“I pull her closer, breathing her in. Strawberry shampoo. Baby powder. She rests her head on my chest and my heart swells. Regardless of how I feel about myself, I’m so happy for her, I could burst.”
******
What happens in the woods, stays in the woods…Carey is keeping a terrible secret. If she tells, it could destroy her future. If she doesn’t, will she ever be free? For almost as long as she can remember, Carey has lived in a camper van in the heart of the woods with her drug-addicted mother and six-year-old sister, Jenessa. Her mother routinely disappears for weeks at a time, leaving the girls to cope alone. Survival is Carey’s only priority – until strangers arrive and everything changes.
Carey and her sister, Jenessa, have been abandoned by their mother in the woods and they’ve been fending for themselves hoping she will one day return to rescue them. It’s their father who saves them from this life though and when he takes them home and introduces them to a new family and normality they find it very hard to fit in. Carey can’t forget the terrible things she had to do in the woods and Jenessa won’t speak. A dark, harrowing story gradually unfolds and we find out exactly how horrific their time in the woods was.
This is an extremely dark story, yes, but Carey is one of the strongest characters you will find in YA fiction at the moment. The sacrifices she makes for her younger sister, and the love they feel for each other, will make your heart burst. It’s a familiar theme and we see it in The Hunger Games with Katniss and her sister, Primrose. Carey wants to protect her sister from the horrors in the woods and she shows us that hope can be found even in the darkest of times.
Emily Murdoch deals with some very difficult subjects with compassion and truth. This book proves that YA fiction is so much more than vampire love stories. An unforgettable, extraordinary book for young adults.
The Tiny Bookshelf 