I had read quite a few positive reviews of The Nowhere Child by Christian White and so it seemed serendipitous when I came across it for $3 at a local book fair.
'Her name is Sammy Went. This photo was taken on her second birthday. Three days later she was gone.' On a break between teaching photography classes in Melbourne, Kim Leamy is approached by a stranger investigating the disappearance of a little girl from her Kentucky home twenty-eight years earlier. He believes Kim is that girl. At first she brushes it off, but when Kim scratches the surface of her family history in Australia, questions arise that aren't easily answered. To find the truth, she must travel to Sammy's home of Manson, Kentucky, and into a dark past. As the mystery of Sammy's disappearance unravels and the town's secrets are revealed, this superb novel builds towards an electrifying climax. Inspired by Gillian Flynn's frenetic suspense and Stephen King's masterful world-building, The Nowhere Child is a combustible tale of trauma, cult, conspiracy and memory. It is the remarkable debut of Christian White, an exhilarating new Australian talent.
The Nowhere Child, is Australian author Christian White’s debut novel, had a tantalising premise - at least for me - and it definitely hooked me within the first few pages. It begins with a woman in Hobart, Tasmania, Kim, being approached at work by a man who says that he believes she is not who she thinks she is. Within days, Kim realises that she may not be who she thinks she is, and she is drawn into the disappearance of a two-year-old Sammy Went many years ago in the USA. The story began very strong. I was hooked, the writing was direct, and the story felt cinematic.
But somewhere along the road, probably at about the halfway mark, the book lost its way.
The story goes back and forth between past and present and as the mystery deepens, so does the cast of characters. We explore a small-town American community full of secrets, fundamentalist religion (cult) and its followers and troubled family members. And while I appreciate the way in which the narrative unfolded, I increasingly found myself unconvinced by the direction the story and I increasingly started to wonder why so many of the characters would behave the way that they did.
That's where The Nowhere Child lost me - the balance between drama, mystery and believability wasn't quite right. The eventual solution to the mystery felt too far-fetched and arrived far too suddenly. It then ended with a speed that left me oddly unsatisfied. I wanted more from the characters emotionally, more time to process what the story meant beyond its twists.
It wasn't all bad. I enjoyed it and there were moments of tension and emotion. But to be frank, when it reached its conclusion, I thought "come one, seriously?" In short, it started strong but didn't fulfil its promise.
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