REVIEW for Where You'll Find Me

TITLE:           Where You'll Find Me

AUTHOR:       Natasha Friend

GENRE:           YA

RATING:         

I enjoy Natasha Friend's books. She writes smart books on tough subjects that, IMO, are must reads for YA.

Where You'll Find Me is the newest entry. Actually this book is middle grade oriented with a main character who is 13 years old. Maybe this is part of the issue for me. As an adult, who enjoys reading YA with social issues as the main theme, I like a storyline that is usually a lot more raw. 

Friend depicts mental illness with tact and in a realistic way, but it is everything else surrounding this novel that annoyed me. NONE of the adults in this book seem to realize just how damaged Anna is, after she walked in on her mother's suicide attempt. Really????? I could, maybe buy this, if this book was written in 1960, but wow! this 2016 and somebody should have done something for this poor child.

Anna frustrated me at times. She literally DOES NOT speak up for herself AT ALL EVER! In fact, when she does, she mumbles something that nobody even bothers to ask her to repeat. I realize that Anna is going through so many things in this story, but at times, I wanted to scream at her to OPEN HER MOUTH and say something to help herself.

On the plus side, the relationships here are actually somewhat healthy. Marnie is not the evil stepmother (thankfully - it feels as though that has been done to death) so the relationship between Anna and Marie worked for me.

I also liked the relationship between Anna and her school friends - sweet and endearing to read.

Anna's parents really dropped the ball in this story - and the father was a useless character for me. I much preferred Anna and Marnie together than any kind of relationship she had with her own father.

The book is well written and obviously aimed at a middle grade audience. Overall, I liked this book.