The blurb: They find her just as the sun is beginning to rise in the early morning mist. They had begun at dawn, the group of searchers keen to get going. A missing child spurred everyone on. In the end, it was a flash of colour, a bright neon pink that caught her eye. They had been looking for pink.Nothing tests your faith like being a mother. The first time your children walk to school alone, their first sleepover, when they finally fly the nest. As a parent, you have to believe that everything will be OK.
It’s why, when Lydia’s sixteen-year-old daughter Zoe goes on a school camping trip, she has no idea of the horrors that will unfold. It’s why, when Lydia gets a call saying that her daughter has disappeared, she refuses to give up.
As she searches the mountains, her voice hoarse from calling Zoe’s name, she imagines finding her. She envisions being flooded with relief as she throws her arms around her child, saying, ‘you gave us such a scare’. She pictures her precious girl safely tucked in bed that evening.
It’s why, when they find Zoe’s body, Lydia can barely believe it. It is unthinkable. Her little girl has gone.
Something terrible happened, she is sure of it. Something made Zoe get out of her sleeping bag in the middle of the night, walk out of the warmth and safety of the cabin, into the darkness of the mountains. Driven by the memory of her youngest child, Lydia needs to find out the truth. What kind of mother would she be if she didn’t?
My thoughts: This is an intriguing tale, with interesting and complex characters that are believable and easy to relate too.
Zoe is a beautiful vivacious girl, but she’s also a bully. When she goes away on a school camping trip, no one expects that to be the end, but when Zoe goes missing and is found dead, we are taken on a journey through the thoughts, fears, regrets, secrets and torturous guilt of all those who were there that night as well as those who were closest to her.
Nicole lays out the story in a very clever way, allowing us to slowly discover the truth through a whole host of characters.
Hearing their side of things, and seeing them struggle with what has happened, while also wrestling with their own sense of guilt and culpability.
There was not a single character that I felt wasn’t real, wasn’t really grieving or wrestling with their own involvement t or failure to act.
It also deals with some complex issues. In the modern age Bullying has gone beyond the playground, children can no longer escape to the safety of their home and gain a well needed reprieve. The bully’s are now able to follow them everywhere, attacking them night and day, in constant streams of endless abuse, torture and public humiliation, via social media and the internet.
But that’s not the only danger of the internet, complete strangers can become anyone, and what a young girl believes to be a handsome Boy, could actually be a dirty old man. Children are easy prey and despite parents and teacher best efforts to teach the youth of today, to be careful, to be smart, they often get swept away by kind words, sweet promises and clever deception.
Faced with all this how can today’s youth survive, do you know who your child is really talking too.
Nicole deals with this issues beautifully and shows just how easy it is for the internet to play a devastating part in destroying lives.
I was hooked from the first page to the last and would definitely like to read more by this author in the future.
A big thank you to NetGalley, Nicole Trope and her publisher for allowing me to read and advance copy of this wonderful book, in exchange for an honest review. I have truly loved it.
Love and hugs all
Joss xx
