Reviews for Without Looking Back

Highly recommended. We've all heard harrowing stories of children abducted by one parent, leaving the other in fear and anguish. Tabitha Suzuma weaves a powerful story around three children trapped in just such a traumatic situation. For Max, Louis and Millie, life in Paris with their high flying French mother is difficult enough without their parents fighting for custody in a vindictive divorce battle. The children know that their Irish Father is at risk of losing them due to his fragile mental state, so a final weekend with him before the start of the new school year is especially important to all three. However, what begins as a weekend in Paris turns into an unexpected flight to England. A promised week of extra holiday as a special treat stretches into two, and finally the children are confronted with the truth; their father has kidnapped them. The story is told through the eyes of twelve year old Louis, the middle child and a talented street dancer. Gradually all three children adjust to their new lives in the Lake District and Louis's friendship with fellow dancer Tess, seals their fragile sense of security. However, Louis and Tess's winning entry in a dance competition is reported in the newspaper, and terrified of discovery, their father forces them to flee again. Suzuma maintains a cracking narrative with a strong vein of realism and plenty of excitement and tension. She confronts difficult questions in a way that young readers can relate to, but which never avoids the reality: however the situation resolves, someone will lose out. The unexpected ending shows just how messy such situations can be and left me longing to find out more. Perhaps there is room for a sequel? Tabitha Suzuma is already an established and impressive writer for teenagers and here she turns her talents to a younger readership. The strong plot, coupled with Louis's passion for dancing keep the story fresh and up to date and able and mature readers of 10+ are in for a treat. Claire Larson There is a tiny meadow flower called Bird's Eye that is an intense, passionate blue, a flower so much part of the meadow, it is woven into the earth itself, and it is this kind of bird's eye view that Tabitha Suzuma allows us when we step into the compelling story of three children, Max 14, Louis 12 and Millie, 8, coping with their parents' marriage break-up. Abduction is a word that promises a high degree of misery and, in some measure, this is what it delivers when the children's English father abducts them from their French mother, taking them from Paris to England. The children, who believe they are on an extended holiday, are devastated when Louis sees a picture of himself, his brother and sister, on a 'Missing Persons' poster in a Lake District railway station, for that is where they have washed up with new histories, names and haircuts. When Louis later confronts his father, demanding to know why he has 'kidnapped' them, the answer of, 'Because I love you. Because I can't live without my children,' is met with Louis's hurt and furious, 'You had no right to take us without telling us, as if we were nothing but objects…pieces of furniture.' Many young people will recognise that hurt and hear their own voice in Louis's words. The children do settle into this new life and Louis is able to take up dancing again but disaster strikes when he confides in the girl with whom he is falling in love. Tess writes it all down, her Mum reads it, then calls the police. However, Tess warns the family before the police arrive and they are able to get away. Tabitha Suzuma has drawn a realistic picture of adversarial parents who forget that children have lives of their own. This book also shows how legal and social decisions that profoundly affect a child's life can still be made, as Louis resentfully discovers, without the child's involvement, even when they are old enough to be consulted. She highlights the children's courage as they try to make the best of things and shows their generosity in forgiving the people they love for the hurt they cause. Young readers will strongly identify with Max, Louis and Millie, and cheer as the children slowly come to an understanding of who they are and what they want from life, a hard won understanding that forms the choices they eventually get to make about their own futures. As a bonus, this beautifully written book sweeps you forward on plain and lovely prose until, far too soon, you have somehow reached the end. Gwen Grant Tabitha Suzuma’s new book is a gripping, poignant story of a family torn apart by divorce. On the brink of being denied all access to his children, Louis’ father has decided to kidnap them – and the children are forced into a life on the run, with new names, haircuts, and identities. But they can’t be careful for ever… Without Looking Back develops slowly but smoothly from domestic, almost humdrum beginnings, and although the premise is potentially sensational Suzuma successfully avoids melodrama. There is enough action and suspense to keep readers gripped, but the heart of the book is in the relationships between the characters, which are charted with sensitivity and warmth, particularly the combination of friction and affection between Louis and his siblings. The simple, no-frills style, and Suzuma’s great eye for detail, paint a moving picture of a situation where no one, finally, can win – and where Louis, torn between his dancing career and his father, must make an impossible decision… Unusually for Suzuma, the characters struggle against circumstances, not themselves, and as a result it’s less complex, and perhaps less powerful, than her other books – but then it’s clearly aimed at a younger age-group, and would be enjoyed by readers who aren’t ready, or willing, to tackle the darker issues of, for example, From Where I Stand. Without Looking Back is a sympathetic, realistic portrait of a family forced to self-destruct – but while it has the integrity not to provide easy answers, it ends on a surprising note of hope. Write Away! I have always enjoyed reading books by Tabitha Suzuma, I think her debut novel was released just as I started reviewing books from Random House. Although readers are still awaiting the final part of her first trilogy (come on Random House commission it!) I have enjoyed every one of her books. This story represents a bit of a departure in subject for Tabitha as often she often chooses to write about young people who have mental health issues, depression and similar conditions, this one is different. The family is still touched a little by the stigma of someone finding depression difficult to cope with, but it isn't the core of the story. Louis and his older brother (Max) and younger sister (Millie) live with their mum, with them visiting with their dad at weekends. However one weekend their dad has a surprise, they are going on a holiday. However Louis overhears a phonecall and understands his dad has lost the case to see them every week and their visits with their father will now be court supervised. Their dad whisks them away on holiday from France to the UK and then extends the holiday by a week. It is during this week that Louis finds himself face to face with a picture of himself on a Missing Persons poster! Life seems like it could be better in the UK, but will it be. Louis was meant to be dancing in a big competition, but would he be able to pursue that interest in the UK? Is a life in hiding really worth it, and he misses his Maman. It is these internal conflicts that Tabitha is always so good at expressing. I love the way that she chooses characters that are not the 'norm'. They aren't necessarily straightforward cliches of people, like Louis and his dancing. It is a brave decision to have a young male character be a dancer! Yet it makes the story different, not something that is run-of-the-mill. His conflict between his parents, his dancing and even his feelings for a girl are all carefully laid out for the reader to see. The background characters aren't really background at all, they are made 3 dimensional through clever writing and a genuine feeling of concern. You feel sorry for the father who feels he has to take this action to take care of his kids, but also for the children understanding their dilemma of choosing between mother and father. This is a great emotive read which takes place in a world where things aren't always clear cut, and sometimes we have to make hard decisions for love, as Louis finds out! Rob Allwright, Soteria Magazine Moving Forward There exist novels which after reading in a single sitting, the reader looks up from the solid black print on the final page and the world seems different, as if in the space of time punctuated only by the satisfying sound of a page thumbed over, the entire room has been subtly rearranged. This is not one of those books. Rather, after reading this novel, it’s not only the world which seems different but the reader as well. Without Looking Back is a novel from the perspective of a twelve year old boy, Louis, caught along with his older brother Max and his younger sister Millie in the turbulent wake of the disintegration of their parents’ marriage and subsequent estrangement. In a world where divorce is rapidly becoming a norm, rather than an exception, Tabitha Suzuma as always creates a situation both powerful and pertinent. In comparison with Tabitha Suzuma’s previous novels, it seems that Without Looking Back is aimed at a somewhat younger audience. Louis is realistically portrayed as a boy on the cusp of adolescence. He seems to be a character which readers can easily relate to and understand his thoughts and feelings. Interested in dancing and seemingly possessed of a strong moral backbone, he is both likeable and easy to form an affinity with. His relationships with his siblings capture the dynamics of a family perfectly. Even so however, the way in which Suzuma masterfully crafts her novel means that a reader can easily read the novel to whatever depth they find comfortable and most appealing, regardless of age or maturity. Ultimately however, Tabitha Suzuma captures the essence of what it means to grow up. In contrasting the innocence of the world which Louis lives in with the complicated and comparatively darker landscape of adulthood, the author clearly portrays the progression that the children go through as they leave the idyllic perfection of childhood and enter the inevitability of becoming an adult in a world where everything rarely is as simple as it seems. She introduces her characters to the hurt, the pain but also the pleasure of growing up. However much her novel is centred on conflict; it is very much a novel revolving around love and family, in many ways an emotionally confronting portrayal of love as being a law which supersedes any human efforts to quantify or restrain it. Tabitha Suzuma’s Without Looking Back is a novel that is not only enjoyable and not just interesting. It’s so much more. Describing its contents does scant justice to the sheer emotive power between the covers and the artistic mastery that the author wields – a story which truly draws the reader in and sweeps them along on a journey as poignant as it is resonant. Thomas Khoo