If You Find Me: A Novel
*Starred Review* Carey’s little sister, Jenessa, has not spoken since the white starry night, a night so traumatic that neither acknowledges it happened. But now Carey’s father, with the help of Mrs. Haskell, the social worker, has arranged for the girls to live with him and his new family, even though Jenessa is not his biological daughter. He and his wife, Melissa, and stepdaughter Delaney offer the girls a life that is, while not without its challenges, far from their druggie mother who disappears more frequently than she stays, and the hardscrabble existence of canned beans, pee-smelling coats, and cigarette-burned flesh. First-time author Murdoch has written a painful, hopeful, surprisingly quiet book that charts the best and worst of humanity, especially family, with characters who worm their way into your heart—or repulse the reader’s very nature. Her narrative is full of unique yet breathtaking similes, detailed descriptions, and unflinching dialogue all masquerading as backwoods Tennessee dialect. Exposing child abuse, sexual abuse, and drug abuse for the terrors they are, she validates the courage and ingenuity of young people the world over for whom survival is instinctive, protection of siblings is nonnegotiable, and love is both a right and a gift bestowed upon those fortunate enough to find it. Grades 8-12. --Frances Bradburn--This text refers to thePaperbackedition.