Fourth Quarter Outside Reading Book Review

The Year We Disappeared: A Father-Daughter Memoir by: Cylin Busby and John Busby, Bloomsbury U.S.A. Children’s Books, 2008 Genre: Non-Fiction

The Year We Disappeared is about a Falmouth, Massachusetts cop named John Busby and his family, who live in Falmouth. One night while driving to the police station to begin his shift, he was shot in the face by a person in another car as it drove by. John Busby nearly died from loss of blood, but reached Mass General Hospital in time. The doctors had to wire-shut his mouth because half of his jaw was blown off and feed his through a tube that went into his stomach since he couldn’t chew food. He also had to breathe through a hole in his trachea. He was very lucky to survive the shooting with the amount of damage to his face. However, the shooter wanted him dead, so his family; wife Polly, two sons Eric and Shawn, and his daughter Cylin, are put under 24-hour police protection. This book is about John Busby’s struggle to recover and the family’s struggle to hopefully live a normal life one day.

“The book flows seamlessly back and forth from father's to daughter's perspective, each jump between narrators providing further explanation and insight and pulling readers deeper into the story.” -- VOYA (Teen Reviewer)

The Year We Disappeared is told by both father and daughter, alternating their perspectives with each chapter. This writing style helps the reader to understand what it was like for John Busby personally to go through the pain of the shooting and wanting revenge. In addition, this writing style allows the reader to learn what it was like on the outside from his daughter’s point of view and how the “accident” affected everyone around John as well.

I have not read any other books by Cylin Busby even though she is a non-fiction author. Also, I do not typically read non-fiction books because they usually do not interest me. However, this book really opened my eyes to see that non-fiction books can be as intriguing as fiction. This even makes it more intriguing because I know that these events actually did happen.

John: “If I couldn’t keep pressure on my face, I was definitely going to bleed out. But this was more important. Somehow, I scrawled words “not an accident” on the paper, smearing blood on it as I wrote.”(23)
Cylin: “We could see in the streetlight as a guy got out. He was not in a uniform. Then he reached back in the car and pulled something out. It was a long gun—a rifle.”(34)

At first I was a little unsure about reading a non-fiction book because I typically don’t like them. However, when I saw this book, I knew I should read it because I love CSI and like criminal mysteries. As soon as I read the summary, I wanted to read more. This book was amazing. The two different perspectives really helped me to understand the story better and how the incident affected everyone. I felt like I was in the story, experiencing what the Busby family had to go through. After reading this book, I am truly thankful for all the police officers who risk their lives for others every day.