Dismantled

Starred review from April 27, 2009
A prank gone wrong drives this outstanding novel from bestseller McMahon (Island of Lost Girls
). The summer after graduation, four friends, who formed an art group called the Compassionate Dismantlers at Vermont's Sexton College, live together in a remote cabin and commit increasingly brash acts of sabotage. When they go too far and their leader, Suz Pierce, dies, the group disbands, vowing never to speak about what happened. Ten years later, two of the group, Henry DeForge and Tess Kahle, are unhappily married with a nine-year-old daughter, Emma. When the suicide of a Sexton friend sends a PI digging into the past, Henry and Tess fear that the dead may not be truly buried. By alternating the present-day lives of Henry, Tess and Emma with the origins of the Dismantlers, McMahon allows the inexorable sense of dread to build incrementally. Perhaps most memorable are not the young artists but Emma, a child whose intense imagination only adds fuel to the slow-burning fire.

April 15, 2009
The collective sins of four college friends come home to roost more than a decade after a bizarre tragedy scattered them in this disturbing, darkly hypnotic novel by McMahon (Island of Lost Girls, 2008, etc.).

In college, promising art students Tess and Henry belonged to a group called the"Compassionate Dismantlers." Led by Suz, a rebellious blond waif with bisexual tendencies and a healthy contempt for society and order, they proclaimed"Dismantlement Equals Freedom" and tormented a fellow student who had been one member's boyfriend. Eventually, something they did was so troubling that it continues to cast a dark and disturbing shadow over the now-married Tess and Henry. The troubled couple has separated: Henry has moved into a small apartment in the workshop in back of their Vermont home; Tess continues to live in the main house with their daughter Emma, a misfit who obsesses over a moose, the number nine and her affinity for an imaginary playmate. When an attempt to reconcile her parents backfires, the Dismantlers reunite in a way that Henry and Tess would have never imagined, bringing with them their penchant for spreading destruction and mayhem. As Henry struggles with his fears for his daughter, Tess deals with an unexpected attraction to a strange woman, and Emma simply struggles. McMahon's deftly creepy prose creates a world of chaos and abuse; the book brims with unexpected and often startling plot twists, taking the reader on a strange journey that never disappoints. But while the characters are memorable, they're also difficult to care about.

Sometimes beautifully written and extraordinarily imaginative; the only thing it lacks is human interest.

(COPYRIGHT (2009) KIRKUS REVIEWS/NIELSEN BUSINESS MEDIA, INC. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.)

June 15, 2009
Ten years ago, five students went into the Vermont woods to live and breathe their art in a cabin by a lake; only four came back. The survivorsTess, Henry, Winnie, and Spencerhave tried to forget that summer, but they are forced to confront it by a mysterious postcard that quotes Suz, the missing member and charismatic ringleader. Spencer kills himself, an act that sets in motion an investigation that will test Tess and Henry's rocky marriage and endanger their nine-year-old daughter, Emma. McMahon builds the suspense well, using several creepy fake-outs as she muddies the waters with a private detective, a mysterious art patron, and most potent of all, Emma's imaginary friend, Danner. But is Danner imaginary? A sign of mental imbalance? Or is she something more]"ghostly"? VERDICT No one here is particularly likable, especially Suz, with her tiresome manifesto of destruction, but McMahon's skill keeps the reader wondering just what happened that night at the lake and what form revenge will take. McMahon's previous literary thrillers, "Promise Not To Tell" (2007) and "Island of Lost Girls" (2008), sold well; expect some demand. It might also appeal to readers who enjoyed Donna Tartt's "The Secret History".Devon Thomas, DevIndexing, Chelsea, MI

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