I was unsure about requesting this book, the plot sounded like it may be depressing or just too sad. I’m very happy I read it and will most certainly look for more by this talented author. The characters were well developed, conveying the emotional strain of dealing with one another after 4 year old Lily disappears.
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The main characters are Andre and Cerise and their four children. Nick is the oldest and the only son, then Madeline, 11 year old Esme and 4 year old Lily. We start with Esme finishing her ballet class, her mother and Lily waiting to pick her up. Esme obviously has a good relationship with her little sister, playing with her and making up stories to amuse her.
Once they arrive home Esme starts studying in her bedroom shared with Madeline. Lily is begging for a story and Madeline yells at her and orders her out of the room. There is crying, there is Andre fussing about the crying and Nick yelling for quiet. As they sit down to dinner they call out for Lily to get to table. She’s gone. Just disappeared. There is more detail in book that plops you flat into the middle of a heart pounding search and the fear that grips you over possible scenarios.
The guilt each member of the family feels is evident as they ponder the
before….before Lily was missing. Esme unfairly blaming herself because she didn’t take time to tell Lily that story. Madeline remembering the last words she shouted at her little sister, “
it was better without you” and Cerise wishing she had been home instead of church.
The book is told through Esme’s point of view, starting when she was 11 years old and then jumps 8 years ahead with Esme living elsewhere. A scene in the present accurately describes how Lily’s disappearance damaged the entire family irrevocably.
The part about the special cake plate speaks volumes about how life changed for all of them. Esme’s mother brings out that special plate and Esme “
would always wish her mother hadn’t packed it away after Lily but had kept making frosted cakes on that plate for her or Nick or Madeline, because they’d always been in reach. They’d been colored invisible instead. The left behind.”
The way relationships developed, and in some cases stalled, were well written. For Esme, her ballet teacher saved her from a half-life at home by recognizing the potential in her young student. I don’t want to reveal too much as it may ruin the way you are drawn into the story and the progression of their lives.
The food was as different as the two lifestyles. At home Esme would eat the rotating menu of spaghetti, tacos, lentil soup, minestrone, turkey meatballs and hamburgers. Living with Amelia they had salads, roasted chicken, vegetables, omelets, spicy Chai tea. There was also orange madeleines, macaronis, warm chocolate, baking bread from the Paris portion of the book.
Well written, Kristin Fields. I will certainly be looking for more of your work.
Thank you very much Netgalley for this digital copy of the book. I received this complimentary copy and was not compensated for my opinion/review .
