Book Review,  Fiction,  Women's Fiction

BOOK REVIEW: Sophie Last Seen by Marlene Adelstein @fixyourbook #bookreview #bookblog #sophielastseen

February 27, 2019 /

Emotionally, this book got me right in the feels! Marlene Adelstein’s debut novel Sophie Last Seen tells the story of a mother stuck in a perpetual state of grieving after the disappearance of her daughter Sophie 6 years previously. I found this book to be extremely engaging—it read so quickly for the genre. Adelstein is a great voice in women’s fiction, who writes compelling characters with messy lives who are loveable in all of their flaws.

About the Book

Six years ago, ten-year-old Sophie Albright disappeared from a shopping mall. Her mother, Jesse, is left in a self-destructive limbo, haunted by memories of her intense and difficult child, who was obsessed with birds. Trapped in her grief and guilt, Jesse stumbles through her workdays at a bookstore and spends her off hours poring over Sophie’s bird journals or haunting the mall to search for the face of her missing child.

When Star Silverman, Sophie’s best friend, starts working at the bookstore, Jesse is uncomfortable around the sarcastic teen, who is a constant reminder of her daughter. But Star has secrets of her own, and her childhood memories could be the key to solving Sophie’s disappearance.

With help from Star and Kentucky “Tuck” Barnes, a private detective on the trail of another missing girl, Jesse may finally get some closure, one way or the other.

Reflection

The protagonist Jesse is in so much pain, it is almost hard to face her scenes. In the wake of her daughter’s disappearance, her marriage slowly crumbled and everyone seems to have moved on but Jesse. Instead, Jesse is stuck in a perpetual cycle of trying to make sense of Sophie’s disappearance. She gathers items that she believes “found” her—she is convinced they are messages from Sophie. She crafts the objects together into stories, certain they hold the answer to what happened to Sophie that day.

The alienation I felt when reading Jesse’s scenes was so compelling, because truly that must be how it would feel to be in Jesse’s shoes. Everyone wants Jesse to move on, but Jesse isn’t ready to. How can she move on when she doesn’t know what happened to Sophie? Jesse is also an artist, though she stopped her drawing and painting after Sophie disappeared. But the objects and stories Jesse puts together are their own type of art. They are what is helping Jesse process the lack of answers in her life.

One thing that Adelstein did well was make Sophie an imperfect—but loved—daughter and friend. I find in a lot of books about a missing child, the child is inevitably glorified. How sweet they were. Sophie was by all accounts an incredibly difficult child. And the guilt Jesse feels for knowing that sometimes, despite loving Sophie, she felt frustrated by her. She wished at times for Sophie to be an easier child. None of that detracts from how strongly Jesse loved Sophie.

There were some stories that seemed compelling but didn’t land as well. The story of the runaway that opens the book works as a great catalyst for where we are in Jesse’s story, because for a moment the reader feels, like Jesse does, that maybe this girl will end up being Sophie. However, the story of this girl carries through about half the book to ultimately sort of tie up and fade quickly. This is a really minor critique, because there is so much to love about the ending to this book. I must admit I forgot about this story until I was reflecting on the novel as a whole!

Star is also an interesting character. She’s so broken. She seems to be one of the few people besides Jesse who loved Sophie purely, despite her flaws and challenges. Star is having a rough time, and her chapters are an important view into the struggles of adolescents. It’s easy to think that she was young and the disappearance won’t still be effecting her.

Overall I found this a quick, emotional read with a fantastic story and a fascinating but fitting conclusion. Thank you to the author for my copy. Opinions are my own.

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