The Long Way Home

Homelanders #2

by Andrew Klavan

Sometimes you have to go home to find out who you really are.

Charlie West went to bed one night an ordinary high-school student. He woke up a hunted man. Terrorists are trying to kill him. The police want to arrest him for the stabbing death of his best friend. He doesn't know whose side he's on or who he can trust. With his pursuers closing in on every side, Charlie makes his way back to his hometown to find some answers. There, holed up in an abandoned mansion, he's joined by his friends in a desperate attempt to discover the truth about a murder he can't remember--and the love he can never forget.

Genres: Young Adult, Mystery, Fiction, Thriller, Adventure, Christian, Action

345 pages, Hardcover

First published December 1, 2009

About the author

Reference for now:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andrew_K...

Reviews

[Jerry (Rebel With a Massive Media Library) · Rating 5 out of 5]

The action and suspense continues in this second volume...where things get even crazier! Can't wait to read the next one!

[mary liz · Rating 4 out of 5]

Well, that was fun!

Ironically enough, I read this book on the long way home from our road trip. *chuckles* I swear I didn't plan that at all!

It was fun, and I enjoyed the characters (mostly Charlie's friends) more in the sequel. Still not an instant favorite, but it left me on a cliffhanger and now I DESPERATELY NEED BOOK THREE. Gahhh. It was the first time in a while that I read an entire book in a day. So I guess that means something. ;)

3.5 stars!

[Micaiah Keough · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was somewhat delightful and most definitely suspenseful and intriguing. Way better than book one! It blew my low-expectations away! 😉 I'm so reading the last two books now...

[AziaMinor · Rating 2 out of 5]

Overall Rating : C

"People get angry at you when you disagree with them-especially when they're wrong-and nobody likes to be unpopular or have people angry at them. Sometimes it takes a lot of courage to use your reasoning and your heart to stand up for what's true."

Charlie's on the way back home trying to find out what exactly happened the night his friend Alex was murdered and get the people responsible for blaming him, all along with no memory to help guide him. Some new information comes to light that makes things clearer-and all that much confusing.

Just as cheesy and cliche as the first book, and very little action. But the action that did happen was alright.

I'm also trying to view this like the intended target audience so I don't totally bash it, but the MC should definitely be younger with his niave views and a very high morality complex. And like I said, many cliche sentences that make your eyes roll. I'd stop reading it but it's part of my T.B.R for the year on old re-reads so I'm powering through to the end.

On to book three!

[Jesseca Wheaton · Rating 5 out of 5]

I'm so enjoying re-reading these. <3

[Angela R. Watts · Rating 4 out of 5]

Wooo. Man, I'm enjoying Klavan's works so far. This book was a fun ride. Plus, it was amusing to see the karate stuff.

[Kelly Hager · Rating 2 out of 5]

This is the sequel to The Last Thing I Remember. And like The Last Thing I Remember, I spent the first two-thirds completely annoyed by the character and the last third unable to put the book down. (Book 3 is out in November; odds are good I will end up buying it.)

Charlie is still on the run from various agencies, both good (police) and bad (scary terrorist cell). He's starting to piece together exactly what's happened and why he came to in a scary room with bloodstained tools. He's also got a little bit of a support system in this one.

I think my big problem is that Charlie is kind of obnoxious. He really dislikes his history teacher (not hates, because Charlie is Good and does not hate) because the history teacher is all, "America's not perfect; it's greedy and racist and violent" and Charlie is basically like, "The hell you say!"

And here's the thing. I love my country, but we aren't perfect. We ARE a greedy, violent, racist society. And while it's all well and good to cling to moral absolutes--however unrealistic that is--it's a little odd to be doing that while breaking your own rules.

(Also, Klavan broke up the action at least once per book to remind us that the police officers chasing Charlie are the good guys and that they are deliberately trying not to hurt or kill him because they're so good. And really, if there's a suspected murderer/terrorist on the loose, I don't care how good the cop is, they will shoot you and they will hit you. They may not kill you, but they're certainly not going to keep letting you escape.)

But this is intended for young adults--and Christian young adults at that--so maybe that's why the moralizing is so heavyhanded. And it's highly possible teens will love this way more than I did. (And like I said, I spent the last third unable to turn the pages quickly enough, so clearly he's doing something right.)

[Henry · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent second novel in Klavan's Homelander series. As a father and grandfather it is astounding to me how Klavan, a mature adult, can realistically capture the dialog of 17 to 18 year old boys.

[Josiah · Rating 3 out of 5]

Andrew Klavan doesn't waste a second before propelling us back into the tense storyline of the Homelanders series. On the run from the police as an escaped murderer, and from a terrorist group that considers him a turncoat—neither offense of which eighteen-year-old Charlie West has any memory—Charlie has stayed ahead of his pursuers until page one of The Long Way Home. It's in a public library bathroom that the assassin attacks, a mercenary whose deadly skill neutralizes Charlie's karate training. He's in danger of his quest for the truth ending with a slash of the man's knife across his throat, but Charlie gets away and darts into the main library, only to find that the Homelanders haven't left the hit job to just one guy. Charlie is surrounded by professionals whose objective is to wipe him out before he inflicts further catastrophe on their organization, and there seems to be no chance of escape without putting library patrons and employees in harm's way. How does Charlie squirm out of this one?

It's a heart-pounding start to this second novel in the series, considerably more so than the opening of The Last Thing I Remember. Charlie is up against radicals who care nothing about innocent casualties as long as the Homelanders agenda is served. The hubbub at the library alerts the authorities as to where Charlie was and indicates he's headed for his old hometown: Spring Hill, where he attended school like any kid, and studied karate under Sensei Mike. Charlie felt safe and relatively happy there, and was getting close to the girl he likes, Beth Summers, before his world imploded in what felt to him like a single night. Charlie has zero recollection of his friend Alex Hauser's murder, of being arrested and convicted after DNA evidence linked him to the crime, of becoming involved with the Homelanders and breaking out of prison. He feels sure he wouldn't murder anyone, but if he didn't, why are the police convinced he did? He wouldn't have turned his back on America and allied with terrorists either, but the Homelanders sure believe he was one of them. Even though police expect Charlie to show up in Spring Hill, that's where he goes. The only way to prove his innocence—if he is, in fact, not guilty—is to go home again.

"How do you know if you're the good guy or the bad guy?"

—The Long Way Home, P. 84

Those in Spring Hill who didn't know Charlie are familiar with what he looks like from news coverage of his trial and escape, so walking around town won't be easy for him. He sets up base in an abandoned mansion he and his friends camped inside once for a school report to prove it wasn't haunted, and the decision pays off. Now Charlie has a small support team, and assistance is essential when your opponents are the United States government and a well-funded terrorist network. Charlie has learned the facts of his trial and Beth fills him in on the more personal details via undercover communication, but that's not enough if Charlie is to unearth the truth the authorities never found. The two seedy-looking guys Charlie saw Alex with minutes before his death—what do they know about that night? Could Alex have been connected with the Homelanders and their anti-American program? Charlie's secret supporters are ready to hit the streets and question some unsavories who may know more than they admit, but there's a limit to what they can glean without arousing suspicion. Charlie won't put his friends in the crosshairs of the Homelanders, so he assumes most of the fact-finding risk himself. Any slip-up could bring the police or Homelanders to his doorstep, but Charlie is fighting for freedom, and his only chance is to probe the secret lives of his acquaintances and enemies, either of which may turn on Charlie if he pokes too deep. He needs to know who's on his side and who might be a traitor, but messing with the wrong people could trigger violent reaction. Charlie accepts that, but the problem comes when dangerous men target someone he cares about much more than himself...

The action in The Long Way Home is a step up from The Last Thing I Remember, exhilarating and emotional at the same time. The most intense sequence is at Sensei Mike's karate studio, where Charlie receives key information as well as affirmation that he is the good person he's believed himself to be all along, that murder and terrorism aren't in his nature. The scene at the karate studio is supercharged, as high stakes as anything in the series so far, a turning point that convinced me The Long Way Home is an excellent book. There's an action segment near the end that's almost as mesmerizing, where Charlie again demonstrates the person he really is in spite of what the justice system concluded a year ago. These high-leverage moments are the heart of this novel, but there's even more to Andrew Klavan's storytelling. For instance, Charlie's opinion on the lesson of the Salem Witch Trials, which he studied in Mr. Sherman's class in school. The lesson is particularly germane now. "It was a reminder that you should never let yourself get swept away by the crowd. Sometimes everyone you know can be saying something or believing something and it can just be dead wrong. All around you there might be people getting all excited or panicked and yelling for you to do the wrong thing or believe the wrong thing. They can make it very hard for you to refuse them or even just disagree with them out loud. People get angry at you when you disagree with them—especially when they're wrong—and nobody likes to be unpopular or have people angry at them. Sometimes it takes a lot of courage to use your reason and your heart and stand up for what's true—and I guess not enough people did that during the Salem Witch Trials." You can't let groupthink erase your individual ability to assess virtue and vice, or you contribute to the problem of tyranny by the majority. Let the mob mentality have its way long enough and freedom is threatened, innocent people hurt or killed, the opposite of what the persecutors usually claim they want. Standing against the tidal wave of popular consensus can be a sign of true character, and that's what is needed when evil declares itself good and pressures individuals to conform to it. Good people will take damage and even be lost in the fight, but it's the only way to defeat totalitarian ideology. Uncertain of his own innocence as Charlie is at times, he realizes what's required to battle a heinous foe.

We see in this book why Charlie loves Beth. He doesn't remember their romance before his conviction for Alex's murder, but the feelings return as Charlie spends time with her again. Beth is pretty, though not splendidly so; her personality draws Charlie to her. "But somehow, after you talked to her for a while, after you got to know her, she started to look really awesome. I thought so anyway. After you found out how warm she was, how kind, how interested she was in what other people had to say. It changed the way she looked...I don't really know how to describe it." When you love someone, you no longer see their physical features, you see them, and the sight is sweet to weary eyes. Charlie has his own way of explaining how he feels to Beth. "It's like we're two different computers downloading our programs into each other...It's like we're becoming a two-machine network running the same software." That's what happens when you get to know someone on the deepest level. You communicate in a hundred dimensions at once, ideas and feelings and questions. You learn each other's inner language, the code of reasoning you use in your personal thoughts. Your synergy approaches the miraculous. Charlie and Beth have that connection, and it's why their relationship resonates with readers who know the joy of falling in love. Would Charlie not sacrifice anything for Beth?

Ever since his life fell apart, Charlie appreciates the little comforts that sometimes used to annoy him. Parents and teachers politely inquiring how he slept last night or if he liked school was just a banal ritual until the world ceased to care. "But when it stops, when nobody asks—when nobody cares how your day was or how you slept or how it's going for you—then you miss it, I can tell you. You miss it a lot." Affection feels like a hassle until you realize it's not the norm, and then you'd do almost anything to feel it return. It's not easy to stay a well-adjusted kid when you become an object of loathing. Beth is as distressed as Charlie at his treatment by people who would destroy his future without remorse. "Why does it have to be you, Charlie? Why do you have to leave me again? Why do you have to fight? Why do you have to be hunted and hated and shot at and hurt? Why can't it be someone else?" Crisis doesn't always choose people who deserve it. Sometimes you're living a normal life and suddenly you're immersed in a nightmare from which there's no awakening. You must fight to regain what you had, and probably be bloodied in the process. There's no telling what you'll lose in the struggle, but resisting the bad guys is your only hope. If you persevere, you may prove you were the good guy all along.

The writing in The Long Way Home isn't the prettiest, but that's swallowed up in the electricity of Andrew Klavan's storytelling. He knows how to craft compelling narrative, a point of emphasis on his podcasts for The Daily Wire. Effective promotion of values requires potent narrative, and The Long Way Home is an excellent example. I can hardly wait to crack the spine on the sequel, The Truth of the Matter, and learn the rest of the revelations behind Charlie's clash with the Homelanders. A year is missing from his memory; what all has he forgotten, and what caused those months to disappear from his mind? There's a good chance I'd give The Long Way Home the full three stars. If you want a read with twists and turns, The Homelanders might be your series. I'm enjoying it.

[Mikayla · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great continuation of the story. I am so glad we're finally figuring some stuff out. I loved the fact that the author gave me enough information that sometimes I figured things out just before Charlie did. A lot of suspense novels don't want you to figure it out, so it just feels to out of the blue. His friends were great. Also, I really want to read the next two books soon.

[Lydia · Rating 4 out of 5]

It is possible for a book to make you stop breathing. This one did. The way he writes makes you feel like you're there in the tense moments.

[Thomas · Rating 3 out of 5]

The Long Way Home is the second installment in the Homelanders series by Andrew Klavan. In this action-packed sequel, Charlie West struggles to overcome the numerous obstacles in his path - his amnesia, his difficulty proving himself innocent in the face of a terrible crime, and the chagrin he suffers from pulling his former friends into the mess with him.

A lot of thought went into my rating for this book, and in the end three stars prevailed. There were things I really liked about The Long Way Home, and there were things I really hated. One of the things I enjoyed about the novel was that Klavan really knows how to write a good fight scene. Once an action sequence started, I found myself not able to put the book down. Also, Klavan has a great organized structure in this series - the plot flows just right, and I never found myself tremendously bored or aghast in action.

There were glaring inadequacies in the book too. The most consistently annoying one was how Klavan almost preached the whole government and politics idea through Charlie. That being said, Charlie in general had problems. His character was just too perfect - I don't understand how anyone could think that a seventeen-year-old male could think and act that patriotic and goody goody two-shoes. His friends were flawed too, because I couldn't comprehend that they would selflessly support Charlie without any regard to their own safety. A good message to younger kids, but I doubt the older audience will believe it.

And finally, the romance between Charlie and Beth. Er, or if you want to deem their relationship a romance. To put it mildly, it was sickeningly sweet. Beth's unwavering devotion to Charlie was cliche, and at times, irritating. The dialogue between the two was stilted and awkward. It sounded like something that would come out of a child's fairytale, not a young adult realistic fiction novel.

However, I digress. Most of my qualms won't even be noticed by the book's intended audience: young, tween males. In that case, Klavan has put together a solid story that serves as a quick read.

[Dexter · Rating 2 out of 5]

First let me say that the writing just isn't very good. There are so many short sentences over and over again. He really needs to mix it up, make it less monotonous. The characters themselves aren't super realistic and all just kind of fall into their stereotype, while Charlie and Beth conveniently find one true love without having to actually work for it.

And then there's like, the actual plot.

Now, even allowing that this was written several years ago, Charlie's constant extreme patriotism is painful. When confronted with the bad parts of America's history (which aren't even named), he responds with listing the good things such as the Declaration of Independence and freedom and bringing freedom to other people or something. And then there are the terrorists who, of course, are Islamic.

You don't have to ignore the bad parts of history to love your country. If you ignore them, then you're just stupid and annoying. Every time he would start a monologue about America I would feel a little sick to my stomach.

[Hannah Rodriguez · Rating 4 out of 5]

These are great books
Four stars cause the genre is not my absolute favorite *shrugs*
But I do like the whole storyline and agh the suspense. It has many twists. But I did see the whole who the killer actually was coming wahahahahaha

[Abigail Harris · Rating 4 out of 5]

A lot better than the first but still not as good as I was hoping.

[Melanie · Rating 4 out of 5]

4.5 stars

"The Long Way Home" was a great read! At first I only liked the story, but towards the end I loved it!

I found it really interesting to see where Charlie's story went and who was responsible for the murder. The ending was great and leaves me anticipating the next book!

If you enjoy YA action books, you should check "The Long Way Home" out, but you might want to read the first book in this series, The Last Thing I Remember, first.

*I borrowed this book from the library. I was not required to write a review. All thoughts and opinions expressed are my own*

[Hannah K · Rating 4 out of 5]

Awesome! Definitely better than the first. SUSPENSE! I should not be reading this alone in my bedroom by flashlight at night.

[Scott Marks · Rating 1 out of 5]

Terrible writing, clunky and childish. Plus the writer is a misogynist, anti-feminist and it comes across quite strongly in how he writes about women.
Red flags guys, avoid this novelists books.

[McKenzie · Rating 3 out of 5]

The second book in this series is, unfortunately, looooong. Too long, in fact. I knew it when I first read it six years ago and I knew it when I reread it this week. I flew through the pages and the story but it could have easily been condensed and fit into the first or third book, saving everyone a lot of time.

The plot itself is fast-paced and fun but when you've come to the end of the book and look back, you realize not a lot has actually happened. The main character, Charlie West, is either traveling or hiding or running the entire time. The only real action happens in the middle of the book and the end. The rest is just inner musings on Charlie's part and flashbacks to happier times before he woke up in a torture chamber a few weeks ago. Which was interesting, for the most part. But several portions could have either been cut or shortened and the story would have still made perfect sense. I'll still be continuing my reread, however. I need to find out what happens to one of my favorite childhood characters, as I've mostly forgotten.

[Lauren · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book was a lot better than the first in my opinion because it answered more questions and I feel like we got further along in the plot than the first book.
Still packed with action and adrenaline, Charlie discovers who killed Alex and what his next step is.

[Muluken · Rating 4 out of 5]

Name: Muluken Rucks

Book title: The Long Way Home

Personal Response

I loved this book. It was one of those books where you don’t want to stop turning the pages. The author leaves some very interesting cliffhangers and I can’t wait for the next book.

Summary

In this book, Charlie takes on a new adventure. It is quite the adventure because the police and the Homelanders are still after him. He is nearly captured many times and some would be surprised that he is still alive. Charlie takes a variety of risks in order to keep himself living. However, he is emotionally beat. He misses his family and friends and feels lonelier than ever before. After some luck and helpful friends, Charlie is able to keep on moving in hopes of proving himself innocent.

Recommendations

I recommend this book to anyone that likes an unsolved mystery. It is quite intriguing and very action packed. It also introduces some romantic drama that is kind of lame but is a part of the book. So yes, it is a good read and you should read it.

[Becky · Rating 4 out of 5]

Tons of action mixed with retrospection for this suspenseful episode of Charlie West’s race for the truth. Parts of it were darker than I’d expected but, as in life, sometimes truth has it’s burdens and consequences.

[Dani · Rating 4 out of 5]

4/5 stars. Loved the book! The plot was amazing and I did not expect what was going to happen. I think that it gives a summary of everything that happened in the first book, and that became boring since I already read the first book. Either way, it was an amazing book. 100% recommend.

[Calvin Edwards · Rating 4 out of 5]

The second half of this was sooo exciting! Two down, two more to go!

[Jeremiah · Rating 4 out of 5]

It was good. It wasn't as excited as the first one, but it was still good and exciting. And I'm going to read the next one. 😁

[Jennifer Mugrage · Rating 5 out of 5]

Still good.

The scene that got the most laughs from my kids, was the one where the nerd Josh has to fight a bunch of bullies with the black belt, Charlie, giving him instructions in his ear piece.

[Reader · Rating 3 out of 5]

Klavan is painstakingly detailed.

[Judah Vallance · Rating 5 out of 5]

This series is absolutely amazing!!! Each book is definitely a page turner! HIGHLY RECOMMEND for teens and adults!!

[Jacque · Rating 4 out of 5]

Charlie is finally starting to get some answers and they are shocking! I can’t wait to read the next book!

[Tarynn]

i love its very adventures