20. If You Find Me - Emily Murdoch

2013, St. Martin's Griffin

248 pgs.

Written for young adults

Finished 5/29/2013

CRF

Goodreads Rating: 4.09

My Rating:

4.5 Really loved it

TPPL

Setting:  Contemporary Tennessee, deep in the woods of the Obed River National Forest and in a small Tennessee town

1^st sentence/s: "Mama says no matter how poor folks are, whether you're a have, a have-not, or break your mama's back on the cracks in between, the world gives away the best stuff on the cheap.  Like, the way the white-hot mornin' light dances in diamonds across the surface of our creek."

A quote I'd like to notate and remember:  "Then I hold on to the edge of the counter for support and cry until I'm all cried out.  I reckon a good cry has been a long time in the making, and I cry until I'm empty, but a goo empty, like the speckled shells left behind by flapping quail babies." (p. 149)

My comments: This is the first novel that I've read in one gulp in a long time. The first person narration was superb, I haven't been able to get inside a protagonist's head like this in awhile. The story was heart-breaking, totally believable, simple-yet-deep. Couldn't put it down, even though I knew exactly where it was going. It didn't matter, it was the WAY the story was told. AND, this was Ms. Murdoch's first (published) book. Super cudos!

Goodreads Review:  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