Find my reviews on Blogger ~ Literary Meanderings 
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 At the age of five, Carey Benskin was kidnapped by her mother and taken deep into the woods to live in a broken-down camper. Bipolar, meth-addicted, selfish, abusive--Carey's mother will do anything for a fix, including sell herself. After one such time, Carey's mother becomes pregnant. Carey ends up a stand-in mother for her new baby sister. She takes care of not only herself, but baby Janessa as well. 
 When she isn't bringing strange men to the camper or abusing Carey & Janessa during one of her bipolar spells, their mother leaves them alone for long periods of time. During a particularly long absence, Carey and Janessa are close to running out of food. They are already barely more than skin and bones, but the situation is becoming dire. 
 This is when Carey and Janessa's world is turned upside down. Their father, along with a social worker, finds them and rescues them. After years of being conditioned to fear her father, Carey is anything but happy about this development, but she agrees to live with him only so she and Janessa will not be separated. 
 This is the story of their reintegration into a normal life and a normal family. 
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 Well, this book seems to be quite loved. I am slightly confused. I don't understand why I am not seeing what everyone else appears to see. ** MAJOR SPOILERS AHEAD!!!! ** 
 What irked me most were the flashbacks to Carey's life in the woods. First of all, they came on so abruptly and weren't separated from the present storyline in any way--this left me disoriented and having to re-read paragraphs to get the full effect of what was happening. Second - they were too frequent. I'd say more than half the book is Carey thinking about her past and how her mother abused she and her sister, how the strange men touched her, how starving they were, how cold they were, how they had to eat squirrels and rabbits, how Carey did this elusive, "bad" thing in the woods; something no one would forgive her for. It was repetitious and didn't leave much room to see Carey and Janessa grow into and adapt to their new life. The parts of the book that were in present tense were all about Carey being in denial of her new life, fighting with her new step-sister, and OF COURSE making a love interest at school. It just seemed to me that there was a lack of depth. The premise was fantastic and promising, but for me, didn't come to life quite as I was hoping for. 
 Then we have the issue of education. Oh my lord. These girls were abused and neglected in every sense of the word, and yet both of them--when tested for placement in school--are smarter than their peers and tested TWO GRADES higher than their ages would place them. So, the result was putting each girl one grade ahead of where they should be. I am sorry, but this is completely unbelievable to me. ARE YOU SERIOUS? You just can't be. It is too unrealistic that the mother of these girls would leave them without food, without clothing, ALONE in the woods for months on end, and yet she made sure to leave them with oodles of educational material--so much so that they ended up being two years ahead of their respective educational levels. I feel that this was done solely so Carey would end up in the same grade as her new step-sister and of course end up getting attention from the guy she likes, thus creating more drama. 
 Speaking of said guy, this brings me to my final problem with the story. This guy was so boring I can't even remember his name off the top of my head. Ugh, anyway, the relationship between he and Carey was forced. There HAD to be a love interest in this book? That alone bothered me. Then came the big revelation that this guy was best buds with Carey when she was five. They were neighbors and both had meth-addicted mothers. I guess they formed some weird childhood bond because of that. I found this to be just too convenient. When I learned of this little tidbit, I automatically thought of Hopeless by Colleen Hoover. At this point, I couldn't help but compare the two stories. 
 Phew, okay! Complaints aside, I didn't hate this book. I did like it, I promise. 
 The pace was perfection, for one thing. I was glued to the pages. Murdoch kept the suspense up well, and revealed all of the secrets at just the right times. 
 The characters were extremely lovable. They were multidimensional and felt very real. Carey was impressive in the way that she was so grown up for such a young age (fourteen). She took on the role of mother to Janessa and she did it very well. I loved her protectiveness and love toward her sister. It was beautiful and heartbreaking. I truly admired Carey as a character; likewise with Janessa--such a young girl, yet so grown up. Janessa is mute by choice. The events of the woods left her voiceless and I think when she finally did speak, it was the perfect moment. I liked this added element, as well as the reason behind it. 
 Then there's Carey's father, step-mother (Melissa), and step-sister (Delaney). Her father is understanding and gentle with them, especially after he learns of the fact that his ex-wife filled Carey's head with terrible lies about him. Janessa isn't even his daughter, yet he takes her as his own without even a moment of hesitation. Melissa is the perfect mother. This woman is practically a saint. She takes things slowly with the girls, she provides them with food, clothes, and LOVE. She is endlessly understanding and patient. Delaney was a hateful little thing at first.. but even she was a character I grew to love once her true colors were able to shine through. As a whole, the family dynamic was very believable and realistic. I think it was perfectly written and painted a beautiful picture. 
 All in all, this was an okay read. There were some very realistic bits, and some just the opposite. I found the info-dumping to be distracting and excessive. I think some pieces of the story were too forced (such as the love interest and the educational levels of the girls). I did, however, enjoy the characters. I enjoyed the emotion radiating from the pages; the love and family togetherness. This book touches on some hard topics, but the author handled them quite well. The writing is very good and I think this is a book many readers would enjoy. :) 
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 Book source: NetGalley 
 Publisher: St. Martin's Griffin