A review by alifromkc1907
If You Find Me by Emily Murdoch
4.0
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When Carey and her selectively-mute sister, Nessa, are abandonned by their mother, Carey is left to fend for her and her 5 year old sister. But when social services and her father (who abandonned her and her mom) find them filthy, skin-and-bones, and freezing cold, they are taken to live with her father's new wife, Melissa, and step-daughter, Delaney, will Carey and Nessa run back to their home? Or will they break the silence about their life in the woods?
You may like this book if you like the following sub-genres:
Family life
Sexual/Domestic Abuse
Drug/Alcohol Addiction
Goodreads users gave this book a 4.07 I think it was more deserving of a 4.50.
This book was just lacking something - and I'm not entirely sure what that something is, but I was missing the "mmph" to push this into 5-star territory. I loved the premise of this book. Once I started reading, it seemed a bit predictible. However, the ending through me for a bit of a loop, which was a nice change of pace.
This entire story was very real. It's not uncommon for a parent to take off with the children when divorce is the card being dealt. But it's not expected that they will take off just down the road and hide out in a forest - living completely off the grid. And I think that's what makes this story so unforgettable. Only in the craziest of news stories do we hear about children who have been abandonned by their parent for weeks before anyone is able to step in and take control of the situation. And this was simply one of those stories - two abandonned kids in unthinkable conditions. It really makes you root for the kids' well being. It makes you wish for good things, but it makes you nervous when good things come their way.
I wish I could speak more of the ending because it really makes so much of this book so powerful. The climax point of this novel changes the entire mood of the characters; it makes everything more difficult to grasp. (I suppose you'll just have to read it...)
I disliked the sing-songy nature that came in and out. I know this was a musical family, but I dread reading song lyrics in any book. I simply skip them. It's just - meh. But what really drove me nuts was the praying and the hearing phrases from Mama. I hate when authors italicize. I know that sounds kind of ridiculous, but I didn't need all that mumbo-jumbo from Mama. I got enough of her behavior from the beginning of the novel. I didn't need to hear it italicized the entire rest of the book. I also really didn't need the prayers (italicized). One way or the other, I found them kind of out of place. In the entire book, I never once felt like the prayers contributed to the story line. And maybe it's because I thought it was strange that prayer only happened towards the middle and end, even though church and religion was never really a primary function in the story and so it just felt like filler.
But the southern twang... man, this author nailed it. Droping the -ing's off words, and continually using the phrase, "I reckon." I was really impressed that the dialogue that Carey used was maintained (despite her efforts to change her language). Usually book drop off in the middle somewhere, maybe towards the end it'll kick back in - but this was really consistent throughout. I loved this piece.
I thought the final piece of the book that drove this story home was the girls' lack of knowledge of pop-culture and being up to date on things like cell phones and what it's like to be in a car. These are things that when you live off the grid and you're completely isolated from the age of 4 (and in the case of Nessa, since birth), you don't really get to learn things like slang, or what cell phones and tablets are. I thought the author did such a good job of driving this home -- that they had to learn these things and how much they stood out for not knowing. Murdoch had to put herself in the shoes of someone who had never seen our world today. You have to look at everything with completely blank brain-cells and eyes; nothing can be taken for granted. This was something small, but I think had they known what cell phones were; had they known about slang and bedazzled jeans - I think I would've questioned things. This was a driving point.
When Carey and her selectively-mute sister, Nessa, are abandonned by their mother, Carey is left to fend for her and her 5 year old sister. But when social services and her father (who abandonned her and her mom) find them filthy, skin-and-bones, and freezing cold, they are taken to live with her father's new wife, Melissa, and step-daughter, Delaney, will Carey and Nessa run back to their home? Or will they break the silence about their life in the woods?
You may like this book if you like the following sub-genres:
Family life
Sexual/Domestic Abuse
Drug/Alcohol Addiction
Goodreads users gave this book a 4.07 I think it was more deserving of a 4.50.
This book was just lacking something - and I'm not entirely sure what that something is, but I was missing the "mmph" to push this into 5-star territory. I loved the premise of this book. Once I started reading, it seemed a bit predictible. However, the ending through me for a bit of a loop, which was a nice change of pace.
This entire story was very real. It's not uncommon for a parent to take off with the children when divorce is the card being dealt. But it's not expected that they will take off just down the road and hide out in a forest - living completely off the grid. And I think that's what makes this story so unforgettable. Only in the craziest of news stories do we hear about children who have been abandonned by their parent for weeks before anyone is able to step in and take control of the situation. And this was simply one of those stories - two abandonned kids in unthinkable conditions. It really makes you root for the kids' well being. It makes you wish for good things, but it makes you nervous when good things come their way.
I wish I could speak more of the ending because it really makes so much of this book so powerful. The climax point of this novel changes the entire mood of the characters; it makes everything more difficult to grasp. (I suppose you'll just have to read it...)
I disliked the sing-songy nature that came in and out. I know this was a musical family, but I dread reading song lyrics in any book. I simply skip them. It's just - meh. But what really drove me nuts was the praying and the hearing phrases from Mama. I hate when authors italicize. I know that sounds kind of ridiculous, but I didn't need all that mumbo-jumbo from Mama. I got enough of her behavior from the beginning of the novel. I didn't need to hear it italicized the entire rest of the book. I also really didn't need the prayers (italicized). One way or the other, I found them kind of out of place. In the entire book, I never once felt like the prayers contributed to the story line. And maybe it's because I thought it was strange that prayer only happened towards the middle and end, even though church and religion was never really a primary function in the story and so it just felt like filler.
But the southern twang... man, this author nailed it. Droping the -ing's off words, and continually using the phrase, "I reckon." I was really impressed that the dialogue that Carey used was maintained (despite her efforts to change her language). Usually book drop off in the middle somewhere, maybe towards the end it'll kick back in - but this was really consistent throughout. I loved this piece.
I thought the final piece of the book that drove this story home was the girls' lack of knowledge of pop-culture and being up to date on things like cell phones and what it's like to be in a car. These are things that when you live off the grid and you're completely isolated from the age of 4 (and in the case of Nessa, since birth), you don't really get to learn things like slang, or what cell phones and tablets are. I thought the author did such a good job of driving this home -- that they had to learn these things and how much they stood out for not knowing. Murdoch had to put herself in the shoes of someone who had never seen our world today. You have to look at everything with completely blank brain-cells and eyes; nothing can be taken for granted. This was something small, but I think had they known what cell phones were; had they known about slang and bedazzled jeans - I think I would've questioned things. This was a driving point.