The Year We Disappeared By John Busby

In the book The Year We Disappeared by Cylin Busby and John Busby, the authors walk the reader through their story of the year that changed their lives. On August 31st, 1979, a police officer- John Busby was shot in the face while driving to his midnight shift. He was rushed to a hospital in Boston where he managed to survive, but the bottom half of his face was completely destroyed in the shooting. His daughter, Cylin Busby was nine years old at the time. Their family's lives were changed forever that night. This book was uniquely told through two perspectives, John and Cylin’s. The reader is able to understand not just the point of view of John and his trauma, but also Cylin’s position on how this incident affected the family.

At the beginning

They hadn’t seen each other in a long time due to his back-to-back surgeries and long periods of unconsciousness. First we were able to read Cylin’s perspective of how the kids felt during this visit. Cylin narrates, “‘That's not my dad’, I heard myself say quietly, before I could stop it from coming out of my mouth. Then Shawn turned and darted from the room before Uncle Joe could grab him” (page 100). Cylin’s viewpoint helps the reader recognize how scary and confusing this situation was for the kids. They had to see their dad completely taken over by machines, missing half his face, no longer looking like himself. They had no idea how to act. After this, we learn John’s side of the interaction. John explains, “The kids came for a visit and were terrified of me. Eric was stone-faced the whole ten minutes, Cee cried, Shawn couldn’t even stay in the room and instead ran up and down the hall until Joe grabbed him” (page 106). John’s viewpoint shows the reader how he knows his kids are scared of him and he understands why. It is very interesting for the reader to hear both views of a specific situation. It assists the audience to understand the situation much further and understand why everyone is acting the way they