Review: If You Find Me by Emily Murdoch

Title: If You Find Me
Author: Emily Murdoch
Published: March 26, 2013
Publisher: St. Martin's Griffin
Source: Publisher for review
Purchase: Amazon | Barnes & Noble

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 two strangers arrive. Suddenly, the girls are taken from the woods and thrust into a bright and perplexing new world of high school, clothes and boys.

Now, Carey must face the truth of why her mother abducted her 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.

Wow. I always know I've just read a really great book if my head is still spinning around it long after I've finished. If You Find Me was such a strong, unbelievably impacting, emotionally beautiful story that I fell in love with from Chapter 1.

Carey is taken by her mentally ill mother and forced to live in the woods in a camper, without running water, food, or heat. Her mother disappears for weeks, sometimes months at a time, off into the city leaving Carey alone and forced to fight for her own survival. Carey soon has a younger sister to help raise as well, all in these woods with no outside contact, other than the men her mother brings in for money or drugs. Carey is so protective over Jenessa, who depends on her sister completely for her survival. When finally their mother leaves for good, two people show up in the woods and find Carey and Jenessa... and little do they know these two people will change their lives forever. Carey and Jenessa will be forced to find truths that will be hard to handle, as well as learn to live a life unlike anything they've ever known.

I really can't put into words how intense this story was. Trust me when I say you will want to have tissues available. It's heart-wrenchingly sad at times, immensely loving at others. This story is sure to tug at the heartstrings and leave your mind and emotions reeling when you're done. I have to mention too how much I loved all the references to Winnie the Pooh... from the "Hundred Acre Wood" to the cute little quotes at the beginning of the different parts to the book.  I have already recommended this book to many people while reading it, and I will be sure to recommend it long into the future.

Emily is a writer, a poet, and a lover of books. There's never a time she's without a book. Her debut novel, If You Find Me, will be available from St. Martin's on March 26, 2013 and from Orion/Indigo UK on May 2, 2013.
When she's not reading or writing, you'll find her caring for her horses, dogs and family on a ranch in rural Arizona, where the desert's tranquil beauty and rich wildlife often enter into her poetry and writing.

Emily's other passion is saving equines from slaughter. She uses her writing to raise awareness of this inhumane practice, with the goal of ending the slaughter of America's equines through transport to slaughterhouses in Canada and Mexico. She offers sanctuary to abused and slaughter-bound equines who dazzle her every day with their forgiving nature and gratitude in exchange for security, consistency, food and love.

As Mahatma Gandhi said, “Be the change you want to see in the world.” Emily hopes her penchant for writing will do just that.
All-in-all, she's a lefty in a right-handed world, writing her way through life and smearing ink wherever she writes.

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