BOOK DESCRIPTION
They find her just as the sun is beginning to rise in the early morning mist. They had begun at dawn, the group of searchers keen to get going. A missing child spurred everyone on. In the end, it was a flash of colour, a bright neon pink that caught her eye. They had been looking for pink.
Nothing tests your faith like being a mother. The first time your children walk to school alone, their first sleepover, when they finally fly the nest. As a parent, you have to believe that everything will be OK.
It’s why, when Lydia’s sixteen-year-old daughter Zoe goes on a school camping trip, she has no idea of the horrors that will unfold. It’s why, when Lydia gets a call saying that her daughter has disappeared, she refuses to give up.
As she searches the mountains, her voice hoarse from calling Zoe’s name, she imagines finding her. She envisions being flooded with relief as she throws her arms around her child, saying, ‘you gave us such a scare’. She pictures her precious girl safely tucked in bed that evening.
It’s why, when they find Zoe’s body, Lydia can barely believe it. It is unthinkable. Her little girl has gone.
Something terrible happened, she is sure of it. Something made Zoe get out of her sleeping bag in the middle of the night, walk out of the warmth and safety of the cabin, into the darkness of the mountains. Driven by the memory of her youngest child, Lydia needs to find out the truth. What kind of mother would she be if she didn’t?
A heartbreaking, redemptive and beautifully crafted novel which brings to life a mother’s worst nightmare, questioning how well we ever really know the people we love the most. Fans of Jodi Picoult, Kerry Fisher and Liane Moriarty will be blown away by this stirring, unforgettable tale.
This emotionally charged thriller is written in chapters that alternated between four,vivid female characters Jessie (Zoe's sister) Lydia (Zoe's Mother) Shayna (one of Zoe's best friends) and Bernadette (the teacher who was in charge of the camp on the night that Zoe disappeared. Three of them were harbouring secrets and feelings of guilt about events on that fateful Friday night when Zoe disappeared, secrets that they were reluctant to reveal for their own personal reasons. The character I felt a lot of sympathy for was poor Jessie, she had lost her father at a young age,had just lost her sister and after she revealed her personal secret she received no support from Lydia, who just seemed to be wallowing in her own grief with no thought for how much Jessie and her step father Gabriel were also suffering. I understand that she had just lost her perfect, beautiful daughter (a daughter who was not the angel her mother thought she was) but I thought she was quite selfish and self absorbed at times but then,I suppose grief affects different people in different ways. I can't say that I liked Bernadette very much but I didnt think that the way that she was treated by the school was very fair considering the fact that she wasn't the only teacher at the camp,the word scapegoat sprang into my mind. They say that your school days are the best days of your life, I loved school, it got me away from my mother. Way back when I was at school, if you were bullied, once you got home,you could forget about the name calling and teasing until the next day. But now in the days of the internet and smart phones, victims can be bullied at any hour of the night or day and the bullying has reached a whole new level of nastiness and can even be degrading. It is far too easy for unscrupulous people to hid behind fake identities and victimize their chosen victim from behind the unanimity of their chosen screen. Interspersed throughout the book and written in italics were chapters that narrated by a character who definitely didn't like Zoe very much and had devised a plan to teach her a lesson but who was that person and why did they dislike Zoe so much. The teenage characters were a realistic mix of teenage angst,hormones, bullying, backstabbing,young love, disagreements, ghosting and support. But what had happened to Zoe on the fatal Friday night? Was her death an accident or murder? Did she get lost in the dark and fall to her death or is there a murderer hiding in plain sight?
This is a extremely well written, captivating story that causes the reader to experience a wide range of emotions, I was almost in tears at one point. I hooked into this enthralling story from the first page, drawn into the lives of the author's vivid character's and their fictional but realistic world. The twists and turns of the plot kept me guessing and frantically turning the pages, I would have read the whole book in one sitting if my brain and eyes had been cooperating.I absolutely loved this brilliant book, worth far more than five stars and very very highly recommended.
Author Bio:
Nicole Trope went to university to study Law but realised the error of her ways when she did very badly on her first law essay because, as her professor pointed out, ‘It’s not meant to be a story.’
She studied teaching instead and used her holidays to work on her writing career and complete a Masters’ degree. In between raising three children, working for her husband and renovating houses, she has published six novels. She lives in Sydney, Australia.
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