An excruciating slow burn through the familial aftermath of a teen boy's disappearance, culminating in a horrible revelation. This is my least favorite of Tremblay's books that I've read so far, but that's not to say that I disliked it; it just didn't have the same propulsive energy that made me tear madly though the pages of, for example, The Cabin at the End of the World. Even having read Survivor Song first and, therefore, having had some of the plot spoiled for me, I was still eager to find out what happened next. There are certainly long stretches of this book that leave you waiting for something to happen, and this won't be to everyone's taste; but I thought that steeping for so long in the family's sorrow and uncertainty, experiencing their desperation for news, for comfort, for anything, alongside them, was effective and made the payoff even more horrific.