Review: Close Your Eyes, Hold Hands by Chris Bohjalian

I had no idea what this book was about when I started it. Was not at all what I was expecting.

Following a nuclear meltdown, which kills both of her parents who worked at the nuclear plant, Emily Shepard is on the run. She feels that she has no where to go because people blame her parents for what happened.

Her life is horrible. The things she does to survive are so disturbing. But Emily is tough. She figures out how to get by, no matter the circumstances.  Her behavior is frighteningly self destructive until she takes in a homeless boy named Cameron. She realizes she has to get her act together in order to take care of him.

I liked this book. It's dark, but not nearly as dark as it could have been or I thought it was going to end up being. There's hope at the end.

This author wrote one of my favorite books, Midwives, which is why I wanted to read this. I'm glad I did read it.

I find myself wanting to recommend this book to my high school students. I think it's something a few of them would like a lot. It has a hint of dystopia, but set very much in the current world.

The audio version of this is really good also. It's read by the author's daughter, and he says he thought of her as her wrote the story - but also that there were parts of the story that he couldn't hear his daughter read because of the events happening in the book to the character.

I received a copy of this via NetGalley.