Nina LaCour is one of those writers whose beautifully simplistic style always lulls me into a sense of comfort while dealing with really hard, complex issues, and I loved the journey in Watch Over Me as much as I’ve loved some her previous books.
This YA book is a haunting reflection on the importance of family and what it means to have to find your own when you’ve been let down by the family you were born into. And yes, it’s also a ghost story of sorts. I suspect LaCour might argue with my use of the phrase “let down.” There’s a generosity in the way she writes her characters that makes me think she wouldn’t want any of them judged, even the less perfect ones.
High school graduate Mila has aged out of the foster care system, and the family she’s living isn’t going to adopt her (a situation that is also handled with beautiful and heartbreaking subtlety). She accepts a job as a teacher at a remote farm in California where a couple has been fostering children for years. No one warned Mila the farm was haunted, but she starts to see the ghosts almost immediately, and along with them, her memories of how she ended up alone in the world start flooding back to haunt her.
I’m a person who avoids what seem on the surface to be “sad” books. I used to love them, but ever since I had my daughters, I can’t handle reading about grief. Which is why I avoided Nina LaCour’s books for a long time. The thing about them, however, is that even though the ones I’ve read are technically sad, they are also beautiful and hopeful and filled with a pulse of quiet longing that is breathtaking. She writes characters that I want to wrap in hugs and blankets and rock to sleep promising everything will be okay. Mila broke my heart, but reading her journey also helped put it back together.
Watch Over Me is a beautiful, quiet, hopeful, and ultimately really life-affirming book that will appeal to anyone who’s ever had to face a ghost or figure out how to belong in world where you don’t seem to fit.
Thank you to @bookishfirst and @duttonbooks for copy of this book.
This YA book is a haunting reflection on the importance of family and what it means to have to find your own when you’ve been let down by the family you were born into. And yes, it’s also a ghost story of sorts. I suspect LaCour might argue with my use of the phrase “let down.” There’s a generosity in the way she writes her characters that makes me think she wouldn’t want any of them judged, even the less perfect ones.
High school graduate Mila has aged out of the foster care system, and the family she’s living isn’t going to adopt her (a situation that is also handled with beautiful and heartbreaking subtlety). She accepts a job as a teacher at a remote farm in California where a couple has been fostering children for years. No one warned Mila the farm was haunted, but she starts to see the ghosts almost immediately, and along with them, her memories of how she ended up alone in the world start flooding back to haunt her.
I’m a person who avoids what seem on the surface to be “sad” books. I used to love them, but ever since I had my daughters, I can’t handle reading about grief. Which is why I avoided Nina LaCour’s books for a long time. The thing about them, however, is that even though the ones I’ve read are technically sad, they are also beautiful and hopeful and filled with a pulse of quiet longing that is breathtaking. She writes characters that I want to wrap in hugs and blankets and rock to sleep promising everything will be okay. Mila broke my heart, but reading her journey also helped put it back together.
Watch Over Me is a beautiful, quiet, hopeful, and ultimately really life-affirming book that will appeal to anyone who’s ever had to face a ghost or figure out how to belong in world where you don’t seem to fit.
Thank you to @bookishfirst and @duttonbooks for copy of this book.