The Girl Who Never Came Home
by Nicole Trope
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.
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.
My Rating:
Favorite Quotes:
I have a bit of a soft spot for Leeanne, for how awkward the poor girl is, with her perpetually hunched shoulders and the glasses that slip to the tip of her nose as soon as she moves her head, for how dreadful her skin is, for how she makes me see myself at sixteen. Leeanne is, as I was, the smartest girl in the year… I have often told her that as long as she sticks with her dream, she will one day be able to look back at her school years and see them as a growth opportunity rather than a trial to be endured.
I was incandescent with rage…
Guilt weighs me down, slows my steps, steals my sleep and my appetite. Guilt is the only emotion I deserve to feel.
My Review:
I argue that justice was not served by the end result as the punishment was too severe and not at all deserved, and I’m referencing the true victim in this piece – and just to be clear – I’m not talking about the dead girl. There were many victims in this tale as the recently deceased teen, Zoe, was quite the heinous little madam. Zoe was vile and vicious and a monster of her mother’s creation by a lifetime of overindulgence. I despised the bratty she-devil while I deeply resented her shortsighted mother, but I had overflowing buckets of empathy for everyone else.
The storylines were taut with tension, well-crafted intrigue, and tantalizingly slow revelations. I thoroughly enjoyed the insights reaped from the multiple points of view and although there appeared to be an unending plethora of fractured and wounded people to keep up with who had been brutalized in some manner by the cruelty or repercussions of Zoe’s selfish schemes and reprehensible behaviors, it was easily done once the characters were semi-established. I found it highly interesting how they all suffered from guilt by their limited knowledge of and inactions leading up to and during the main event. This was my second foray into the sly and artful deception and cunning word-stylings of Nicole Trope and I can only hope for many more such unscrupulous outings.
Nicole Trope went to university to study Law but realized 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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I am really intrigued by this one! I love stories where someone who might seem like a victim at first is also kind of a bad guy.
oh my.. this sounds like an intense read…. and 5 stars too from you..
I loved this book though you are right Zoe was mean
But the author is fantastic