Janie Johnson lives an average life. If you asked her, she’d say it was boring. She wishes she could have a fascinating life with a name to match it. ‘Janie Johnson’ is just too plain. That is, until she sees her own face looking back at her on her friend’s milk carton at school.

I remember loving this book when I was younger. I’ve kept it on my bookshelf all these years and it was interesting to go back and read it. There were some moments I remembered exactly as they happened, and other things I completely forgot. It felt like there was quite a bit of talk about sex for this being a young adult book. I don’t remember how old I was when I first read it but I don’t remember any of that. The only spicy thing I remembered was the leaf pile kiss! And that was just the beginning of the spice! Reading it now, I feel like I wouldn’t want to let a younger person read it… Janie and Reeve talk casually about having sex and they even go to a motel room at one point but nothing happens because Janie is too distracted about being kidnapped to focus on sex. They talk about sex like it’s perfectly normal behavior for 15-year olds. Since finishing it, I’ve learned that this book is #29 on ALA’s most banned and challenged books from 2000-2009. And I’m not surprised. That being said, I did like the mystery and the overall idea of the plot, but Janie’s inner monologue drove me crazy and the story felt incredibly slow. This book was 184 pages and we covered about 3 months during this story. It felt like it took me 3 months to read this book. I would like to know what happens to Janie but I’m not in a hurry to read the next one.