Sixteen-year-old Sarah Meadows longs for ‘normal.’ Born with a port-wine stain covering half her face, she’s been plagued by stares, giggles, bullying, and disgust all her life.

But when she’s abducted on the way home from school, Sarah must summon her personal strength to survive abduction and the horrific abuse at the hands of a deranged killer.

This girl is definitely the strongest female character ever. She had to go through so much more than any other female character I’ve talked about on this blog so far. And that’s saying something (Check out past April Henry posts). She was blindfolded for months. Only given peanut butter, bananas, and crackers to eat. And she had to go to the bathroom in a bucket while blindfolded. And that’s not mentioning the physical and psychological abuse.

The point of view switches between Sarah and her family, and the top of the page shows how many days she’s been gone.

Now let’s talk about port-wine stains. According to kidhealth.org, a port-wine stain is a birthmark that looks like maroon wine was spilled or splashed on the skin. Though they often start out looking pink at birth, port-wine stains become darker as kids grow (usually reddish-purple or dark red). I’m fascinated by discoloration on the skin. It makes me think, “On a genetic level, how does that happen?” and “Why do some people have it and not others?”

You will be on the edge of your seat throughout this entire book. Trust me.

This week’s Weird but True Fact about Skin

You lose about 500 million skin cells every 24 hours.