Review: Me & Emma by Elizabeth Flock

Me & Emma by Elizabeth Flock

Publisher: Mira Books 

Pages: 296 

Format: ebook 

Buy the Book: Amazon 

Goodreads:  The title characters in Me & Emma are very nearly photographic opposites--8-year-old Carrie, the raven-haired narrator, is timid and introverted, while her little sister Emma is a tow-headed powerhouse with no sense of fear. The girls live in a terrible situation: they depend on an unstable mother that has never recovered from her husband's murder, their stepfather beats them regularly, and they must forage on their own for food.

Stop here and you have a story told many times before, as fiction and nonfiction in tales like Ellen Foster, or I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings--stories in which a young girl reveals the horrors of her childhood. Me & Emma differentiates itself with a spectacular finish, shocking the reader and turning the entire story on its head. Through several twists and turns the reader learns that things are not quite the way our narrator led us to believe and everything crescendos in a way that (like all good thrillers) immediately makes you want to go back and read the whole book again from the start.

Kritters Thoughts:  The first of two books, which kept me confused to the bitter end.  Caroline Parker is growing up in a rough home with both parents creating a hostile environment and from the start I cringed reading about the abuse that she had to endure at such a young age.  Throughout the book she has her sister by her side, Emma and without her she would be utterly alone in this sad situation.

Before I started reading this book, I started reading the second book - What Happened to My Sister by accident not knowing that there was some story that I needed to read first.  It is said that these are stand alone, but I wouldn't read the second without reading this one, it sets the stage so the reader isn't completely clueless going into it.  

Because I read the synopsis of the second one and knew the big reveal, I read this book with different lenses on than your average reader.  This I am upset about.  It actually confused me, knowing what I knew and it made me rush through just to get to the end to have my thoughts confirmed.

Maybe I will like the second book better because it will be more of a surprise and I won't be anticipating anything, I will review What Happened to My Sister here on Kritters Ramblings on September 25th.

Rating: enjoyable, but didn't leave me wanting more


Ebook 2012 Challenge: 48 out of 25