Book Reporting: Mistaken Identity

I just got finished reading Mistaken Identity by the Van Ryns and the Ceraks, the two families involved in this real life drama. I couldn't even get through the first chapter without bursting into tears. You'll need a box of tissue with you as you read. I got it from the library but it was good enough that I bought a copy for a friend for Christmas.

You might have heard the news reports last year. There was a terrible accident with a traveling group of college students and only one survivor. The accident made the news again when the families realized that the surviving girl was not who they had thought.

From the publisher's website:

Meet Laura Van Ryn and Whitney Cerak: one buried under the wrong name, one in a coma and being cared for by the wrong family.

This shocking case of mistaken identity stunned the country and made national news. Would it destroy a family? Shatter their faith? Push two families into bitterness, resentment, and guilt?

Read this unprecedented story of two traumatized families who describe their ordeal and explore the bond sustaining and uniting them as they deal with their bizarre reversal of life lost and life found.

And join Whitney Cerak, the sole surviving student, as she comes to terms with her new identity, forever altered, yet on the brink of new beginnings.

Mistaken Identity weaves a complex tale of honesty, vulnerability, loss, hope, faith, and love in the face of one of the strangest twists of circumstances imaginable.

You can also listen to an exerpt from the audiobook at the publisher's website.