Sunday 5 April 2015

If You Find Me Review







Spoiler free

This review is on Emily Murdoch's debut novel "If you find me". This novel was a little different from what I usually pick and I hadn't heard a lot about it either. The book dare I say was a bit of "lets buy this for the sake of it" and I tend to do this a lot just because I like t0 buy books. I haven't seen many people posting on instagram about it and so I'm sure many people won't have heard about this book before. 

"A beautiful book about survival, identity, family, love and so much more."

JENNY DOWNHAM, author of Before I Die.

The books itself was quite a quick read for me but I think that's because I so engrossed in it. The main character Carey lives in the woods in a broken-down camper hidden deep in the forest with her six year old sister, Jenessa and her drug-addicted mother. Her mum tends to disappear for months on end leaving Carey and Jenessa to look after themselves, what comes with this is the close relationship between the sisters. Carey becomes very much like a mother figure to Jenessa - who unfortunately doesn't actually talk. Two strangers turn up at the camper and one turns out to be her father. Carey has to now learn how to adapt to a very different world, one she spent so long away from. 

The other characters are Mrs Haskell (I would say she was a social worker).  Melissa, her dad's wife. Delaney, Melissa's daughter. Pixie and Ryan, Carey's friends at school. Melissa was a very likable character and she soon bonded with the girls and tried to make them feel at home as much as possible. Jenessa tended to "blend in" with the family a lot more but I think that was because she was younger and young children can adapt to new situations more easily, in my opinion. Carey for me, as strong of a character she is, didn't really find it easy to cope with her new lifestyle, she had a few panic attacks here and there because of the busy life she was presented with, rather than the quiet of the forest. She often referred to Melissa and her Dad as Ma'am and Sir which made it hard to see them as Mother and Father figures, it was more like she was on an interview. I hated the character Delaney with a passion, she was everything I dislike, rude and malicious. It wasn't till the end that I started to develop an attachment to the background characters. If I talk to0 much about each one it may spoil it so I will leave the rest to your imagination. 

Overall my feelings on this books are just pure amazement, I loved it. As soon as I finished it, I wanted more I wanted these characters to carry on, which is one thing I really don't like about stand alone novels. I believe this book would be good for teenagers of any gender and I feel like it's something I would go back to if I ever needed a quick read. I give this book 9.5/10. 






Charlotte 


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