THERE ARE SOME THINGS YOU CAN'T LEAVE BEHIND ...
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 the girls are found by their father, a stranger, and taken to re-enter the "normal" life of school, clothes and boys.
Now, Carey must come to terms with the truth of why their mother spirited them away 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.
My thoughts
Oh what a fab book. Utterly brilliant, completely heartbreaking and totally addictive to the point where to don't want to put it down.
I've heard good things about this book for a while which meant I was excited to finally get round to reading it and I was thrilled to see it lived up to all the hype. I was hooked from the first page and found as a story it just got stronger and more compelling as it went on. I honestly can't recommend it enough.
For me this book was all about the relationship between Carey and her younger sister Jenessa. The two have just been taken into their father's home after their mother finally decided she couldn't cope anymore after raising them in a caravan in the woods away from civilisation for several years. During that time Carey was forced to grow up fast and look after her sister and do all kinds of things to ensure they survived as a family. Suddenly the sisters find they have to adapt to a more normal way of living and while having home comforts is a dream it doesn't make the adjustment easy. Seeing the way the girls are together and the way they rely upon one another during such a change is fascinating. I loved seeing how they settled into the new world and the challenges they faced in doing so.
What I really liked about this book and what made it so powerful was that as the story went on you started to find out more about the life the girls had lived before and really started to understand the terrible things they had been forced to suffer whilst in that caravan away from civilisation. Much of what was revealed was utterly heart-breaking and really made me feel for them all the more.
All in all a fantastic book which I would highly recommend.
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