If You Find Me

Mama says the world gives the best things away for free. But Mama’s been gone over a month now, and Carey is alone with her baby sister in the camper van in the backwoods of Tenessee. Looking after Nessa, living without electricity, heat or water is bone-breakingly hard - but at last their father rescues them, taking them 'home' to his new wife, a stepsister, hot water, warmth, food and store-bought clothes. Life should get easier; but there's something that happened one night in the woods that Carey and Nessa still can’t talk about to anyone.

The introduction, casually mentioning Mama’s meth pipe, indicates this novel will be entering  unconventional territory: with dark and challenging content, this is emphatically a book for older readers. Carey's extraordinary narrative voice subtly balances maturity and betrayed innocence as she unfolds the truth about her terrible secret. There's a slow-burning intensity to this story of resilience and hope that will keep readers captivated.