IF YOU FIND ME by Emily Murdoch is only 256 pages and you
can read it
in one sitting, but wow oh wow........this is a book that
will stay with you for
a long time after you finish reading it. Carey is fifteen
years old and has
been living in the woods for ten years. Her sister, Jenessa
who is five, has
never known any other way of life. Their mother is a meth
head and leaves
them alone in the camper for weeks at a time. They have no
running water,
electricity, and barely any food. This time their mother
isn't coming
back. She sends a letter to the authorities and tells them
where to find the
girls. One afternoon, a man and a woman come into the
woods, explaining
to Carey that her mother sent them a letter. They tell her
that her mother
kidnapped her because sole custody was awarded to the man,
who turns
out to be Carey's dad.
Once Carey and Janessa are in their new home their lives
change
drastically. At first, Jenessa shovels her food in her
mouth so fast, afraid it
is going to go away, that she gets sick. Carey has
difficulties with her step
sister Delaney. Delaney doesn't like her and wishes her
life could go back
to the way if was before the girls were found. Carey will
do anything to
make sure Jenessa is safe and unharmed. She will always
put the welfare
of her sister above her own. Jenessa and Carey went
through so much in
those woods and you learn just how much through flashbacks
as you are
reading. Carey's father and his wife, Melissa, were the very
thing these two
need. Even the connection between Shorty their dog, and
Jenessa had
filled me with joy, two little broken souls drawn to each
other.
IF YOU FIND ME is a book that grabbed my heart from the very
first page
and never let it go. As I was reading, my heart was pulled
out, stomped on,
over and over again, and then shoved back into my chest.
The things that
Carey and Jenessa go through is truly heart breaking. How
could a mother
do this to her children? I cried a few times with happy
tears. Overall, a
compelling, heartbreaking, and beautifully written first
novel. Emily
Murdoch is an extremely talented writer, and I will be
looking for more of
her books in the future. Don't forget the tissues.
"There are some things you can't leave behind... A
broken-down camper hidden deep in a national forest is the
only home fifteen year-old Carey can remember. The trees
keep guard over her threadbare existence, with the one
bright spot being Carey's younger sister, Jenessa, who
depends on Carey for her very survival. All they have is
each other, as their mentally ill mother comes and goes with
greater frequency. Until that one fateful day their mother
disappears for good, and two strangers arrive. Suddenly, the
girls are taken from the woods and thrust into a bright and
perplexing new world of high school, clothes and boys. Now,
Carey must face the truth of why her mother abducted her ten
years ago, while haunted by a past that won't let her go...
a dark past that hides many a secret, including the reason
Jenessa hasn't spoken a word in over a year. Carey knows she
must keep her sister close, and her secrets even closer, or
risk watching her new life come crashing down. "--
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