Cover Image: The Nowhere Child

The Nowhere Child

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Member Reviews

Was immediately hooked after the first few pages - had to know if Kim was Sammy Went . Loved how the story unfolded and the characters developed but found the weird religious stuff near the end a bit hard to take . Don’t think we have many cults here in Australia .
Overall a good read that I couldn’t put down .

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I raced through reading this book. It was fast paced and I was keen to see the mystery resolved. I enjoyed the fact it was set in both Melbourne and Kentucky with different cultural references and swapping effortlessly from past to present A real page turner and a great tale

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This was an interesting read, flipping back and forth between then and now while you try to work out exactly what happened. Kim, now 28 has discovered that she most likely is the girl Sammy who went missing when she was two years old, 26 years earlier. She heads back to the USA to try to understand what happened.
I did enjoy the book and was surprised more than once with the twists although I did find I was speed reading through parts of the book because I didn't find it relevant to the story or to solving the mystery.
The ending was great though and I was thoroughly satisfied with the outcome and finding out exactly what had happened 26 years earlier.
Thanks to Hachette Australia for the ARC via NetGalley.

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Two year old Sammy Went is missing.
Someone has taken her. But who?
Was it her mother, Molly, a convert to the cultish church of the Light Within?
Was it her father, Jack, a man with a secret in his heart and a violent temper?
Was it her sister, Emma, who added Sammy’s name to the kill list on wall of the dilapidated grist mill?
Was it the shadow man, lurking in the woods where he had no reason to be?
Was it the Eckles family, led by drunken matriarch Ava and her unpredictable sons Patrick and Travis?
I was gripped by this tense and terrifying mystery as it moved between Melbourne and Kentucky to uncover the secrets of the past and reveal their consequences on the present.
Christian White won the Victorian Premier’s Literary Award for Best Unpublished Manuscript in 2017 for this debut novel.
Watch for this one on shelves June 26, 2018, published by @affirmpress
Thank you to @netgalley and @hachetteaus for the opportunity to read an advance copy of The Nowhere Child.

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Unfortunately this was not the type of book I expected. The plot outline sounded intriguing but the playing out of the story is not the sort of book I enjoy reading. I was not caught up in the story enough to persevere to the end. My rating is based purely on my personal feeling about the book and not necessarily a criticism of the quality of the writing.

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I really loved this book, what a fantastic debut. The author has done a fantastic job of writing from the woman’s point of view.
Kim Leamy is a photography teacher in Melbourne. One day she is approached by a man who shows her a photo of 2 year old Sammy Went, who went missing not long after birthday. He believes that Kim is Sammy. At first Kim is sceptical, she had a loving mother and father, a happy childhood and memories. But when she starts to look into the past she finds no photos of herself before the age of 2 and there is a resemblance between her toddler photos and the photo she was shown. She decides to travel to Manson, Kentucky to see where Sammy lived and talk to her family, but Manson is a town full of secrets not to mention the religious cult who worship snakes. Full of page turning twists and reveals, I loved every word of this novel and was genuinely surprised by the last twist at the end. I can’t wait to see what this guy writes next. #netgalley #nowherechild

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Damn, that was a great book. I received an ARC from Affirm Press and started reading that same day. The plot is intriguing and is told from many POVS. The switching between the ‘Now’ and ‘Then’ timelines kept the plot interesting and I really enjoyed the chapters by Jack Went (Sammy’s Father). This book is not just about solving who did it but it also showcases many sub plots that capture your heart. I’m eagerly awaiting release day so I can recommend Nowhere Child to other readers. 😊

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I absolutely loved Nowhere Child. A fantastic book from new Australian Author Christian White. It literally ketp me guessing till the very end. I can't wait to read more by this author.

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