This book is cleverly written, taking the reader from past to present throughout the story. This story of an adult who was abducted as a child is complex and completely absorbing. It kept me guessing until near the end, and I am still thinking about the complexities of this story days after having finished reading it. I also read the afterword and this too was very interesting as it explains how the author came up with the idea of writing this story.

What a fabulous suspenseful story this is. Really enjoyed the ‘now’ and ‘then’ see sawing of the story and the way the backstory first misleads the reader and then takes it to a conclusion. Didn’t guess the ‘who dun it’ aspect at all either, which is always great in a mystery. Will read more from this author.

Twenty years ago, Sammy Went was taken from her home in Manson, Kentucky. She’s now a photography teacher called Kim Leamy, living in Australia, completely unaware of her forgotten past until her long-lost brother Stuart tracks her down.

Flying back to America, Kim and Stuart try to get to the bottom of why she was kidnapped and how she ended up living on the other side of the world. Having lost her ‘mum’ years ago and unable to get the truth out of her stepfather, Kim has no choice but to dive into the deepest, darkest parts of Manson. Of particular interest a snake-obsessed cult called The Church of the Light Within, who seem to have brainwashed her mother shortly prior to her abduction…

When I first finished The Nowhere Child I gave it four stars, because it filled me with adrenaline. It has a hugely climactic ending that had me rushing to finish and a twist-filled resolution that I didn’t see coming, and it’s not often that thrillers surprise me!

However, after a couple of days reflection I’ve realised that one of the reasons I didn’t see the ending coming was because the red herrings placed throughout are done in an extremely unskillful manner, purposefully duping the reader and not making much sense to the wider plot.

The detective in charge of the case arranges a date with someone with the surname Leamy, making it impossible to believe it’s anyone other than Kim’s kidnapper – it’s a very unusual surname, after all – but she’s dropped in and then never revisited, so it’s not very satisfying to be misled in such an unsubtle way.

Then there’s the surname of the main family. A girl with the surname of Went gets kidnapped? Jeeeeeesus, that’s some heavy-handed naming. Cringe.

The plot of The Nowhere Child is intelligent, but these simple choices definitely detract from the impact of the book. It’s frustrating, because they’re such easy things to change, and I’m surprised that they weren’t altered during the editing process: if the red herrings had been gentle hints rather than forceful shoves in the wrong direction it would have been a far more enjoyable novel.

However, those aspects are only enough to get me to drop my rating down to three stars, because I still enjoyed the majority of The Nowhere Child. Bouncing from the present day back to when Sammy was taken, we get to learn more about the Went family and the people of Manson, and I found myself interested in all of their stories.

This book features a very strong cast of characters, from Sammy’s mother – struggling with post-natal depression and embraced by a cult – to Sammy’s father, who himself is struggling with his sexuality. Although I didn’t like some of the characters, I enjoyed reading about all of them, and I would have happily read this as a duology – one book taking place at the time when Sammy was taken, and one picking up the story twenty years later when Stuart managed to track Kim down.

I’m certainly going to be looking out for Christian White’s work in the future, because The Nowhere Child shows an author with a lot of potential. It’s not a surprise that it’s won the same award that The Dry by Jane Harper took home a few years ago (and you all know how much I love The Dry!) so hopefully I’ll enjoy Christian White’s future novels just as much as I adore Harper’s.

What a different type of story; I didn’t know what to expect, but it wasn’t what I got. The story had me guessing all the way. It was chilling in places, but not a horror book at all, everything was so cleverly described. The characters were interesting with each having a good story to tell. I would recommend this book, but not if you don’t want to be reading it all night to find out what happens.

Overall a fair read.

A woman finds out that she was abducted as a child but has no recollection of this. As she travels to Kentucky and meets her biological family, she sees the effect her abduction has had and manages to uncover the secrets hidden in the small town.

I liked the twist on the abduction, however the characters were a bit formulaic and I thought some of the plot was predictable.

One day, Kim Leamy is approached by Stuart Went and is told that she is his long lost sister, Sammy, who disappeared in Manson , Kentucky over 20 years ago. Kim's stepfather, Dean, who knows more than he is telling her advisies her not to go to Manson. Kim's story is told in alternate chapters with Sammy's.

The alternating chapters is annoying at first as the reader is mainly interested in what happened in the past. It is only when Kim discovers more of her story does the plot of both past and present speed up. I nearly gave up at the beginning, but am glad I stuck with it as I really enjoyed the book finishing the last third in one go.

A really good read so don't be put off by a slow start.

Kim is a college lecturer having an ordinary day preparing for class when she is approached in a café by a man who says that he believes she is his sister, Sammy, who disappeared as a toddler in the 1990s. Kim lives in Australia, and had a happily uneventful childhood with her mother, sister and stepfather. Stuart and his family are from Kentucky.

It soon becomes clear that Kim is Sammy. The Nowhere Child is about how Kim comes to terms with the news, and the mystery of how she ended up on another continent. She agrees to travel to the US with Stuart and meet her birth family.

The narrative follows two timelines, Kim’s present and her family’s story in the period immediately before and after Sammy’s disappearance.

I thought the story of Sammy’s disappearance and her family’s reaction was well done, especially the inner conflicts of the family. Her father has left a fundamentalist religious community which includes snake handling in its rituals but is still struggling to come to terms with his own beliefs. Conversely, his wife has converted and become a devout follower of the church. As the parents become increasingly estranged, Sammy’s adolescent sister is trying to make sense of it all.

I was less sure of the present-day story. Events don’t move at the pace you would expect. Kim and Stuart decide to take a road trip to see the various members of their birth family (without even phoning ahead!) apparently not considering that the news will travel faster than they will. The media do cover the story, but doesn’t intrude. A local police officer asks Kim to meet him for coffee and a chat at her convenience. Surely they would be subject to round-the-clock media attention and the scrutiny of the FBI?

Kim is a photographer so you would expect her to have an intense visual awareness, but in her narrative I didn’t get much sense of curiosity about the unfamiliar world she finds herself in, or sensitivity to what she perceives.

The ending for me also felt oddly muted. Once Kim learns the truth, it upends everything she understood about her life to date, but her response is to give a philosophical shrug and look to the future.

This is worth a look if you like good pace and plot but for me the author didn’t quite follow through on the implications of the premise.

A child was stolen twenty years ago
Little Sammy Went vanishes from her home in Manson, Kentucky – an event that devastates her family and tears apart the town’s deeply religious community.

And somehow that missing girl is you
Kim Leamy, an Australian photographer, is approached by a stranger who turns her world upside down – he claims she is the kidnapped Sammy and that everything she knows about herself is based on a lie.

How far will you go to uncover the truth?
In search of answers, Kim returns to the remote town of Sammy’s childhood to face up to the ghosts of her early life. But the deeper she digs into her family background the more secrets she uncovers… And the closer she gets to confronting the trauma of her dark and twisted past.

****

I really really enjoyed this book. It was something quite different. I thought the plot was very cleverly woven together.

To say this is a debut book, I cannot wait to see what the author comes up with next. I also really liked his note to the readers at the end of the book. Highly recommended by me!

This was such a great read. A girl raised in Australia gets a visit from a man claiming that she was snatched as a child and is potentially her brother.
This book was cleverly written, believable and hard to put down. The reader is so easily transported into 'Kim's' life and her feelings throughout her journey of finding the truth. You get a sense of each and every character, good people, saviours, family and worshippers. I would highly recommend this book.

As a debut novel, this has to be commended., A great concept for a storyline that is reasonably well executed.

Kim, a photographer in Australia is approached by a man claiming she is really Sammy, an American child who disappeared from home at 2 years old.

The novel flips between the past to tell the story of Sammy's disappearance and the effect it had on the family and the present to describe Kim's reaction to her world being utterly shattered by finding out her upbringing was all the time hiding the lie of who she really was.

The story is enjoyable and manages to keep sufficient secrets until the closing chapters making it a real page-turner. There are areas I would have liked the author to go into more but the story didn't really suffer for the lack of depth on these areas so I can't mark it down for this.

Would definitely recommend.

there was something about this book that kept me reading. my first thoughts after finishing it were, “i really enjoyed that!”

many thanks to netgalley and the publishers for the advanced copy in exchange for an honest review.

I really enjoyed this book...loved the format with 'then' and 'now' paragraphs, culminating in both time periods merging for the finale! Plenty of twists and turns...and snakes!!!

A great debut from Christian White. As winner of the Victorian Premier Literary Award, The Nowhere Child has big shoes to fill (previously won by The Dry and The Rosie Project) and it’s more than up to the challenge.

The plot is essentially that of a kidnapping- tried and tested - but it’s a kidnapping with a difference, it turns out the kidnapped child of some 20 years ago is one of our lead characters, and she’s not been mistreated, tortured or bullied but has been nurtured, loved and cared for. So, where to from here? That my dear is where the reading comes in.

This is a great psychological thriller, it’s taut, fast paced and unique, a great blend of family angst and unspoken menace. Thank-you Mr White for recognising the pact between author and reader as sacred and especially for ‘taking this shit seriously’, in exchange I have no hesitation in highly recommending The Nowhere Child and unreservedly saying it was well worth my time. Not to mention the shoes were most definitely filled.

Thanks to Netgalley for providing an advanced copy in return for an honest review.

Imagine waking up one morning and everything you know is a lie and there was possibly a life before in a totally different country. Kim could have been sammy. Kim journeys back to where her life could have started to meet with a family she knew nothing about. Brilliant book full of the unexpected. The book goes between what was happening at the time of the disappearance and present day. I will be adding this author to my ones to watch. 💜

A well written book based over 2 time frames and 2 Continents but not difficult to follow . A girl is approached in Melbourne by an "amateur investigator" who says he believes she is a girl called Sammy who disappeared as a 2 year old in America many years earlier , abducted from her parents who were part of a Cult religion . There are many twists and surprises as the story unfolds told from the earlier days of the abduction and her knowledge of her mother and stepfather who come under suspicion , but all is not as it seems as you think you know what is coming next .

What would you do if a stranger could prove without a doubt that you aren't the person you think you are? Would you want to know the truth and discover the who, when and how? Or would you just ignore the possibility of another life and identity?

Kim, an Australian photographer, thinks it is all some kind of sick joke when she is approached by someone who believes she is Sammy Went, a young child who went missing in the United States a few decades ago.

The premise of a missing child isn't a new one, however the author has added an extra layer of intrigue to the basic 'girl gone - girl found' storyline. Nature vs nurture and whether blood takes precedence over non-blood related relationships plays a pivotal role in this story and also for Kim. The meeting with her birth-mother is fascinating and is actually a key part of the plot.

Religion is used to control the masses, and yet simultaneously it is also a factor of comfort for many people. The majority feels as if they need to be guided and live by a set of rules written by men many centuries ago, and interpreted both now and then by men in a way that suits their own agenda.

The small town Sammy disappeared from is full of members of a religious community who use bizarre dangerous practices to prove their connection with and the existence of God. This includes the family of Sammy Went. A family torn apart by the mystery, the guilt and the secrets they keep hidden despite perhaps being able to help find the child.

It's a psychological thriller with a focus on relationships and takes the reader into the dark delusional world of cults and religious zealots. The main character struggles to connect with a past she has no recollection of and reconcile the happy childhood she experienced with her old family and her new one. It's an excellent read.

This has to be one of the most impressive novels I have ever read. That it is a first novel makes it even more impressive. It is stunning. The conception is very good; the execution is brilliant. Absolutely first class.

This is an excellent book, very well written with many twists & turns. Not the type of book I normally read but there was something about it that intrigued me from the start and I wasn’t disappointed. Fabulous!

A slow burn but definitely not lacking in action, pace and suspense. Wanted to keep on reading and finding out about the kidnapped girl. The book changed from present to past and I enjoyed this. A psychological thriller well worth reading. Thank you to net galley and the publisher for letting me review this book.

What would you do if a man turned up in your life claiming to be your brother, and that you were his sister who was kidnapped 28 years previously? I suppose most of us can never know but this novel tries to show how Australian woman Kim responds.

The quality of the writing is very good (I get the feeling the author spent time and effort on it which I don't necessarily always feel from the crime/mystery genre at the moment) and really engages the reader.
While I wasn't sure about Kim's quick acceptance of her status as long ago kidnapped child, the author rationalises her acceptance through interactions with her step-father and it feels believable enough.
The action moves on very quickly and perhaps that is the most important thing as we then get to finding out what actually happened in America in 1990.

The characters are vividly brought to life and the small town setting of Manson almost feels like an extra character in its own right. As the diverse characters are slowly brought together we discover more, and much of it is really rather unexpected. Even as you think you have guessed the twist there is another twist upon it to throw you off the scent.

A worthwhile read and I look forward to reading more by this author.