Admission

by Travis Thrasher

The author of Gun Lake and The Second Thief is back with a riveting tale of how buried mistakes can resurface at any time. Adventure Company entrepreneur Jake Rivers gets a call from the parents of a woman who has disappeared and was last seen with Alec, Jake's best friend from college. The girl's parents believe she is hiding out with Alec, but Jake hasn't heard from him in ten years. Jake's moved on from his college days, but the memories of what he's tried to forget--a friend's suicide, an enemy's mysterious disappearance--keep resurfacing. Someone wants to keep him from discovering what really happened.

Genres: Christian Fiction, Christian, Fiction, Mystery, Horror, Suspense

304 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2006

About the author

New York Times bestselling author Travis Thrasher has written over 75 books, from fiction in a variety of genres to memoirs and children’s books. He has collaborated with filmmakers, musicians, athletes, comedians and pastors. Travis lives with his wife and three daughters in Grand Rapids, Michigan.

Reviews

[Karen · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is one of the best books I have ever read. Was deep, but Spiritual. Could hardly put it down. I read it for the second time. Christian Fiction is usually fluffy cloud stuff but his books are real without being over the top preachy. I recommend his books.

[Joanne Elston · Rating 2 out of 5]

Not a book I'd recommend. My biggest problem with it was that, like many books anymore, the story switches back and forth (in this case, every short chapter) between the past and the present. In this book that style did nothing to improve the story or build suspense (as I'm supposing the author was trying to do). It would have read better if the book started with the story from the past and then followed with the story of the present. I also felt that in an effort to build suspense the author dragged on repetitively at times, doing nothing for me but frustrating me - you know when you're reading something and you think to yourself, "yea, yea, yea... get on with it." That was me, way too often in this book. The final straw for me was the ending. The main character finds God. Pretty much all of a sudden. Seriously? Given everything, past and present, about this character, finding God at the snap of the fingers, didn't fly.

[Shelby Smego · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book was a really great concept but poor writing kept me from being fully engaged with the story

[Amanda Stevens · Rating 3 out of 5]

Jake Rivers spent his college years as the ultimate partying prankster. He put all that stuff behind him, though, after a spring break when something went wrong--something he can't quite remember. When he's blackmailed into revisiting his past, he'll have to confront old college buddies and old memories he never thought he'd face again. This unique contemporary mystery ping-pongs between 1994 (Jake's senior year) and 2005 (Jake's search) in a slow reveal that kept me interested till the final page.

I picked this up as a fan of Thrasher's Solitary Tales, and it's fascinating to observe the evolution of his style and voice from this book to those. His craft has grown a lot, but his signatures are all present here: a self-aware protagonist, character-driven suspense, natural dialogue.

Another commonality with Solitary (which may not be present in all his work) is the motif of music, but in Admission, it's overdone. This book feels something like American Graffiti for the 1990's--or at least, the alternative 1990's. As a movie, it would work great, because the audience could absorb the music as background. It's less effective, even forced, in a novel, because the reader is constantly reading artist names and song titles (in every scene, pretty much literally). As text, less would have been more.

The mystery kept me curious until almost the end (when I figured out whodunit), but the reveal was anticlimactic for some reason. Still, it felt like reality. "Well, there it is, now we move on." Anyway, the strength of this book is in the characterizations, not the plot. It's a fast read, the cast is large (for a book this length), and nobody gets deep backstory or little endearing quirks. But somehow, in this snapshot presentation of them, they all still feel real. The constant shift between past and present revealed just the right things about them at just the right time.

I cared the most for Alyssa, wanting her to find faith again and rediscover the person she'd been in college. And I really enjoyed the spiritual role reversal for her and Jake--she the devout one in college, now unsure; he the rebel in college, now devout. One of my favorite moments is current-Jake's attempt to explain his faith and how he got here, thinking that he's so bad at this witnessing thing and has no idea what to say. Realistically, the author doesn't give him a later moment of brilliant evangelical dialogue. Jake's just a guy trying to walk in the light now and shed his old, dark self.

3.5 stars for the originality of the presentation and the simple humanity of the characters. I have no doubt I'll return to Travis Thrasher yet again.

[. · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is the first book I have read by Travis Thrasher and I have to say I was impressed. I loved this suspenseful and thrilling story that kept me guessing right up to the end.

In Admission, Thrasher shows us a young man's road to redemption.. We follow Jake Rivers as he takes us through parallel time periods in his life eleven years apart. One period is his senior college year where we experience the partying, bonded friendships, tragedy, questioning of faith, love and romance.. along with one drunken night of missing time, during spring break, where no one seems to know exactly what happened. The parallel story takes place eleven years later, when life changing events lead to Jake being forced to not only look back at those college days, but to also physically go back and confront the people and places that could hold the answers to those missing hours .

Thrasher use of a believable mystery plot and well rounded, likeable characters keep the reader engaged.. while exploring how the choices we make and their lasting effects can change not only how our future plays out, but also who we become as individuals. We are reminded that no matter what mistakes we may make, or the sin of our past, we are not alone and forgiveness is available to us to though the grace of God, we just have to ask for it. We are all born sinners, but only through Christ can we be saved.

I found Travis Thrasher to be a gifted story teller with an exceptional ability to bring his characters to life with ease make them relatable the the reader. I highly recommend this book!

[Barbara · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is an excellent read for high schoolers as well as adults. Jake Rivers, owner of a mountaineering/adventure travel company in Colorado is hired by a man, Mr. Jelem, ostensibly to find his daughter Claire, last seen in the company of one of Jake's college pals, Alec. However, once Jake begins revisiting his college friends, someone tries very hard to stop Jake from finding out what really happened.

The book's narrative flips back and forth from Jake's early 1990s college years (alt-rock bands are name dropped excessively) to 2005, when Jake begins his investigation. There's also a romantic subplot involving reformed party animal Jake and his college sweetheart, Alyssa.

The concept of reformation is nicely handled. The reader sees Jake's drunken antics in college and his turning away from alcohol later. The college, Providence, is a Christian college, yet the behavior of Jake and his friends well illustrates the apostle Paul's point "Bad associations spoil useful habits."

[Jeaneane · Rating 4 out of 5]

I was returning a book to the library when I saw this one, the front cover caught my attention and I read the first page and was hooked. I read it in three sittings. I liked it a lot, deals with college and what a certain group of friends did there. The myth that all the drinking and partying doesn't hurt anybody is explored in a really good story. I am sure I would read another one of his books.

[Dawn · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book was an great read from beginning to end. The suspense from beginning to end was consistent. The transition from past to present was done in a way that the reader can follow easily. I highly recommend this book.

[Janet Roy · Rating 5 out of 5]

Second Travis Thrasher book that I've read. Just put all of the rest of them on my want to read list!

[Christina Hopp · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really enjoyed reading this book. I like Travis's style - specifically, when he wrote in the 1900's vs when he wrote in the 2000's. Sometimes it was first person and sometimes it was third person. I liked the back and forth. I haven't figured out why the author made that choice yet but I appreciated it.

I also really loved Alyssa. She was one of the most complex characters. A lot of the college friends of Jake's had very similar personalities both in flashbacks and in the current time. Bruce was always high, Alec was always stubborn, Franklin was always pretentious, etc. But Alyssa and Jake were different people from college in 1990 compared to ten years later. That is why their scenes always have more complexity and interesting qualities.

This is partly why I gave four stars instead of five. The other characters could have used some more TLC. More detail and complexity instead of always just the "He never changed much since college" mentality. That would've been fine for Bruce - I really liked that aspect with him - but not for every single one of Jake's friends.

You do finally see development with Alec by the end, when he finally fesses up. He does so by using a gun, being violent, etc. His development made him even worse than before. I also liked this touch. The other characters could've used that kind of attention to make the story more interesting and add more depth.

Also, four stars instead of five because finally finding out what happened on spring break was a little anticlimactic. The whole story is about finding out what happened, just to be what happened absolutely predictable. I mean, except for one detail, I assumed it was what happened. And the one detail I missed that is revealed was very minuscule. I thought it was one person who killed Brian, when really it was someone else. I was waiting for some big twist when Jake finally found out what happened.

I really enjoyed Travis's style of writing and I plan on finding more books written by him. Possibly more current books, to see how his style has changed and hopefully to read books where he has progressed when it comes to writing characters. Great book, overall!

[Chelsea Skinner · Rating 4 out of 5]

Admission starts off with a bang, our main character, Jake Rivers wakes up in a car, covered in blood, with no recollection of how he got there.

Thrasher weaves two tales into one by separating each chapter in the past or book present. One story is that of Jake’s college days in 1994. Jake is a senior at a religious college, but his drinking and partying keeps him in trouble, and his friends help him find trouble, even when he isn’t looking. The other story is 11 years later, 2005, with Jake looking for his best friend Alec, who disappeared after the spring break of their senior year.

Jake has been paid to find Claire Jelen, daughter of a very rich, powerful man, who says he knows Jake’s secret, the memories Jake can’t seem to remember at all. The thing is, Claire was last seen with Alec, someone Jake hasn’t seen in 11 years, and isn’t sure he ever wants to again.

Things get even worse when Jake begins to talk with his friends from college and someone seems intent on not letting Jake find out what happened that fateful Spring Break, and will even kill to stop Jake in his tracks.

But all is not hopeless. While tracking down the missing Alec, Jake reconnects with the woman he loved, Alyssa Roberts, and they find out that they have both changed, and that there may be a chance for them after all.

Full review at: Small Town Reviewer

[I Roberts · Rating 5 out of 5]

Attention to detail was sensational.

[Kenzie Criswell · Rating 3 out of 5]

Average

[Rebekah · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a good book for readers who are interested in suspense but don’t know where to start. It was average and a bit of a struggle to push through at points but overall worth reading once.

[Cynthia Bierbrauer]

Do not waste your time on this one. WAY too much back and forth, a lot of conversation between more than one person and it doesn't tell you who is talking. It's very poorly written.

[Daniel Campbell · Rating 4 out of 5]

pages 177 through 240 are missing

[Kathleen (Kat) Smith · Rating 5 out of 5]

When most people are asked to describe college life for typical male young men, you would often bring to mind fraternity parties, college pranks, drinking, partying, drugs and short term relationships, even perhaps poor choices when it comes to studying and attending class. Often time, most people believe that this would be a check list of sorts for your average college student. When Travis Thrasher wrote Admission it was about that kind of experience. Where a group of rag tag men gathered together to have one anothers backs. If you mess with one, you messed with all of them.

You have your teens that went there based on their parents money, so it wasn't a real serious thing for them. They went because it was something to do to pass the time instead of getting real job. For others, it was simply about trying to figure out where they fit into the world, what would come next after college, a half way point between leaving high school and making the jump into real life as a mature adult. One final hurrah before you had to get serious. But what happens when things go too far. When people take life into their hands as a seemingly innocent prank designed to scare and it gets too far out of hand. I guess it shows that even life's best laid plans don't always work out and sometimes you have to grow up and leave all that college stuff behind.

As Jake Rivers attempts to remember what happened during Spring Break in college at Providence, he learns that not everyone is keen to rehash something that might be better off being unsaid and undiscussed. However 11 years later, Jake needs to put those nightmares to rest and with the incentive to help locate the missing daughter of a wealthy man who believes she has left with one of Jake's old college roommates Alec, he spends time piecing together where Alec ran off to and to regain the missing pieces of a dark memory that no one want to talk about.

I received Admission from Travis Thrasher compliments of a self purchase as I have been a huge fan of all Travis Thrasher's novels and wanted to revisit some of his earlier novels. I did not receive any monetary compensation for a favorable review and the opinions contained here are strictly my own personal ones. This one reads like the movie, "I know what you did last summer," in which some terrible deed lays in the past that Jake has no memory of but has flashbacks of bits and pieces he can't make sense of. The novel toggles back between present day 2005 and 1994 where once again the author cloaks the mystery until the final pages of the book. While you know you could easily have wrapped it up sooner, the author conveys there is more that to this story than simply what Jake goes searching for and thus the reason for taking his time getting to what we all want to know. Well done again, Travis and in my mind, another 4.5 out of 5 stars.

[Deb · Rating 4 out of 5]

Jake hoped that what happened in college would stay in the past. But when he is contacted by a man looking for his daughter, Jake is forced to confront what happened during his last semester. You see, the man's daughter was last seen in the company of Jake's former college buddy Alec. Jake hasn't seen Alec in over 10 years, but he agrees to start looking for him. That leads to him reconnecting with his group of college friends, and also to him gradually remembering what happened during that last year of school. It seems that someone doesn't want him to remember though, as it looks more and more like someone is trying to warn him to stay away. [return][return][return][return][return][return][return]Style Characterisics: Pacing, clarity, structure, narrative devices, etc.[return]Shifts from the past to the present from chapter to chapter, as we follow Jake's investigation and also his memories (such as they are) of what happened in college. Jake was a heavy drinker back then, and his memories of what happened--and why people are dead or missing--is not very clear. This build suspense as the reader waits to see the truth about Jake and his college friends revealed. There is also a bit of romance in the book, as Jake reconnects with an old love interest from his college days. She was too much of a "good girl" back then to get serious with him, but now Jake has changed--but so has she. First of all, they have to figure out who is trying to hurt people, and what went horribly wrong during Jake's last spring break. [return][return][return][return][return][return][return]How Good is it?[return]Good suspense, a pageturner. Also touches on some deeper issues in the characters lives, but doesn't go too deep or get too preachy, allowing the flow of the story to carry the message.

[Tom · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book is pretty bad. I got it at a library sale recently, and needed something to take on a long trip with me. It started out awful, but I just kept plugging away at it. It ended being barely intolerable, so I would at least say it got better as it went along. The story is about a dumb college kid who does something stupid and ends up trying to piece it all together a decade later. It's like a really bad episode of Cold Case, even down to the author trying to use musical references to make sure we all know in what era we are. It is annoying, and there is nothing really redeeming about this book.

[Amy Binkerd · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really liked this book! I was given one of his books at a Ted Dekker gathering as part of a give away ("Isolation"). So I grabbed this one when I came across it at a bookstore. My only complaint is that after I finished page 176 things just made NO sense all the sudden. I looked down and it had jumped from page 176 to 241. In that 65 pages someone got shot and someone else was killed! Luckily I was able to piece it together by what came after 241. I may have to try to exchange the book at the store though so I can at least read the "missing link"! I really like Travis' writing.

[Terri Schmidt · Rating 4 out of 5]

Thrasher was a new author to me. I really enjoyed his style of writing, and how he weaves the Christian life into the story. As he says, he is not a "Christian author", he's an author who happens to be a Christian. I just finished another of his novels "Isolation", dealing with the supernatural and the spiritual battles being waged all around us on a daily basis. I finished it at 2AM, so that should give you an idea of how riveting I found it to be. :-)

[Margaret Chind · Rating 4 out of 5]

Even though the plot in this book is extreme... I can completely seeing it happening with my friends from the small college I went to. I think that this is a definite read for all those kids who just want to party and don't realize what can happen. If only they could learn from other peoples mistakes before making their own. I definitely recommend this book to any college kid.

[Caley Ann (Katie) · Rating 4 out of 5]

I picked this one up at the library on a whim as I browsed the "to be shelved" cart, and I'm glad I did. While perhaps not surprising in the outcome (I will interject here that this is no Secret History), I was still very engaged by the characters and the action. At the very least, I am inspired to check out the author's other novels.

[Cdomin2 · Rating 3 out of 5]

I like how the book flipped from the past and the present. It kept me guessing about what happened during spring break. The crazy college pranks were interesting to read about. But I didn't particularally like the ending, it didn't provide enough closure. And it wasn't really a happy ending, and I like those since it makes you feel good when you're done with the book.

[MIllynne Brown · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very gripping tale ... loved the back and forth of past events and current and the surprises along the way. I had never heard of this author but found this at a $5 book deal at a local store... will try and find other books by him after this.

[SETATRETA · Rating 3 out of 5]

I read this because I had to, literally. My last year English teacher made us read a book for a month and I chose this one because I thought it was the least boring, but turns out it’s pretty nice. I mean, is not THE book of the year or at least for me it isn’t, but it was enjoyable.

[Alison · Rating 3 out of 5]

I couldn't put this book down...however was disappointed with the ending.

[Cathleen · Rating 1 out of 5]

Each chapter flips back and forth between two times, and not particularly well.

[Jimmy · Rating 4 out of 5]

I thought this was pretty good.....the story yo-yo's back and forward...and keeps you on edge to find out what happened with the group of friends....

[Nathan · Rating 3 out of 5]

A somewhat weak premise but an interesting story of exploration in relationships, trust, friendship and closure.