THE LOWDOWN:
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.
FIRST IMPRESSION:
Mama says no matter how poor folks are, whether you’re a have, a have-not, or a 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. Or the creek itself, babblin’ music all day long like Nessa when she was a baby. Happiness is free, Mama says, as sure as the blinkin’ stars, the withered arms the trees throw down for our fires, the waterproofin’ on our skin, and the tongues of wind curlin’ the walnut leaves before slidin’ down our ears.
It might be the meth pipe talkin’. But I like how free sounds all poetic-like.
SNAPSHOT:
This harrowing, breathtaking tale opens on fifteen-year-old Carey and six-year-old Jenessa living in a dilapidated camper in the middle of a Tennessee state park. Their mother Joelle has left them alone, again. It’s been nearly two months since their Mama went to gather supplies. Then the girls learn why: Mama wrote to Carey’s father—a man Joelle hid Carey away from ten years ago to escape his abuse—and admitted she could no longer care for the girls because of her mental illness and her drug addictions. Carey’s father takes the girls to his home—to his farmhouse, his big old three-legged dog named Shorty, and to his wife Melissa and stepdaughter Delaney.
Carey struggles to trust and maybe even love the man her Mama taught her to hate and to find her place in a life where her stepsister is embarrassed by her mere presence. More importantly though, Carey must confront why Jenessa hasn’t spoken in more than a whisper, and only to her, in more than a year: she is hiding a secret that could rip her from Jenessa’s new life forever.
Carey’s unflinching first-person narrative is thoroughly absorbing and descriptively hypnotic. Her pain and hope radiate from the depth of her love for Jenessa. Hers is a story that is hard to read, worse to put down, and impossible to forget.
Appropriate for ages 14+. Some strong language, alcohol use, adult characters using drugs, emotional and sexual abuse, and extremely intense situations. Carey is a quietly inspirational and courageous heroine.
Deals with poverty, kidnapping, mental illness, child sexual abuse, abandonment, identity, familial love, and survival. Readers may benefit from open discussion on the bonds the girls share and how the “white-star night” incident relates to Jenessa’s selective mutism and Carey’s stomach issues.
GET IT ON YOUR SHELF:
If you…
– Enjoy gritty, realistic fiction
– Are fascinated by the darker sides of human nature
– Know that the bonds of sisterhood are indestructible
– Need your female leads steel-strong, intelligent, and loyal
– Want a good, long cry from a punch-to-the-stomach, heart-breakingly beautiful story
THE ESSENTIALS:
Literary YA Fiction
Hardcover & Ebook, 256 pages
Published March 26th, 2013 by St. Martin’s Griffin (ISBN 1250021529)
http://us.macmillan.com/ifyoufindme/EmilyMurdock
(Review copy provided by Jessica Preeg at St. Martin’s Press.)