"She's Not There" was a very enjoyable read that was to easy to follow and had a decent storyline which kept my attention from start to finish.
Being a parent myself, you never stop worrying about your children and the thought of them going missing is just devastating. So I truly felt for Caroline when she discovered Samantha wasn't in her crib upon checking on her. I imagine she must have felt her heart had been torn out, I would - having lost my youngest son for only a couple minutes many years ago in a shop that feeling of dread is sickening. With the story having resemblances to the tragic Madeline McCann mystery, whereby the child goes missing whilst the parents are dining with friends on a holiday resort, you begin to imagine what it must have been like for the family following her disappearance and this book focuses on the remaining sister in the story and the subsequent years that follow. I have no comments or judgement to make on Caroline and Hunter's decision to leave the children sleeping while they went out and it was interesting to see how they coped with this after Samantha's disappearance.
I did have a few issues with the characters right from the start, Samantha's sister Michelle was more than the average whinging kid and the Grandmother was quite infuriating in the way she treat Caroline. Hunter wasn't the doting Dad I'd have liked him to be, treasuring his beloved car's interior over allowing his kids a drink. As the years went by Michelle's attitude only got worse but one has to wonder how much that had to do with the events that unfolded when she was five and how emotionally scarred she was from her parents subsequent obsession with finding her sister and coping with their own emotional feelings.
All in all a very good read with an ending I thought befitting and I would happily recommend "She's Not There" by Joy Fielding to readers of all ages.
4 stars.
Being a parent myself, you never stop worrying about your children and the thought of them going missing is just devastating. So I truly felt for Caroline when she discovered Samantha wasn't in her crib upon checking on her. I imagine she must have felt her heart had been torn out, I would - having lost my youngest son for only a couple minutes many years ago in a shop that feeling of dread is sickening. With the story having resemblances to the tragic Madeline McCann mystery, whereby the child goes missing whilst the parents are dining with friends on a holiday resort, you begin to imagine what it must have been like for the family following her disappearance and this book focuses on the remaining sister in the story and the subsequent years that follow. I have no comments or judgement to make on Caroline and Hunter's decision to leave the children sleeping while they went out and it was interesting to see how they coped with this after Samantha's disappearance.
I did have a few issues with the characters right from the start, Samantha's sister Michelle was more than the average whinging kid and the Grandmother was quite infuriating in the way she treat Caroline. Hunter wasn't the doting Dad I'd have liked him to be, treasuring his beloved car's interior over allowing his kids a drink. As the years went by Michelle's attitude only got worse but one has to wonder how much that had to do with the events that unfolded when she was five and how emotionally scarred she was from her parents subsequent obsession with finding her sister and coping with their own emotional feelings.
All in all a very good read with an ending I thought befitting and I would happily recommend "She's Not There" by Joy Fielding to readers of all ages.
4 stars.