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3.86 AVERAGE
3.86 AVERAGE
I received an ARC copy of this book from the publisher and netgalley for my honest review.
This award winning novel by Australian author Christian White makes its US deut in January. This mystery kept me guessing until the end! Its dark and has twists that truly surprised me. Not your typical book that the ending is obvious from chapter 1!
This award winning novel by Australian author Christian White makes its US deut in January. This mystery kept me guessing until the end! Its dark and has twists that truly surprised me. Not your typical book that the ending is obvious from chapter 1!
What a great debut novel. It really excites me when new authors can come out with such great stories! Christian White, you definitely gave me a story worth my time :).
Now for the mystery of Sammy Went. The story is relayed as we continuously jump between the present and the past, a narrative that is carried out seamlessly and with great precision. Characters, motives and relationships all reveal themselves as the timelines head towards a point of what I suppose we could refer to as enlightenment. Not only is the mystery in itself a great journey, but we as the reader we also get to ask ourselves about what actually makes a family, is there some fluidity about right and wrong, and can bad choices be reconciled if the reasons and outcomes are likely admirable?
This is definitely one of those books that you want to keep talking about way after finishing that last page.
Thank you NetGalley and HarperCollins for a Review Copy.
Now for the mystery of Sammy Went. The story is relayed as we continuously jump between the present and the past, a narrative that is carried out seamlessly and with great precision. Characters, motives and relationships all reveal themselves as the timelines head towards a point of what I suppose we could refer to as enlightenment. Not only is the mystery in itself a great journey, but we as the reader we also get to ask ourselves about what actually makes a family, is there some fluidity about right and wrong, and can bad choices be reconciled if the reasons and outcomes are likely admirable?
This is definitely one of those books that you want to keep talking about way after finishing that last page.
Thank you NetGalley and HarperCollins for a Review Copy.
Does doing the wrong thing for the right reason cancel out the wrongness? Burying the past doesn't mean the memories die, or that it'll stay buried.
Thought the end was a wee smidgen unfair, even if I could understand it and the book as a whole was a wonderfully visual page turner.
Thought the end was a wee smidgen unfair, even if I could understand it and the book as a whole was a wonderfully visual page turner.
‘To move through life without being accountable to a higher power is to drift unanchored through a dark ocean full of monsters’.
This was my first Christian White but it certainly won’t be my last.
Melbourne, Australia, Now: Meet Kim Leamy, photography teacher at Northampton Community TAFE, sister of Amy, daughter of Carol and step-daughter of Dean. Right at the beginning of the story, she is approached by James Finn; he is convinced that Kim is in fact his long lost sister, Sammy Went, who went missing from her Kentucky home, three days after her second birthday, 28 years before. James has never believed Sammy died that night and has spent his life trying to find her – her disappearance is his obsession.
Manson, Kentucky, USA, Then: Jack and Molly Went are members of the Church of the Light Within – ‘Molly through conversion and Jack through blood’. We learn that Jack started to drift away from the church as a teenager and stopped going altogether when their eldest daughter, Emma, was born. As far as the locals are concerned, ‘if you’re not one of us, you’re one of them. A lost soul’. The Pentecostal group worship by handling venomous snakes – to be bitten is to be touched by God, and to survive is to be saved. After Sammy disappears, Jack is devastated but is also harbouring a secret…
The Eckles family: Described as a ‘rough family’. Ava, the mother is a violent drunk. Patrick – the eldest son is doing his best to keep the family together. Travis is gay at a time when this was a sin and was the favourite suspect at the time.
Kim is thrust into James’ investigation and the fundamentalist nature of the locals she meets in Manson, Kentucky. She of course immediately questions why the woman she knew as her ‘mother’ would have kidnapped her from Jack and Molly’s home all those years ago. By this time, Carol Leamy has died from cancer and Kim wants nothing more than to be able to talk to her and ask her what happened. She is upset and shocked when Dean’s reaction shows he knows more than he has ever told her and so she agrees to travel to Kentucky with James to meet her ‘family’. Things do not go as well as she’d hoped. Between her and James, they continue the investigation in order to answer once and for all, what actually happened that day 28 years ago and why?
Whilst certainly not always likeable, the characters are well rounded and believable and the details given of The Church of the Light Within are sickly fascinating. As someone with a phobia of snakes, there were a few scenes that actually made my hands clammy! I think it would make a fantastic film – although I may have to put a cushion over my face at certain parts. A fantastic, absorbing read with SO much going on – I loved it. Highly recommended.
‘Rumour is the one thing that gets thicker when you spread it’.
I would like to thank both Net Galley and Harper Collins UK for providing me with a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.
This was my first Christian White but it certainly won’t be my last.
Melbourne, Australia, Now: Meet Kim Leamy, photography teacher at Northampton Community TAFE, sister of Amy, daughter of Carol and step-daughter of Dean. Right at the beginning of the story, she is approached by James Finn; he is convinced that Kim is in fact his long lost sister, Sammy Went, who went missing from her Kentucky home, three days after her second birthday, 28 years before. James has never believed Sammy died that night and has spent his life trying to find her – her disappearance is his obsession.
Manson, Kentucky, USA, Then: Jack and Molly Went are members of the Church of the Light Within – ‘Molly through conversion and Jack through blood’. We learn that Jack started to drift away from the church as a teenager and stopped going altogether when their eldest daughter, Emma, was born. As far as the locals are concerned, ‘if you’re not one of us, you’re one of them. A lost soul’. The Pentecostal group worship by handling venomous snakes – to be bitten is to be touched by God, and to survive is to be saved. After Sammy disappears, Jack is devastated but is also harbouring a secret…
The Eckles family: Described as a ‘rough family’. Ava, the mother is a violent drunk. Patrick – the eldest son is doing his best to keep the family together. Travis is gay at a time when this was a sin and was the favourite suspect at the time.
Kim is thrust into James’ investigation and the fundamentalist nature of the locals she meets in Manson, Kentucky. She of course immediately questions why the woman she knew as her ‘mother’ would have kidnapped her from Jack and Molly’s home all those years ago. By this time, Carol Leamy has died from cancer and Kim wants nothing more than to be able to talk to her and ask her what happened. She is upset and shocked when Dean’s reaction shows he knows more than he has ever told her and so she agrees to travel to Kentucky with James to meet her ‘family’. Things do not go as well as she’d hoped. Between her and James, they continue the investigation in order to answer once and for all, what actually happened that day 28 years ago and why?
Whilst certainly not always likeable, the characters are well rounded and believable and the details given of The Church of the Light Within are sickly fascinating. As someone with a phobia of snakes, there were a few scenes that actually made my hands clammy! I think it would make a fantastic film – although I may have to put a cushion over my face at certain parts. A fantastic, absorbing read with SO much going on – I loved it. Highly recommended.
‘Rumour is the one thing that gets thicker when you spread it’.
I would like to thank both Net Galley and Harper Collins UK for providing me with a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.
dark
mysterious
sad
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
Christian White is definitely my new favourite author.. if you haven't already go check out "The Wife & The Widow" I actually enjoyed that one more than this one, but this was still quite enjoyable.
I love his style of writing, alternating between two perspectives or timelines - there is a cliff hanger at the end of almost every chapter and if you want to find out what happens you have to quickly get through the alt chapter to get back to the same spot, therefore creating a super fast paced read.
in the No Where Child, the ending was a little predictable, however still didn't play out as you would think. I found myself quite attached to every single character introduced, keeping the parts you'd imagine should be quite boring still .... really interesting.
A great way to ease my way back into reading! Can't wait to see what else White comes up with in the future.
I love his style of writing, alternating between two perspectives or timelines - there is a cliff hanger at the end of almost every chapter and if you want to find out what happens you have to quickly get through the alt chapter to get back to the same spot, therefore creating a super fast paced read.
in the No Where Child, the ending was a little predictable, however still didn't play out as you would think. I found myself quite attached to every single character introduced, keeping the parts you'd imagine should be quite boring still .... really interesting.
A great way to ease my way back into reading! Can't wait to see what else White comes up with in the future.
Read this a few years ago and bookcrossed it. I’m adding the link to the book here as there’s been a new entry this week. It’s always a delight when that happens.
The Nowhere Child was a gripping read about an American child, kidnapped when she was two years old. She somehow made it to Australia. How is that possible?
This novel was pretty well executed, it kept my attention throughout, especially after I got used to the narrator's Southern drawl. This novel had some twists I didn't see coming - I dig that. The characters are well fleshed out and credible. I liked the juxtaposition of the secular, urban Australian way of life to the religious, US small town in the Bible belt. Guess which one came out as the better one? ;-) White's exploration of that old nurture vs nature debate was well done.
In conclusion, this was very good, I enjoyed the hours spent trying to find out who took Sammy and why.
This goes towards my Aussie Author Challenge on www.bookloverbookreviews.com
This novel was pretty well executed, it kept my attention throughout, especially after I got used to the narrator's Southern drawl. This novel had some twists I didn't see coming - I dig that. The characters are well fleshed out and credible. I liked the juxtaposition of the secular, urban Australian way of life to the religious, US small town in the Bible belt. Guess which one came out as the better one? ;-) White's exploration of that old nurture vs nature debate was well done.
In conclusion, this was very good, I enjoyed the hours spent trying to find out who took Sammy and why.
This goes towards my Aussie Author Challenge on www.bookloverbookreviews.com
mysterious
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
The Victorian Premier’s Unpublished Manuscript Award has been discovering some of Australia’s favourite authors. Some recent recipients include Jane Harper’s The Dry and Graeme Simsion’s The Rosie Project. So when Christian White’s manuscript titled Decay Theory picked up the award in 2017, publishers sat up and took notice. And for goods reason. Now renamed the more catchy The Nowhere Child, White’s novel is an assured crime thriller with a well constructed mystery at its heart.
The hook for The Nowhere Child comes early and hits hard and sustains any bumps in the narrative. In Melbourne, 30 year-old photography teacher Kim Leamy is approached by an American stranger. He tells her that she is actually Sammy Went, abducted as a two-year old from her home in the small town on Manson, Kentucky 28 years before. This mystery of how a two year old American girl ended up in suburban Melbourne in 1990, living a seemingly normal, well adjusted life, unravels slowly in chapters alternating between 1990 and the present day. Kim’s mother died four years before, taking her secrets with her and her stepfather, who had come on the scene after she was born, knows something but is not talking. Kim ends up flying to America to find some answers.
There is so much to like about this book. Kim is a completely believable, conflicted character. Torn between the life she had and the secrets that seem to have kept Kim from her biological family. But she is confronted when she starts to meet members of that family and discovers some of their secrets. Those secrets are tangled with a bizarre Pentecostal sect called the Church of the Light Within in which members find connection with god by handling, dancing with and often being bitten by rattlesnakes. Exploration of this sect provides a dark undercurrent and links to some recent media about conversion therapies and exorcism.
The Nowhere Child is an assured, page-turning debut. White has a background as a screenwriter and his confidence in developing character and plot show in the narrative. He makes the most of his Australian in a foreign land conceit without labouring the issue. And the solution to the mystery manages to be nail-biting (in a bit of a contrived, shout at the page, crime-fiction kind of way), satisfying and heartbreaking.
The hook for The Nowhere Child comes early and hits hard and sustains any bumps in the narrative. In Melbourne, 30 year-old photography teacher Kim Leamy is approached by an American stranger. He tells her that she is actually Sammy Went, abducted as a two-year old from her home in the small town on Manson, Kentucky 28 years before. This mystery of how a two year old American girl ended up in suburban Melbourne in 1990, living a seemingly normal, well adjusted life, unravels slowly in chapters alternating between 1990 and the present day. Kim’s mother died four years before, taking her secrets with her and her stepfather, who had come on the scene after she was born, knows something but is not talking. Kim ends up flying to America to find some answers.
There is so much to like about this book. Kim is a completely believable, conflicted character. Torn between the life she had and the secrets that seem to have kept Kim from her biological family. But she is confronted when she starts to meet members of that family and discovers some of their secrets. Those secrets are tangled with a bizarre Pentecostal sect called the Church of the Light Within in which members find connection with god by handling, dancing with and often being bitten by rattlesnakes. Exploration of this sect provides a dark undercurrent and links to some recent media about conversion therapies and exorcism.
The Nowhere Child is an assured, page-turning debut. White has a background as a screenwriter and his confidence in developing character and plot show in the narrative. He makes the most of his Australian in a foreign land conceit without labouring the issue. And the solution to the mystery manages to be nail-biting (in a bit of a contrived, shout at the page, crime-fiction kind of way), satisfying and heartbreaking.