Finding Jake

A Novel

De: Bryan Reardon

Narrado por: George Newbern

A heart-wrenching yet ultimately uplifting story of psychological suspense in which a parent is forced to confront what he does—and does not—know about his teenage son, in the vein of Reconstructing Amelia, Defending Jacob, and We Need to Talk about Kevin.

While his successful wife goes off to her law office each day, Simon Connolly takes care of their kids, Jake and Laney. Now that they are in high school, the angst-ridden father should feel more relaxed, but he doesn’t. He’s seen the statistics, read the headlines. And now, his darkest fear is coming true. There has been a shooting at school.

Simon races to the rendezvous point, where he’s forced to wait. Do they know who did it? How many victims were there? Why did this happen? One by one, parents are led out of the room to reunite with their children. Their numbers dwindle, until Simon is alone.

As his worst nightmare unfolds, and Jake is the only child missing, Simon begins to obsess over the past, searching for answers, for hope, for the memory of the boy he raised, for mistakes he must have made, for the reason everything came to this. Where is Jake? What happened in those final moments? Is it possible he doesn’t really know his son? Or he knows him better than he thought?

Brilliantly paced, Finding Jake explores these questions in a tense and emotionally wrenching narrative. Harrowing and heartbreaking, surprisingly healing and redemptive, it is a story of faith and conviction, strength, courage, and love that will leave readers questioning their own lives, and those they think they know.

Great story!

Would love to have a longer book ! The story was a bit hard to follow on time past and present

A Quiet One

What did you love best about Finding Jake?

A gripping story of a stay at home dad and a quiet child. The author weaves a tale of a traumatic event, flashbacks and the here and now that the listener can not turn off the sound.

What other book might you compare Finding Jake to and why?

Reardon writes in a Jodi Piccoult style.

What about George Newbern’s performance did you like?

He became the father with Reardon's words and his emotional performance.

If you were to make a film of this book, what would the tag line be?

Another shooting at a high school, 13 dead, and two suspects. How do parents of the accused deal with this reality?

Thoughtful

A horrible tragedy for sure. But as this is part of our world, it makes the point that we are in it together. A parent hurts no less if their child does something bad than a parent whose child has something bad done to them. It’s still your child. Good or bad. It still hurts.

Well done!

Kept my interest throughout. At times predictable but in a good way. Had enough surprises to make we want to keep going. Very believable!

FINDING JAKE is Finding a Great Read!

Bryan Reardon’s FINDING JAKE is the kind of book that immediately grabbed my attention when I read the preview. It made me think of NINETEEN MINUTES, one of my favorites from the amazing Jodi Picoult, and by the time I finished FINDING JAKE, I wasn’t disappointed. I loved that the story was told from the father’s point of view as it gave it a much different feel and emotional background. Through the well-written flashbacks, readers learn about Simon and Rachel. From how they fell in love, were married, and joyfully gave birth to Jake and younger sister Laney, to how Simon came to be the house husband; a stay-at-home dad. Because Simon describes his inner thoughts, it helped me to better understand how it effected his occasionally peculiar actions and, at other times, his achingly despondent personality and unpredictable emotions.

Simon seems adjusted to his role although he does explain how hard it is for him to be a male in with all the mothers who seem to have such different parenting styles than Simon. It is only when there is a shooting at his children’s school that Simon faces much different emotions. With Laney safe, Simon is left to find Jake who is unaccounted for. As things progress, Jake also becomes a suspect in the shootings and Simon begins a frantic search for the son he is devoted to but now begins to question just how well he knew his boy. Could Jake have been part of this horror? Where had Simon gone wrong? Just where is Jake? Unlike most mothers in this situation, Simon has no support system and even Rachel grows farther away from Simon when she feels that he might think Jake is guilty.

The action escalates as the family is forced to leave their home while police search it, and on top of that, the family must now also deal with the media. I LOVED this book and could not stop listening to it. I think that Simon’s different viewpoint is what made the narrative so compelling. I was totally engrossed in Reardon’s exceptionally talented work. I also think that because I really did not like Rachel, that it added to my enjoyment of the story as I found myself applauding Simon even more! With twists and turns that had me thinking one thing and then another, the conclusion was quite unexpected. If you like a thriller with heart, FINDING JAKE is an audio book you will want to pick up.