Book Review: Watch Over Me by Nina LaCour
Today, I’m reviewing Nina LaCour’s latest novel, Watch Over Me. With a little bit of supernatural, a lot of broken children, and even more healing, this novel was a pleasantly quick read.
Book Information
Mila has done something bad. Something horrible that she’s not sure she’ll ever come back from. That’s why she decides to go to the farm. That’s why she decides it’s okay to live in seclusion and without cell service. It would be a nice change for her from the foster system that she’s been in. When she gets to the farm, though, through all the happy faces and other children who were in the foster system, Mila can’t seem to feel like she belongs. Not to mention, the ghost children who come out every night put Mila on edge. As she gets closer to each person at the farm, she wants desperately to be a part of them. But what it might take to become a part of their family might be more than Mila can bear.
Review | Heidi Dischler
I’m gonna preface this by saying that I read We Are Okay and absolutely adored it. I thought it was so full of pain and healing and so much more that drew me into the book. For this one? I wasn’t as into it as I hoped I would be.
The prologue, to me at least, was completely pointless. I felt like it gave you a version of the novel that just wasn’t there and it set the wrong tone. I don’t particularly like prologues, though, so it might just be my personal preference.
As far as plot and characters go, the characters were all absolutely amazing. I wish we would have gotten a little more background on Terry and Julia, the farm’s owners, but it is to be expected that you don’t get that much development with this small of a novel. However, with the pages that were there, Nina LaCour packed a lot of emotional and personal development into her characters. With the plot, though–and this may have been intended–I felt like I was floating around aimlessly with the ghosts on the farm. It was very hard for me to read consistently in this novel until I was way closer to the end of it. All in all, for 260-something pages, it took me nearly a week and a half to read. I’m not saying that it was a bad novel. I liked it and the message that it gave. It just wasn’t my favorite.
Spoilers ahead.
I won’t have a whole lot for spoilers today because the novel itself is so short, but I do want to talk about the ghost children in more depth.
I really really liked how Nina LaCour made it supernatural in an almost not-supernatural way. I know that sounds convoluted and confusing, but hear me out. Those ghost children were essentially each foster child’s past. In order to move forward, they had to confront and come to terms with their past. I really loved that concept and can’t praise LaCour’s execution in it enough.
That being said, I’m sad that it took so long to get to that point of understanding. I get that there needs to be tension and a build up, but it felt like there was too much build up sadly.
Overall, I enjoyed the second half of this novel the most. I think LaCour’s writing is entrancing and beautiful. This novel just wasn’t as good as We Are Okay, and I don’t think we as readers could expect it to be. There’s plenty of beautiful prose and heartbreaking moments. So, if you did love her first novel, I definitely recommend that you give this one a try.
Source: Personal Copy
