ALL THE COLORS OF THE DARK
by Chris Whitaker
Over the past several months, I repeatedly heard All the Colors of the Dark praised highly. I don’t know why it took me so long to read it. Let me spare you from making the same mistake: Read it as soon as you can. This book is a masterpiece. An unforgettable love story that spans 25 years, it is also a mystery that crosses over into a psychological thriller. Chris Whitaker drew me in immediately and kept me turning the pages late into the night.
Thirteen-year-old Patch, born with only one eye, loves all things having to do with pirates. Walking around town with a pirate’s eye patch and wooden dagger in his belt, he is often the target of bullies. That changes the day he manages to break up an abduction in-progress of one of the town’s most popular girls. She escapes from the abductor’s clutches, but Patch is taken captive instead. Life in the small mid-western town is turned on its head as the police try to find Patch. In the course of the months-long search, his only friend, 13-year-old Saint, who lives with her grandmother, relentlessly pursues any leads she can to find Patch. In fact, it is Saint whose actions eventually lead to Patch’s escape from captivity.
As might be expected, Patch returns a very different person after his ordeal. He tries to convince the authorities that in the pitch-black place where he was held captive, there was also a teenage girl who didn’t manage to escape when he did. The two had spent months locked up together and it was her gift for telling stories about the places she had visited and the panoramic sights she had seen that enabled him to survive. Patch is convinced that she is still alive and that he must find her and set her free. His life becomes consumed with this quest—to the point that people in his town think he dreamed the girl up as a way to survive his ordeal. Only Saint believes in him as the years go by and Patch continues his search for the girl.
Filled with memorable characters from the Police Chief to the local pediatrician and Misty, the girl Patch saved from abduction, All the Colors of the Dark—in the end—is a story about the many different types of love and what they look like. You'll be captivated by the book and will find yourself missing the characters long after you’ve finished reading. (Liz)
