By Julie Sara Porter
Bookworm Reviews
Spoilers: Sherlock Holmes said it best, “Whenever you eliminate the improbable then all that remains no matter how impossible must be the truth.” Such is the case in Losing Austin. Michael J. Bowler’s novel about a missing child t is affecting, poignant, riveting, and ultimately otherworldly and transcendent.
Colton's nonverbal Autistic older brother Austin goes missing after Colton insults him. Colton and their parents go through an agonizing search. When they find no evidence that Austin either wandered off, got lost, or had been kidnapped, Colton looks for other possibilities. He remembers a brighter than usual rainbow and a strange unusual presence in the woods at the time and suspects that his brother was abducted by aliens. Other witnesses with similar stories corroborate this theory, a theory that looks more realistic when Austin reappears five years later completely unaged.
Losing Austin is a novel that veers between Crime Thriller and Science Fiction. Bowler produces a novel that is a mixture of the two subgenres and styles.
The book reveals the anguish when a child goes missing. Colton and his parents’ bond bends and threatens to break from the strain and there are hints that this fracture is permanent even after Austin returns. Colton and Austin’s father is so busy trying to be the stoic rock for the family that instead he becomes remote to them. Their depressed mother basically withdraws from everyone else and lives in her own private world of grief and despair. She barely acknowledges Colton’s presence except with occasional disdain and hovers in and out of life without any real involvement.
As for Colton, his emotions go from determination, to rage, to guilt. He searches the woods every day long after rescue teams have stopped looking for Austin. Once he admits his theory about alien abduction, he connects with people on social media who have similar experiences. He feels helpless that he couldn’t control what happened to Austin and despite his efforts can’t find him. To respond to that, he takes action so at least he can say that he did everything that he could.
With that helplessness comes rage and fury. He gets into fights with bullying classmates that make fun of Austin or spread rumors about him. While some want to help Colton, particularly a former bully turned friend, others use the opportunity to isolate him even further. Since Colton and his family have become public figures because of this tragedy, he is constantly aware that he is being watched and monitored by everyone else at school. The scrutiny is so intense that he is temporarily home schooled. This contributes to his loneliness and insecurity.
Above all, Colton feels tense guilty and remorse. He obsessively goes over Austin’s last day especially the harsh words that he said knowing that Austin would never retaliate. He acted on impulse, spoke without thinking, and was immediately remorseful afterwards. But what was said was said and it seared into him for a long time.
Colton reveals his pain and inner torment in an interview with Anderson Cooper (in one of the book’s lighter moments, Colton refers to Cooper as “CNN Dude,” a nickname that the news anchor graciously accepts). Colton bares all partly out of confession but also so people who are going through such grief, pain, and inner frustration can learn from his story.
The realistic situation that the family goes through weaves with the fantastic theories espoused by Colton and his new friends. One of Colton’s friends shares a similar story of a missing brother and believes that “the rain took him.”
After rational outcomes produce no results, it makes sense to look for the unusual. At first that seems to be what is at play here. The Reader doubts Colton’s narration but can’t deny that there are some strange things but it’s all understated. The nature around him like the bright rainbow, the rain occurring during disappearances, or the mysterious presence watching him are eerie but not unusual. The other witnesses could be just as confused or worse appealing to a grief stricken boy's anxieties. They could be straws that Colton is trying to grasp to find answers, calm his rage, and assuage his guilt.
However, when Austin returns unaged, the impossibility becomes almost confirmed. It puts the book into a different place than what was presented before where anything reasonable and logical turns into anything supernatural or otherworldly.
The final chapters open up another solution that wasn’t addressed before. It becomes jarring but it also transcends reality and expands the book’s insights about other worlds into a new direction. The ending is also explained in a way that makes sense despite the abruptness. It makes one curious if Bowler is planning on exploring this scenario in future installments.
Losing Austin captures the emotions of a Thriller, the themes of a Science Fiction, and the passage of a Coming of Age novel. It is a book that is worth finding.
