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Loading... Little Girl Gone (edition 2015)by Alexandra Burt (Author)
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Sign up for LibraryThing to find out whether you'll like this book. No current Talk conversations about this book. This book started off great. I so wanted to know what happened to seven-month-old Mia. Not only does Mia disappear from her crib, but all of her things are gone too. Mia's mother, Estelle, was found days later, barely alive, at the bottom of a ravine, hours away from home, with bits and pieces of her memory. But then the story draaaaaagged onnn. My eyes were reading but my brain was somewhere else, so I had to re-read a lot of paragraphs. I found it jumped around a bit, but that could be me as I lost and gained interest. I did not like the ending. This book was very disappointing. I seem to be swimming against the tide with this book but I'm afraid I really didn't like it. It had great promise a missing baby, a traumatized mother and comparisons to Gone Girl and The Girl on a train, oh hang on that should have been my first clue as I was unimpressed with the former and left the latter on a train in disgust(ironic I know). There seems to be a leaning towards books with unpleasant main characters at the moment and I'm afraid it's lost on me. Estelle is a mess who seems to have fallen into motherhood because she's failed at everything else. Suffering from post natal depression when she wakes up one morning to discover her baby is gone she fails to report her missing to the police and then turns up at the bottom of a ravine missing an ear. Oh and did I mention she has amnesia, yes really. I'm sure people do genuinely suffer from amnesia but for me it's a lazy plotline. I also appreciate that post natal depression is an horrendous affliction but the fact that Estelle was so useless before seemed to imply that she was more likely to get it which irritated me no end. I may be reading too much into it but then what followed was so bonkers I couldn't forget my initial misgivings. I finished it purely because I wanted to know what happened to Mia but to be honest by half way through I couldn't help but think she was probably better off where she was. It is rare I sit down and finish a book in a 24-hour period. However, this book was hard to put down, despite me watching the last Dodger game Vin Skully announced and checking my iPhone. The book has the feeling of Gone Girl. It didn't end the way I envisioned. The prose is expertly written, and one can see into the protagonist's heart and brain. no reviews | add a review
"In this riveting psychological suspense debut, a young mother's worst nightmare becomes devastatingly real: First I remember the darkness. Then I remember the blood. I don't know where my daughter is. Estelle Paradise wakes up in a hospital after being found near dead at the bottom of a ravine with a fragmented memory and a vague sense of loss. Then a terrifying reality sets in: her daughter is missing. Days earlier, Estelle discovered her baby's crib empty in their Brooklyn apartment. There was no sign of a break-in, but all traces of seven-month-old Mia had disappeared. Her diapers, her clothes, her bottles-all gone. Frustrated and unable to explain her daughter's disappearance, Estelle begins a desperate search. But when the lack of evidence casts doubt on her story, Estelle becomes the number one suspect in the eyes of the police and the media. As hope of reuniting with Mia becomes all she has left, Estelle will do anything to find answers: What has she done to her baby? And what has someone else done to her? "-- No library descriptions found. |
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Google Books — Loading... GenresMelvil Decimal System (DDC)813.6Literature English (North America) American fiction 21st CenturyLC ClassificationRatingAverage:
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I found it well written although sometimes I felt like it was a bit padded with more words than were necessary, for example: "something had gone amiss, had gone awry" - which is basically the same thing. I think Alexandra Burt has chosen a difficult subject to write about, not only a child going missing but a mother suffering from post-partum depression. The description of the effect of post-partum depression was written brilliantly and I think it was important to emphasise the help that psychiatric professionals can give in such cases, as people shouldn't suffer alone.
The story of the baby going missing is the main point of the book and I thought the addition of a few news articles within the book was a great idea. I read the book quickly as I wanted to find out what had happened to Mia so the hook was there and I continued to be intrigued during Estelle's search for the truth. The ending wasn't a disappointment, in fact I think it showed how far Estelle had come in her therapy - she never gave up looking for her daughter.
I did enjoy the book and I think it was a fascinating psychological analysis of a damaged young woman as she attempted to adapt to married life and motherhood.
I received this e-book from the publisher, Avon, via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.
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