A more accurate title might have been something like The Year of Hell We Endured Before We Disappeared. I kept expecting the family to disappear into their new lives much sooner than they did, but it wasn't until p 246 of the 271 pages that they arrived in Tennessee. But I was left wondering how on earth it was decided that this would be a Young Adult book (a question Jen also touches on). It should appeal greatly to those who like dystopian fiction, and to lovers of true crime stories. This is gripping stuff, vividly described, and not for the faint of heart.

Escape to a new anonymous life is the only answer. Plus the town of Falmouth is running out of money-all the police security, fence installation, savage dogs, etc. There is little hope in this messed-up world that justice will prevail, and for John, the desire to take revenge into his own hands is a constant threat to himself and his family. Once a pleasant home with lots of freedom, Cylin's home becomes a prison: 'An eight-foot fence, a vicious dog, no visitors besides cops, the constant threat that some might want to do harm to us.' On top of this, her life at school collapses. He lives through their attempt to kill him, undergoing a hellish reconstructive process, but the fact remains that they want him dead, and that his family is also at risk. John Busby was a police officer in Falmouth, Massachusetts, who had antagonized men who would stop at nothing. Their journey began when Cylin was nine, in August of 1979, when her father's jaw gets shot off.

It describes with gripping immediacy the year they left normal life behind for a dystopian hell, and then escaped into a new life in rural Tennessee. The Year We Disappeared (Bloomsbury, 2008, 271 pages in the ARC I read) is a memoir told in alternating chapters by Cylin Busby and her father, John. But it merits in depth coverage, so what the heck. I'm not alone in choosing to review this new Young Adult book for Nonfiction Monday- Becky and Jen have already done so.

John busby the year we disappeared