A Poignant Look at Loneliness and the Power of Found Families
***Thank you to Bookish First, Dutton Books, and Penguin Random House for the advanced copy of We Are Okay! All opinions are my own
Watch Over Me is a poignant examination of loneliness, grief, fear, and facing one's past. Set on a quiet farm in Northern California, home to orphaned children, Watch Over Me follows Mila, a young girl who recently aged out of the foster care system. When she's offered a teaching job on the farm, she immediately accepts the chance to start new and find a real home. No one told her, however, that the farm is haunted and it isn't long until suppressed memories begin to resurface. Following Mila's journey, she readjusts to mundane life and comes to terms with the moments that formed her experience.
I am a long-time fan of Nina LaCour's work. I read The Disenchantments several years ago and was immediately entranced by the way she crafts interesting characters and captivating plots, heavy with subtext. Last year, I picked up the Printz Award winner We Are Okay, and knew right away that she was going to be an auto-buy author. No one writes loneliness and grief better than LaCour.
Everything about this story works. You are fully in Mila's perspective so we are experiencing everything as outsiders - getting to know characters and the environment at the same time she does. While, ideally, I would have liked to have gotten to know the characters a bit better - especially Terry, Julia, Bill, and Liz - it's not necessary. All we need to know (and all that LaCour expresses) is that these characters have history together, Mila feels like an outsider, but she feels safe enough. We don't need to know their elaborate backstories in order to understand them. Despite knowing so little about them, LaCour develops delicate intimacies between all of the characters, though none are as strong as that with Lee. Lee is by far my favorite part of this story (there's nothing I love more than found families).
I LOVE how this is told in split timelines. The writing is concise and doesn't divulge more than is needed to get the point across, which I find extremely effective. As it is necessary for Mila to face one of her demons, we experience it in a flashback. [ For a long time, I was unsure if the ghosts were real. I also thought that perhaps *everyone* was a ghost and Mila was teetering in the land of the living. The explanation of what the farm is works and ties well into the overarching themes.
I think this is a very powerful story and could see myself coming back to it, but the final moments didn't impact me as much as I wanted them to. While I found myself thinking about the story afterwards, it didn't hit me the way I was expecting it to, which is why I can't give it the full 5 stars. I probably will have some more thoughts as I continue to unpack this, but *highly* recommend checking this out. I promise you will find yourself thinking about it long after the last page turns.
Watch Over Me is a poignant examination of loneliness, grief, fear, and facing one's past. Set on a quiet farm in Northern California, home to orphaned children, Watch Over Me follows Mila, a young girl who recently aged out of the foster care system. When she's offered a teaching job on the farm, she immediately accepts the chance to start new and find a real home. No one told her, however, that the farm is haunted and it isn't long until suppressed memories begin to resurface. Following Mila's journey, she readjusts to mundane life and comes to terms with the moments that formed her experience.
I am a long-time fan of Nina LaCour's work. I read The Disenchantments several years ago and was immediately entranced by the way she crafts interesting characters and captivating plots, heavy with subtext. Last year, I picked up the Printz Award winner We Are Okay, and knew right away that she was going to be an auto-buy author. No one writes loneliness and grief better than LaCour.
Everything about this story works. You are fully in Mila's perspective so we are experiencing everything as outsiders - getting to know characters and the environment at the same time she does. While, ideally, I would have liked to have gotten to know the characters a bit better - especially Terry, Julia, Bill, and Liz - it's not necessary. All we need to know (and all that LaCour expresses) is that these characters have history together, Mila feels like an outsider, but she feels safe enough. We don't need to know their elaborate backstories in order to understand them. Despite knowing so little about them, LaCour develops delicate intimacies between all of the characters, though none are as strong as that with Lee. Lee is by far my favorite part of this story (there's nothing I love more than found families).
I LOVE how this is told in split timelines. The writing is concise and doesn't divulge more than is needed to get the point across, which I find extremely effective. As it is necessary for Mila to face one of her demons, we experience it in a flashback. [ For a long time, I was unsure if the ghosts were real. I also thought that perhaps *everyone* was a ghost and Mila was teetering in the land of the living. The explanation of what the farm is works and ties well into the overarching themes.
I think this is a very powerful story and could see myself coming back to it, but the final moments didn't impact me as much as I wanted them to. While I found myself thinking about the story afterwards, it didn't hit me the way I was expecting it to, which is why I can't give it the full 5 stars. I probably will have some more thoughts as I continue to unpack this, but *highly* recommend checking this out. I promise you will find yourself thinking about it long after the last page turns.