Reviews

Heimweh by Catherine Ryan Hyde

ajlewis2's review against another edition

Go to review page

adventurous emotional hopeful inspiring medium-paced

5.0

prpltrtl946's review against another edition

Go to review page

4.0

Long, complicated journey of body and souls

We go through many trials and tribulations with these girls. Their journeys, separate and together, are thought provoking and surprising. Well worth the read.

arizonamel's review against another edition

Go to review page

5.0

Catherine Ryan Hyde is one of the best storytellers I’ve ever read. I’ve yet to read one of her books that didn’t just completely engross me.

This was the perfect way to spend a Saturday. Here’s what amazon has to say about this book. Note this is also another kindle unlimited.


Since their mother’s sudden death, sixteen-year-old Carly and her eleven-year-old sister, Jen, have been walking and hitchhiking across the Southwest trying to find Teddy, the closest thing they have to a family. Carly desperately hopes Teddy will take them in and save them from going into foster care—and forgive them for the lies told by their mother.

But when the starving girls get caught stealing food on a Native American reservation, their journey gets put on hold. While the girls work off their debt, Carly becomes determined to travel onward—until Jen confesses a terrible secret that leaves both sisters wondering if they can ever trust again.

Set against the backdrop of the American Southwest, Walk Me Home and its resilient heroines will inspire readers and renew their faith in recovery and redemption.

laurapatriciarose's review against another edition

Go to review page

4.0

This book is extremely gripping and had me guessing from the start. What was it that happened that was so terrible, it had forced Carly and Jen to run away and put themselves in a dangerous life or death situation.

The story starts with Carly and Jen escaping from their home in New Mexico.We are not sure why, but we know that they need to get to Teddy in California as he will help them. What ensues is a dangerous journey where the girls do not know where they will get their next meal from or where they will sleep for the night.

Being a story about sisters, I could really relate to the relationship between Carly and Jen. Carly is the older sister at 16 years old and Jen is the younger sister at 12 years old. Carly takes it upon herself to be the responsible one. Jen seems to be at first happy to go along with what Carly says. It is only when they meet Delores on the way that I started to see that Carly was stubborn and just wouldn't accept help from anyone. I started to find myself siding with Jen and started to wonder what it was that Jen was hiding. However as you go further into the book, Carly's behaviour is completely understandable and being an older sister myself in that situation I think I would be the same. Carly was just as scared as her sister and she was trying to cover it up by being the adult when she was just a child herself.

I desperately wanted the girls to make it and I was frightened for them. They were walking from the unknown into the unknown. It is an emotional as well as a physical journey, with the girls trying to find happiness at the end. You will be with them all the way experiencing everything they go through and the emotional turmoil they are in.

Catherine has a great way of putting pen to paper; I could picture everything so well- the surroundings the atmosphere, the temperature, the emotions circling round the characters. I felt in connection with the novel if that makes sense. I have never read anything by Catherine Ryan Hyde before, so wasn't sure what to expect, but it was riveting.

Written in five parts, this novel takes you between the past and the present. I like novels that do this as like in this novel, you start in the present with leaves you with questions as to how Jen and Carly got into the situation they are in. Then the story takes us back a bit explaining the relationship between Carly and her Mum and Teddy. I found myself racing through the book to find out what had happened to cause them to make such a drastic decision to leave home.

I have never read anything by Catherine Ryan Hyde before and I can honestly say I will be reading more from her as this was riveting! I cannot believe she has written nineteen novels and I haven't come across her books before! I will definitely be reading more from her.

mjcourchesne's review against another edition

Go to review page

3.0

Not the best book I've read, but it engrossed me so much that I finished this on a cross-country flight.

dkhunt's review against another edition

Go to review page

3.0

Not overly inventive, plot-wise, but an well done depiction of a neglected and angry teenager grudgingly learning how to lean on others and accept love.

leahmichelle_13's review against another edition

Go to review page

4.0

I love Catherine Ryan Hyde. Her novels are so accomplished, so readable, with absolutely amazing plots that no other author could do justice to. Second Hand Heart, When I Found You, Don’t Let Me Go are all amazing novels. So whenever a new Catherine Ryan Hyde is released, it’s a must-buy for me. I appear to have not read her release last year, When You Were Older, but that will be sharply fixed, and when I got a copy of her new one Walk Me Home, I started it as soon as I’d cleared anything else I had to review, because I just couldn’t wait to read it.

Walk Me Home is yet another triumphant Catherine Ryan Hyde novel. It has all the hallmarks of a Catherine Ryan Hyde novel, and I was captivate by Carly and Jen, who after a devastating tragedy, are walking from New Mexico to California in a bid to get to their step-dad Teddy. That in itself is heartbreaking, that two young girls (13 and 16) are having to walk, by themselves, through Arizona in the baking heat with barely any other people around, in a bid to not be seen or captured and sent to foster care. Carly knows that if they can reach California, reach Teddy, then they’ll be OK, their life will be a bit better, but Jen has a secret, and it’s something that’s going to blow Carly’s life to bits.

What I think Catherine Ryan Hyde does best is she takes a small community of people – a group of misfits, or a group you wouldn’t normally give two figs about – and makes you care about them. In Don’t Let Me Go that was shown to its fullest potential, as Gracie was taken care of by so many kind people, and that shows itself again in Walk Me Home, after the girls are caught trying to steal eggs from a lady’s henhouse. That lady is Dolores, and she’s part of the Wakapi tribe, and she isn’t too happy to have two girls trying to steal from her and tells them they can spend a week at her house, working off their debt. Carly’s skittish about Dolores, and acts quite tough, but Jen seems to find Dolores soothing, and doesn’t seem to want to leave. The Wakapi tribe aren’t a real tribe, as Catherine explains in her Author Letter at the end of the novel, but I can see where she was coming from, and I always find tribes and groups of people like that to be so warm and welcoming, they’re always so open and kind, and I liked the values of the Wakapi tribe. How Alvin, the local police officer, was more than happy to help Carly out with trips to the town to use the phone, and who wasn’t all about getting them handed over to a nameless social worker.

I really, really enjoyed Walk Me Home, it hit home really hard, and I felt so sad for Jen and Carly and their mental strength to trek days and days in vast, empty spaces must have been really, really strong. I could never do something like that, I’d have given up and died, lemme tell you. I admired the girls’ relationship, so much. In situations like that, you really have no choice but to stick together but it was more than that and you could tell Jen and Carly were always so close. This was just a wonderful read, with another cast of characters you’ll easily fall in love with. I can’t wait for Catherine’s next book, she’s such an amazing writer and I always devour her books way too quickly, I definitely recommend the book; I always do for Catherine’s books because they are so amazing and she deserves so much credit for being such a wonderful writer.
More...