its difficult to write in the voice of a child, Ive had pretty good luck finding authors that do it well, This is why I had such high hopes for All The Lost Things by Michelle Sacks, a work of fiction about a Dad abducting hisyearold daughter Dolly.
It seemed like it would be a mix of suspense, family drama and adventureand it was definitely all those things, unfortunately Dollys voice was a little too realistic, grating on my nerves as I continued through thepages.
Dolly is excited to go on a road trip with just her Dad, Normally shes with her Mom who has recently started seeing an older man with big plans for them both, so Dolly prefers to be at home with her toys, or with both her parents at the same time.
As with any book written from a childs perspective, the reader has to infer what is truly happening, As this book chugs along and Dolly gets further and further from home, we realize that her Dad is on the run from something, most likely connected to this other man that has entered her mothers life.
Because we are learning about Dollys life through her eyes only, we swing between empathy for her father and her mother, Her Dad lost his job during the financial crash of, so he now works at a used car dealership and drinks heavily when he gets home.
Her Mom is obsessed with her appearance, dieting, and getting the big break that will cement her career as a famous actress, Sometimes Dollys memories of her are pleasant, as her Mom seems like the fun parent who often encouraged and participated in imaginative play, but she also recalls being dragged to the malls for shopping trips where the purchased things in secret.
It only takes a few chapters to realize that both parental figures in Dollys life are struggling, which furthers the already deepening sense of dread one feels while reading about Dollys abduction.
Its not obvious whether she is heading toward an improved, or worsened situation until the very end of the book, so the low hum of anxiety never really abates for the reader.
Author Michelle Sacks
I was only a few pages into the book before I realized that I wasnt going to love it, all because of the strange way the author chose to capitalize so many words as Dolly spoke them.
The capitalization seems like it was meant for emphasis, or to draw attention to bigger words that Dolly had picked up from an adult, but it only served to annoy me.
This capitalization is used so often, multiples times per page even it continually forced my attention away from the scene to dwell on these ultimately meaningless words.
This quote about a doll house below demonstrates not only this strange stylistic choice, but the way Dolly parrots what is said around her:
“Dad took forever to make my wooden one because he is good at being DISAPPOINTING.
He only did it after a big fight with Mom and after that, he set aside a whole weekend and didnt come out of the basement until it was done.
”p.
On the page that the quote appears, there areother words that are capitalized, so you can see why this grated on my nerves.
Normally I dont mind reading capitalization in peoples correspondence because theyll only use it once or twice, but Sacks use of it over and over again rendered it pointless.
The other characters that Dolly and her Dad come across on their trip are increasingly depressing, from the povertystricken children forced to pick cans for money around their motel, to the pregnant teenager with a newborn baby she already neglects, to the veteran with a basement full of of guns suffering from PTSD, there isnt much to look to for hope in this book.
Im never one to shy away from realism in a story, but this novel is relentless so its hard to find hope in anything, A book that deals with dark subject matter can be lifted up by its writing, so even if everything seems hard from the characters perspective, the reader can escape into the beauty of the text for a little relief.
Unfortunately, nothing in All The Lost Things offers that respite,
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Not usually a suspense person but I loved this, The narration style was unique, the story was riveting and the writing was fantastic,
At times, the pace slowed down and could be considered SLIGHTLY redundant but regardless it was a quick and enjoyable read that id certainly recommend.
I recently read "You Were Made for This" by Michelle Sacks and absolutely loved it so when the library finally reopened I was first in line to get this one.
I really liked Dolly in the beginning, then the capitalization in her mind of certain words and phrases was so frequent that it started to really annoy me but I got past it and really started to like Dolly again.
The presentation reminded me of Ginny Moon which I read fairly recently, All through the book I was trying to figure out why her dad had suddenly taken her on an adventure but assumed there was something unpleasant involved.
I was pretty tearyeyed at the end, I'd definitely recommend this book to a friend, Oh, I forgot to say that I also loved the cover,.A Goodreads giveaway winner, What a fantastic book. Sevenyearold Dolly is taken on a road trip by her dad to have an adventure, After a few days of driving all day, gas station junk food and questionable motels, Dolly isnt sure this is a good adventure, She relies on Clemesta, her toy horse, for conversation and checking her thoughts, Dolly is sure they are going the wrong way after a day at Dollywood, where she mentions her name and the staff gets excited,
This is a mustread for this year, Sacks does a phenomenal job of getting into the mind of a sevenyearold and translating what she sees there to paper, This author is destined to go places,
A story like this stays with you long after youve turned the last page, the sign of a very thoughtprovoking story,
Wow! What a phenomenal book, What I thought would be an interesting book, turned out to have so many plot twists, Poor dolly had no idea what was going on, but wow! Im still in awe from reading the book, An interesting read from a childs perspective, Amazing. This book was an interesting/ somewhat difficult read, since its told through the point of view of ayear old girl, At the same time this gives a unique perspective/ experience but the CAPS LOCK is distracting, Even tho at some point I struggled to deal with the structure, I just had to finish to see how this poor Dolly worked her young brain through this situation.
A really sad ending too :/ I had the plot pegged after the first quarter, but my God did I bawl when the truth was finally set free.
When Hachette HBG Canada asked if I was interested in this book, I knew I couldn't pass it up, I loved a good domestic and psychological suspense story, And this gave me both,
Told from the POV of sevenyearold Dolly, we follow her through her first adventure alone with her Dad, He packed a bag, grabbed her hand and told her they were going on an adventure while Mom was away on her girls trip, Dolly was over the moon excited to have alone time with him since he generally works too much and is grumpy all the time,
Dolly has a magical toy horse, Clemesta, that speaks only to her, This horse is like the voice of reason and tries so hard to get Dolly to see that things don't seem to be adding up and this adventure is not really all the fun that Daddy promised.
Clemesta tries so many times to open Dolly's eyes to what is right in front of her if she would just let herself remember this leads to her thinking about the secrets she has locked away.
The story is written in exactly the way you would think a sevenyearold processes things, How her mind tucks away details into her NOT NOW box for recalling later, She is a smart cookie and always wanting to learn so during her trip she shares the fun facts that she knows with her Dad and random people they meet along the way.
She distracts herself in this way to avoid the truth of her situation,
It's sad to me that this little girl knows the promises being broken when her Dad drinks the amber liquid he loves so often.
How her anger towards him about it brings him to tears and apologies, I can empathize with her so much with this aspect of her relationship with her Dad,
The entire time through the novel my gut kept telling me what it thought had caused the impromptu road trip, but at the same time I tried to talk myself out of it.
That it wasn't what it seemed, The ending still surprised me a little only because I didn't expect Dolly's father to do what he finally resolved to do when he realized Dolly needed more than just him in her life.
This was a very quick read, but has big impact, There
was a chapter near the end that had me in tears, bawling while laying in bed next to my toddler, She grabbed my face to ask why I was crying and I told her that my story was making me sad, She told me not to be sad, it's just a story, I needed that so much right then, because dramatic stories that centre are around children always have big impact on me,
"Brave was good, Better than anything else you can be, like beautiful or famous or rich, Brave is the best of all because you can't ever lose it or have it stolen from you or leave it behind, It can follow you to the end of the world, "
Aw, man. That ending!!!
SPOILER ALERT, KINDA/SORTA
SCROLL, SOME
A BIT MORE
A BIT MORE
OK, GONNA SAY SOMETHING THAT MIGHT GIVE SOMETHING AWAY NOW.
.
After I finished this book I did a lot of googling about Michelle Sacks and her personal life, and couldn't find anything, At. All.
This book is dedicated to her father, so of course I have to wonder how much real life was in these pages, .