Island of Lost Girls by Jennifer McMahon

While parked at a gas station, Rhonda sees something so incongruously surreal that at first she hardly recognizes it as a crime in progress. She watches, unmoving, as someone dressed in a rabbit costume kidnaps a young girl. Devastated over having done nothing, Rhonda joins the investigation. But the closer she comes to identifying the abductor, the nearer she gets to the troubling truth about another missing child: her best friend, Lizzy, who vanished years before.

I read another book by McMahon, 'Promise Not to Tell' and from what I remember, as it was quite some years ago, I enjoyed it. So I thought I would give this one a try too. I wish I hadn't.

Rhonda is sitting at a gas station, waiting for her car to fill up, when she sees a 6' tall, white rabbit abduct a little girl from the back of a car. She doesn't realize what really happened in front of her until it is too late. Now ridden with guilt, she dedicates her time to helping find this little girl, all while remembering her childhood.

The story goes back and forth between the present, 2006, where Rhonda witnesses an abduction to 1993, when she recalls a difficult time in her childhood. It also throws in some scenes from the rabbits point of view.

There were several things wrong with this book. First, the main character, Rhonda, is annoying. She is so naive and blind to reality that I couldn't connect with her at all. I got frustrated on so many occasions because of her ignorance. The rest of the characters weren't interesting either.

Second, the main story, the kidnapping, was pushed into the background a lot by the 'back story'. I actually enjoyed the back story more. It was more interesting and I liked the younger versions of the characters much more than their adult versions.

The writing was bad, too. McMahon switched from first person to third person randomly in the middle of the story. No reason for it at all. Maybe she just forgot? The way the story is laid out is confusing too. Trying to remember who is who is really hard to do, especially in the beginning. Other things didn't add up either, I won't go into details so I don't spoil it for those who may want to read the book, but I was angry and confused at several parts of the plot. Not to mention there was no real climax. The mysteries were all wrapped up quickly in the simplest way possible, someone just confessed.

And if I never hear the word rabbit again, I will die happy. It was so redundant!

The only positive thing I can say about this book is that it does bring you into it. I was reading, all while annoyed, and when I looked down I was 100 pages in. Oh, and there are small periods of suspense.

In the end, I found myself scanning through most of it just to find out if I had the myseteries solved, which, for the most part, I did.

It's not worth the time, in my opinion.

1.5 out of 5 stars.