The voice of 15 year old Carey jumps off of the first page into your heart as you learn she has been kidnapped and then abandoned in the woods with her little sister, Jenessa, by their drug addicted mother. They have been surviving on beans for close to two months before someone finds them. Two strangers arrive in the woods and lead them out, into a foreign world of school, shopping, TV, beds, and the abundance of food.
Carey is a mass of confusion. She loves her mother and still believes her lies but she must come to terms with why she kidnapped her. She trusts no one, her sister won't talk (she hasn't spoken in a year) and surprise she has a step-mom and a crabby step-sister to boot. Life is just a little bit of crazy and she only feels at peace when she is in the woods.
I devoured this book in one sitting. I just loved everything about it. I loved the language and writing style Murdoch uses, I loved the characters, the setting (the Hundred-Acres Wood), the love story, the survivor story. I was just sucked into the story and could not let go of the book. I cried, I smiled, and I cringed. I even tweeted the author. I felt such a communion with these characters and their story. It was healing for me.
If You Find Me is compelling, heart-wrenching, and intriguing and it will probably make it in my top ten books of 2014. It is so good and I can't stop thinking about it.
Quote: “I answer her with my silence, understanding the full power of it for the first time. Words are weapons. Weapons are powerful. So are unsaid words. So are unused weapons.”
