While there are some creepy parts (and some gruesome ones), those aren't the reasons I'm warning you. It's quite simple, actually: if you start reading this book, there's no way you're going to want to put it down. You're going to want to stay up until you finish the book, and then once you're done, you'll probably have a little excess adrenaline that will keep you awake longer.
Trust me, I was severely overtired this morning, so I speak from experience!
College student Darby Thorne has just gotten word that her mother is dying and is about to undergo potentially dangerous surgery. Although their relationship has never been good (her mother said that when she was pregnant with Darby she thought she had the flu, so she almost killed her with Theraflu), Darby cannot miss the chance to apologize and make amends in case time is short.
To get home, she has to drive from Boulder, across the state of Colorado, and into Utah. But Mother Nature has other plans, as a massive snowstorm and her old car don't feel like facilitating her trip. Before she knows it, she's stuck in the middle of a blizzard in the Colorado mountains, with only a highway rest stop for shelter. She can't get a cell phone signal to see how her mother is or let anyone know she's delayed, and she left her phone charger in her dorm room.
"Here Darby was, the underachieving secondborn, trapped at a lonely rest stop just below the summit of Backbone Pass, because she'd tried to race Snowmageddon over the Rockies and failed. Miles above sea leavel, snowed in inside a '94 Honda Civic with busted windshield wipers, a dying phone, and a cryptic text message simmering in her mind."
There's not much to the rest stop—some coffee and hot cocoa, a few vending machines, and four strangers. Sandi and Eddie are cousins heading to Denver for Christmas; Ashley is gregarious, handsome, and perhaps trying a little too hard to be sociable and funny; and then there's Lars, a rodent-faced mouth-breather who gives Darby the creeps. It's quite a motley crew to pass the time with, especially when there's no real entertainment save endless card games.
When Darby goes outside to the parking lot to try and find a cell signal, she makes a frightening discovery: she finds a little girl being held captive in a cage inside the van parked next to her. The van door is locked, and she certainly can't make too much of a fuss, because she has nowhere to escape to. Whose van is it? Whom can she trust?
"What were the odds of stumbling across a kidnapping in progress? While trapped overnight in a snowy rest stop? It was all too fantastical to be a part of Darby's life."
Darby must not only think of herself, but of the little girl. With two lives on the line and no way to contact anyone to help her, the ball is in her court. But there's more to her fellow travelers than meets the eye, and navigating her way through this may take more strength and courage than she has.
No Exit takes off with the first few paces and never lets up until the very end. Adams ratchets up the suspense and the tension page by nerve-wracking page, and the atmosphere was so evocative that I actually felt colder than normal while reading this book. Darby is a terrific character—complex, flawed, impulsive, and yet determined to fight the odds and save the little girl's life.
I really enjoyed this book. It was full of twists I saw coming and I few I didn't quite expect. Some of the twists, though, made me roll my eyes a little, but that's when the book felt a bit like a summer blockbuster, where you don't question how long the battle will continue until resolution is achieved, because nothing ever goes smoothly.
I had heard a lot of buzz about No Exit so I was really eager to read it, and Adams definitely didn't disappoint. The book probably should come with a trial-sized supply of tranquilizers, though, to calm you down once you've finished!
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