When Emily Went Missing – Book Review
Thank you to author Michael Weems for providing me with a copy of When Emily Went Missing: My Haunted Garden Book 1 in exchange for this honest review.
When Emily Went Missing: My Haunted Garden Book 1 is a bit of a misleading title. One, this book isn’t about Emily, it’s about Ruth. Two, I suppose it could be the first book in a series about the garden but it has a full story and comes to a nice little conclusion. Way better than so many other books I’ve read this year where book 1 means an intro without any satisfaction.
I love a conclusion and because this book has the courtesy to give the reader a complete story I would definitely read a book 2 to see what it’s about.
The novel does deal with a missing Emily but that’s only one piece of the larger story. Our true protagonist is Ruth. Her story starts when she discovers her mother’s affair. When the secret comes out and the mother vows to end the relationship the boyfriend does not take it well. He gets blind drunk and shoots mom, Ruth, and the family dog. Ruth is the only survivor.
The bullet just missed vital parts in her brain and surgery would be too dangerous so she’s left with a bullet in her head and a few side effects.
Her dad, Pops, cannot stand to live in the home of the affair and blood stains so he moves them to an old cottage on the cemetery property and takes a new job there to cover rent. This cemetery has a mysteriously lush garden with a strange history. Seems this garden cannot be tamed or destroyed no matter who has tried.
Ruth discovers the truth of the garden through strange dreams. Dreams that allow her to receive memories of the dead. This gives her the power to help with solving the case of the missing Emily.
These memories also take up a bulk of the first half of the book with odd tangents and trivia. There are some interesting tidbits from a deceased man who was obsessed with Presidential history but they start to feel like fluff to up the page count.
Ignoring those parts we’re left with a touching story about a girl who tries her best to help everyone while still fitting in despite the universe wanting her to stand out. It’s similar to books like The Lovely Bones or If I Stay and if you liked either of those you’ll certainly like this one. It’s similar in theme but not derivative and has the bonus of not being really effing sad.
When Emily Went Missing has strong and developed characters that all feel true to their ages in ways that are often lost with adult authors. The dialogue is youthful without trying too hard to capture slang and sound cool.
This, combined with it being a proper book 1 that doesn’t rely on some future release makes this novel really worth checking out.
4/5 flowers 💐💐💐💐
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