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A review by catherine_the_greatest
The Nowhere Child by Christian White
4.0
Imagine you are living a quiet life, teaching photography at your local vocational school in Australia, still mourning the death of your beloved mother, but close to your step-father and half-sister. Then a stranger from halfway across the world shows up and tells you he believes you were kidnapped from a family in Kentucky when you were two years old, and your entire life has been a lie. Initially, he says he's a friend of your biological family, but then
In alternating chapters, we follow Kim's journey to discover the truth about her past, while also learning about the events surrounding the 1990 disappearance of Sammy Went. The Went family was already falling apart before the youngest member disappeared without a trace from her upstairs bedroom, and every family member is hiding something. Mother Molly is a member of a fundamentalist church ::cough, cult:: and pretty obviously suffering from postpartum depression, father Jack is finding affection elsewhere, teenage sister Emma is running wild, and middle child Stuart is completely lost in the chaos.
Mr. White has written a really strong debut that contains everything I look for in a mystery/suspense novel: complicated, believable characters; an original plot that is logical without being predictable (several times I thought I knew what was going to happen next, but was happy to find myself wrong); and twists that left me saying, "oh!" instead of feeling manipulated. In the last 50 pages, the drama gets turned up to 11, which doesn't entirely match the pacing/tone of the rest of the novel, but it's definitely not anti-climactic.
The Nowhere Child, which has already been released in Christian White's native Australia, won't be availabe in the U.S. until January 2019, but I received an Advance Reader Copy through a Goodreads giveaway.
Spoiler
after showing you DNA test results, he reveals that he's actually your biological brother.In alternating chapters, we follow Kim's journey to discover the truth about her past, while also learning about the events surrounding the 1990 disappearance of Sammy Went. The Went family was already falling apart before the youngest member disappeared without a trace from her upstairs bedroom, and every family member is hiding something. Mother Molly is a member of a fundamentalist church ::cough, cult:: and pretty obviously suffering from postpartum depression, father Jack is finding affection elsewhere, teenage sister Emma is running wild, and middle child Stuart is completely lost in the chaos.
Mr. White has written a really strong debut that contains everything I look for in a mystery/suspense novel: complicated, believable characters; an original plot that is logical without being predictable (several times I thought I knew what was going to happen next, but was happy to find myself wrong); and twists that left me saying, "oh!" instead of feeling manipulated. In the last 50 pages, the drama gets turned up to 11, which doesn't entirely match the pacing/tone of the rest of the novel, but it's definitely not anti-climactic.
The Nowhere Child, which has already been released in Christian White's native Australia, won't be availabe in the U.S. until January 2019, but I received an Advance Reader Copy through a Goodreads giveaway.