“Survivors make it because they learn to adapt. Adaptation is coping. Coping is strength.”

Thanks to Dutton Penguin Books for providing me a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. Keep in mind this has no effect on my rating and/or my opinion.

I want to inform you that this is my first ever Lisa Gardner book, needless to say my first book in the D.D. Warren series (I did not know this was a part of a series oops), but its okay and i’ll tell you why.

Find Her by Lisa Gardner has easily become one of my favorite adult novels, the reason being the eloquent writing and the main character being the center of attention as opposed to the detective herself. Our main character, Flora Dane, may be one of my favorite badass female characters ever, right next to Minnow Bly. I mean, we start off with the stereotypical college student on spring break, but end up with a survivor who escapes the hands of a sadistic man who kidnapped her 472 days later.

“There’s no rewind, or erasing, or unmaking. The things that happened, they are you, you are them. You can escape, but you can’t get away. Just the way it is.” 

The novel starts off in medias res, and has one of the best starts I’ve ever witnessed. You literally get thrown into the wooden box where a woman is trapped and you get a very detailed description of what losing ones mind and getting driven into madness really means. 

After this, we get to know our main character, Flora Dane, whom we then follow throughout the story after she escapes her captor and sets a goal for herself—to rid other predators. 

Detective Warren gets set on a case, that happens to involve Flora. But what she is unsure of is who the victim and who the violator really is. This sets the law enforcement including Detective Warren on a case to get to know more about Flora since she already has been through an abduction before—meaning the girl were never the same again.

The detective suspects our main character to be some kind of executioner as she seeks revenge on every predator after what shes been through. Because Flora has hung up pictures of every missing girl from Boston all over her wall, and once she disappears again, the detective is convinced that there may be a clever serial killer on the loose in Boston. And all she can hope for is that some of these women are alive and that Flora is willing to leave clues and tips for the detective to catch up on.

“I don’t know who I am,” I say. “No one does. Everyone spends their lives figuring that out, even people who’ve never been kidnapped.” 

Like i said, this book has become one of my favorite thrillers and adult books. You really get to feel all the anxiety and panicking every abduction victim goes through, it will leave you turning page after page and dying to know whats going to happen next and what the next move is going to be, and I personally think that is amazing, so kudos to Gardner! To be able to make the reader put him/herself in the victims position and write an accurate portrayal of what an abduction feels like is incredible. 

But it doesnt stop there. Most thrillers and mysteries these days tend to be very predictable, but Gardner made it truly unpredictable and difficult to figure out who stands where and for what. On another note, I read this in a few hours, which is fantastic, because I usually never get so drawn into a book. And that makes me so happy. I recommend this book to everyone who loves a well-written murder/mystery novel.