Sections of magnified detail, shards of stories told and told about. Dreams, memory, invisibility, and secrets. Fish paste and customer service. Also funny. ( )

Learned a new word... Etiolated. When a plant is withering from lack of light

In 1984, Kate Meaney fancies herself a junior detective; she's observant and has the patience for surveillance, but she sees little that's suspicious. She misses her father, and her grandmother is beginning to talk about boarding school, but, Kate confides to Adrian, the shopkeeper's son, she doesn't want to go. He offers to go with her, but after she sits the exam, she's never seen again, and Adrian becomes a suspect, though Kate's body doesn't turn up.

In the early 2000s, Adrian's sister Lisa is working a dead-end job in a record store in the same mall where Kate used to do surveillance; she misses her brother, who left town and only sends a mix tape on her birthday. Kurt is a security officer at the mall, and after he sees a little girl on the monitors, he and Lisa strike up a friendship of sorts. Both are stuck in their patterns, and much less dynamic characters than Kate (and Kate's friend Theresa). Thanks in part to Kate's stuffed monkey, and clues from Kurt's co-worker - who has an encyclopedic knowledge of the mall - they do eventually solve the mystery of Kate's disappearance, and Theresa is there to bring him to justice; however, it's too late for Adrian, who dies by suicide.

Quotes

"I think adults....they think they know what's best for their children's, but they don't really. In fact, they often have very bad ideas, and the children have much better ones, but it doesn't matter...[the adult gets] to choose." (Kate to Adrian, 49-50)

But it seemed to be a trade-off; with the pain went the details and memories. People had said "Time heals," but he realized time didn't heal, time just eroded and confused, and he didn't think that was the same thing at all. (Kurt, 92)

She idealized time away from work to such an extent that it could never live up to her expectations. (Lisa, 114)

Lisa felt as if Dan knew a better version of her - someone with interests and ideas and plans. All that was best about Lisa, or had once been best, was saved in Dan's memory and had yet to be overwritten by the newer, paler reality. The same was also true in reverse. They both had high hopes for each other, if not for themselves. (137)

He wondered if what he'd failed to do had actually made any difference at all. (Kurt, 172)

"Nothing makes spending twelve hours of every day doing something you hate worthwhile." (Dan to Lisa, 176) ( )

Terrific book about loss wrapped up in a mystery and 1980's mall culture in the UK. Perfectly shows how an unstable upbringing can turn a child into a control freak. I definitely saw some of myself in Kate. She loves rules and structure, which is quite uncommon for a 10 year old girl. ( )

Adult fiction/mystery. O'Flynn expertly unwinds the stories of several individuals surrounding the mysterious disappearance of Kate Meaney. ( )