A Guide for Murdered Children
Sarah Sparrow
We all say there is no justice in this world. But what if there really was? What if the souls of murdered children were able to return briefly to this world, inhabit adult bodies and wreak ultimate revenge on the monsters who had killed them, stolen their lives? Such is the unfathomable mystery confronting ex-NYPD detective Willow Wylde, fresh out of rehab and finally able to find a job running a Cold Case squad in suburban Detroit. When the two rookie cops assigned to him take an obsessive interest in a decades old disappearance of a brother and sister, Willow begins to suspect something out of the ordinary is afoot. And when he uncovers a series of church basement AA-type meetings made up of the slain innocents, a new way of looking at life, death, murder and missed opportunities is revealed to him. Mystical, harrowing and ultimately tremendously moving, A Guide for Murdered Children is a genre-busting, mind-bending twist on the fine line between the ordinary and the extraordinary.
Publication Year: 2018
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Thank you to NetGalley and Penguin/Blue Rider Press for the ARC of this novel in exchange for a honest review.
When I read the NetGalley synopsis this book was very intriguing: murdered children coming back as deceased adults to exact revenge on their murderers. Very original! Unfortunately, that original plot is the only reason this book earned a star.
The book is REALLY confusing. Honestly, I had to reread a lot of pages in order to figure it out. And I’ll give it to the book that it was formatted since it’s an I corrected proof but wonky page formatting doesn’t cause a book to be confusing on its own. There were some parts that were so confusing I just stopped reading and moved on. There were a lot of parts of the book that could be written a little more straightforward and still maintained the integrity of the book.
Second, some of the child death scenes are really graphic. I am not normally offended by sex or murder and I regularly read books with heavy themes but some of the graphicness was not necessary and seemed more gratuitous than actually contributing to the plot.
Lastly, the author had a strange writing quirk that really bugged me. Any time she mentioned a new city or suburb she gave you a point of reference to the most well known city but considering this all took place in relatively the same area it wasn’t necessary after the 3rd or 4th new city. Also, I live in the area that this book tales place and some of the information was incorrect but I’ll let her pass on that one since 99% of readers are not going to notice that one.
I really wanted to like this one but I just couldn’t.
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