between what is expected and what is revealed of these people. The author spins the tale with an ever growing urgency to "know what happened" to Caitlin. The effort becomes a compulsive quest, not only for Tom Stuart, but for the reader. Captivated to the end, the reader's quest evaporates to nothingness - no knowledge, no revelations, no answers; only a jaw dropping "is that it?" The story fizzles to an unrewarding conclusion.The reader will encounter some inconsistencies in development of the plot as well. For instance, in the scene that has Tom and Caitlin leaving the family home in the car for a meeting with John Colter, Abby, coming in the other direction in her car, accosts Tom. When questioned, Abby says that Buster called her and told her what Tom was doing! However, Buster never knew what Tom planned or was doing so he couldn't have called and told Abby.All and all I was somewhat disappointed by this composition mainly for the reasons I pointed out. The writing was generally good, and the story line had great potential that I just felt was unfulfilled. In the end, I feel that some readers will be attracted to the saga in spite of my reservations. Therefore, I recommend this novel with caution; I would rate it pleasurable-not memorable.

Tom, Abbey and Caitlin's lives are changed over night when Caitlin, aged 12 is abducted and not seen for 4 years. Then suddenly she reappears out of nowhere not telling anyone where she has been or what she has been doing for all that time.This is truly a very traumatic time for Tom and Abbey as they try to piece their lives back together with their daughter who is now 16 and no longer the child they 'lost' but one who is all but grown up and with a very different street-wise manner.This book explores Stockholm syndrome where the victim resonates with the perpetrator and they don't believe they have done anything wrong even though they may have been beaten, starved, raped and abused whilst in their grip.I loved the way Mr Bell told Tom's side of the story, telling it from a man's point of view (lol) but with all the emotion, rage, uncertainty and depth of feeling of how a Father would feel in this situation. I also felt that in contrast Abbey's character was lacking the warmth and emotional depth that a woman would have been feeling in this situation.However I really felt for Tom and Abbey imagining what I would have done in the same situation, their emotional roller-coaster ride was harrowing to say the least. Tom's compulsive need to know the 'truth' of what happened causes him to behave in an irresponsible manner at times but you can sympathize with his torment.I can only hope that with all the counselling, love and devotion of friends and family members and just tons of patience that victims can reach a measure of recovery in real life.Thank you David for a compelling read, I look forward to reading your next book.

I really enjoyed the first two thirds of this book - it reminded me very much of Harlan Coben, who is a favourite of mine. The characters are believable and their reactions and feelings to their situation seemed plausible and realistic.However, something just didn't sit right with me for the rest of the book, and looking back on it now, there were some odd bits that don't seem to make sense now. For instance, Liann - why did she seem to play such an important part at the start and then completely fizzle out towards the end? And Caitlin being described as a 'secretive child' wasn't really backed up with anything other than the incident with the near-miss car accident, yet it seemed to play a big part in the way Tom felt when she returned to them 4 years later. Pastor Chris, I imagine, was supposed to be an irritating character who was intended to rile the reader with his patronising ways and overly-cheery demeanour, but again he was a character that seemed at one point integral to the story, but was simply phased out towards the end - were these characters intentional red herrings? And I think the conversations with Tom and his daughter's kidnapper were bizarre - would a father really so willingly speak to a paedophile/rapist/kidnapper who had snatched his daughter in such a calm and almost polite manner? I seem to think 'no'. That is where the book got a bit far-fetched and stringy for me, but I'm glad I kept reading, as it wasn't too bad overall. However, I got this for the bargain price of 99p - not worth spending £4.99 on.

The protagonist, the father, I found a bit irritating in the way he viewed his daughter,especially at the start with her crossing the street at 6. The father assumed a 6 year old had purposefully been disobedient, when she was only a child. Even when she was 12 and went missing, there was this impression the girl might want it to happen. I finished the book, and it was alright but not fabulous.

I enjoyed this story which was told from the point of view of the father of a girl who has disappeared and is presumed dead. Caitlin has been missing for four years and her parents' relationship has suffered. Her mother is organizing a memorial service but her father cannot accept that he should move on. Perhaps he is right as strange events begin to suggest that something other than death may have overtaken Caitlin.This was a good read and I have ordered David Bell's next book The Hiding Place which is due out soon.

It's been 4 years since anyone saw 12 year old Caitlin and now her Mum Abby is arranging a funeral service convinced her daughter is dead, whereas Tom, her father, cannot let go. An interesting well written story mainly based around the unusual and thought provoking actions Caitlin's father takes. The pleasure and suspense reading this book could have been considerably higher if the publisher's trailer had not revealed more of the plot than was absolutely necessary. Not sure that anything was resolved.