Joan’s boyfriend and her brother are missing and assumed dead. Until the voice on the other end of the phone hints at something more terrible.

They Never Came Home

Joan loves Dan and misses him and knew as soon as she met him that all she wanted to do was to marry him and have his babies; preachy paragraphs about how bad marijuana is (that tired old argument of marijuana being a “gateway” drug, even though that term isn’t used); and the underlying theme that women are hysterical, emotional, weak, fearful and need male guidance. Blech. I think this book is aimed at the teenage reader, what we now call YA. But YA readers deserve well-written books just as much as adults.  They Never Came Home  is not good reading now and I seriously doubt it was in 1969.

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