Somewhere Out There by Amy Hatvany Find the Author: Website, Twitter, Facebook, Goodreads
Published by Simon and Schuster on March 1st 2016
Narrator: Candace Thaxton, Cassandra Campbell, Rebekkah Ross
Genres: Fiction
Purchase links: Amazon, Audible
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Source: Simon & Schuster Audio
What happens when two sisters who were torn apart when their young mother abandoned them—and grew up in tragically different circumstances—reunite thirty-five years later to find her? For readers who love Jodi Picoult, acclaimed author Amy Hatvany fearlessly explores complex family issues in her gripping, provocative new novel.
Natalie Clark knew never to ask her sensitive adoptive mother questions about her past. She doesn’t even know her birth mother’s name—only that the young woman signed parental rights over to the state when Natalie was a baby. Now Natalie’s own daughter must complete a family tree project for school, and Natalie is determined to unearth the truth about her roots.
Brooke Walker doesn’t have a family. At least, that’s what she tells herself after being separated from her mother and her little sister at age four. Having grown up in a state facility and countless foster homes, Brooke survives the only way she knows how, by relying on herself. So when she discovers she’s pregnant, Brooke faces a heart-wrenching decision: give up her baby or raise the child completely on her own. Scared and confused, she feels lost until a surprise encounter gives her hope for the future.
How do our early experiences—the subtle and the traumatic—define us as adults? How do we build relationships when we’ve been deprived of real connection? Critically acclaimed author Amy Hatvany considers controversial and complicated questions about childhood through the lens of her finely crafted characters in this astute novel about mending wounds by diving into the truth of what first tore us apart.
We received this book/audiobook for free in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect our opinion of the book or the content of our review.
Audiobook Review: 5 Stars
Somewhere Out There is one beautiful and heartbreaking story about family, decisions, deceptions and second chances. This book had me crying for days, I usually listen to audiobooks on my way to the office or when I’m outside walking. Well… I couldn’t do that with this book because it was so damn sad! I couldn’t stop my tears. This was an emotional read, full of lessons for life, and despite I didn’t agree with some of their decisions, I had to accept the fact that this book isn’t the normal romance novel with a happily ever after that I’m used to read, this is woman’s fiction—more like woman’s reality—and what these women had to face in their lives was hard and their decisions were right for them, whether i like it or not.
This is the story of Jennifer, Natalie and Brooke. Jennifer was a single mom, homeless, very young and desperate. She was trying so hard to survive with her two young girls, Natalie and Brooke, and she did what she had to do to give them food and some place warm to sleep at night. Sadly, what she did wasn’t always the wise thing to do. One night, she was caught stealing in a store and she was sent to prison for a year, and her kids were to be put in the foster care system, but after thinking what was best for her kids, she decided to give up her custody of them and say goodbye for ever, since she wasn’t able to take care for them.
And this is how this book started. Jennifer giving up her children after being sent to jail, and Brooke, a 4 year old kid, and Natalie, a 6 months old baby, were sent to a foster home. Quicky Natalie was adopted by a lovely couple and she had a good life, full of love and the best opportunities. That wasn’t Brooke’s fate. She jumped from one foster home to another and was never adopted. She never had what her sister Natalie had, a lovely family or a good opportunity in her life, but she grew to be a good woman. This book tells what these three characters had to live during their lives, the good, the bad, the worst and gladly, the better.
35 years later, Natalie decided to look for her biological mother and in the search, she knew about her older sister Brooke, so the need to find them both was bigger everyday. The sisters reunion was something beautiful but the mother and daughters reunion not so much—the bitterer cherry on top of this story.
The audiobook was perfectly narrated by Cassandra Campbell, Rebekkah Ross, Candace Thaxton. The different tones of their voices were just perfect for each of the women of this story. They transmitted all their emotions, the sadness, the desperation but also the hope of having their family reunited.
This was definitely a book that took me out of my comfort zone. It doesn’t have romance—at least it’s not the main topic, because they all found love in their lives, some of them were good, some not—and it made me cry like a baby. I’m glad I read it, it made me think how much a single mother has to give up for their children’s sake and—what I’m going to say is something very personal, but what the hell—it makes me so proud to be the daughter of a single mother who always did what was best for me and never gave up.
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