Random Things Tours - Forgotten Toys

 

 

TITLE: Forgotten Toys

AUTHOR: Ashley Laino

PUBLISHED: September 2019

FROM GOODREADS: When you look in an empty pool, you don’t usually expect to see a body at the bottom but in a a small town in eastern Pennsylvania called Pikesville one summer, that is exactly what happens. 

Pikesville is quaint community that is faced with the disappearance of a local teenager Jenna Hayes and the town is turned upside down. When Jenna is found brutally murdered at the bottom of the town’s abandoned pool, the town is devastated, but to Sarah Moore, Jenna was just a girl whose name she heard around sometimes, in some circles. What does this have to do with her? She is dealing with her own issues, anyway. But when Sarah’s sister, Chloe, goes missing, Sarah must uncover a murderer before he gets to her, too, or before it's too late.  

MY THOUGHTS: I have extremely mixed feelings about this novel.  I really liked the concept and the idea of murder in a small and it really sounded like a gruesome death.  And this was a relatively quick and enjoyable read overall.  

Sarah Moore lives with her sister Chloe in Pikesville.  What the synopsis hints at but doesn't fully explain it that both girls are severely damaged from an overbearing mother.  Sarah is anorexic and Chloe binges.  Instead of helping each other, they each tend to feed off each other and worsen.  One day a young woman is found scalped and lying in the bottom of a empty town pool.  Chloe knew Jenna and is upset by her death.  A few days later, Chloe herself disappears.  Sarah blames herself as Chloe had left the hospital due to a horrible argument between the two and she takes it upon herself to find her sister.

I didn't really like Sarah and kind of wished she had been the missing sister and that the story had been told from Chloe's POV.  However, I'm sure it would have completely changed everything.  Sarah has an EXTREME eating disorder and Forgotten Toys is as much about that as it is about murder and mystery.  I'm pretty sure it was a pretty accurate portrayal of the disease, but I cringed when every time Sarah met someone in her head she immediately summed up how much heavier they were than her.  

I must say that this book did contain one of the most original disposals of a body that I've read about in a long time and other than the fact that something happens in the same chapter which I seriously doubt could happen, it did make for a shocking reveal.

And finally, I have to address the editing.  As this was for a tour, there was some initial confusion in providing digital copies.  And I can't help but wonder if perhaps the wrong file was sent.  There were numerous grammar errors throughout the novel and while I can overlook a few, they really started to pull me out of the novel. If it hadn't been for them, this would have been closer to a 4/5 read.

RATING: 3 Paws

ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Ashley Laino has currently resides in Bangor, Pennsylvania with her husband and two adorable cats. Her other works include the psychological thriller “Forgotten Toys.” When she is not writing, she enjoys running, reading, and watching weird documentaries on Netflix.