Her only daughter has just gone away to college, and Maggie O'Farrell knows she's turning into one of those helicopter parents she used to mock. Worrying constantly, texting more than she should, even occasionally dropping by the campus "just to say hi." But Maggie can't shake the feeling that something terrible is about to happen to Emma. And then, just as Maggie starts to relax, her daughter disappears.
The clues are disturbing. An empty dorm room where Emma was supposedly living. A mysterious boy described as Future Husband in her phone. Dormmates who seem more sinister than friendly. As Maggie combs over the campus looking for signs of her daughter, she learns more about Emma's life than she ever thought possible.
Comment: This book got on my radar some years ago after seeing it recommended in a review by someone whose blog I follow. The opinion was solid enough to convince me to try, but now that I have, I wasn't as impressed by it as that other reader.
Maggie is a concerned mom when she is told no one has seen her college student daughter Emma for a while. She fears the worst because as a former cop wife she is quite used to how things can progress in these types of situations so she decides to go there and look for clues about why Emma went missing. As she does this, she meets several people who have interacted with Emma and the picture they paint isn't one of a happy, carefree student. They also tell her Emma was focused on a story she was investigating for the school paper, but as Maggie finds and talks to Emma's contacts, she realizes her daughter didn't have many real friends... what was happening, what happened to Emma?
I had not read anything by the author before this book and I was surprised by the writing style, it's very introspective and, sadly, a little boring. I was also a little confused by what the book tried to be, if woman's fiction or a suspense. I guess it was both in a way, but I think this option didn't work out for me that well, unlike what the person whose review I liked had experienced. Of course, people always have different reactions to everything...
This isn't a big book but I felt like I was trying to read it for too long. The pace is rather slow, although we have two POVs, in alternated chapters. Maggie is looking for Emma and in Emma's chapters she is doing her investigation into female students who are apparently being convinced to be escorts for sugar daddies. The juxtaposition of the events is an interesting way to get to know the mother/daughter duo but I struggled to concentrate because the story seemed more focused on their inner thoughts and not exactly on their actions.
To be honest, I didn't really feel much connection to both Maggie and Emma. I mean, I did sympathize with Maggie's past (her cop husband died, but he had had an affair, etc.) and her fear for her daughter, and I liked it that she wanted to protect/find her in any way possible,even if that included being bothersome to those who had been in contact with Emma, but sometimes her attitude felt a little too brash and out of place. Sometimes even bordering on maniacal. I think she is a good mother but I didn't find her to be such a compelling character and only the mystery made me continue to read.
Emma was a bit whiny. I can, again, sympathize with her feelings of inadequacy and disappointment over what college life really was, but her characterization was too awkward and made her seem more juvenile than what she probably was. The investigation on what goes on on campus for some of the girls and several of the men in certain positions was intriguing enough but I admit I felt no interest whatsoever on Emma's investigation skills nor on her methods to do so. Most of the time, she read as someone who wanted to seem more able than, perhaps, she really was, and that translated into attempting to be in control of something.
The investigation she decides to do has merit and felt like an important thing to turn public but I can't decide if the author planned on writing this so that Emma's actions would seem movie-ready (this story would likely work out well in movie format) or if she is simply too naive to assume her investigation would be done without anyone noticing. I mean, it's not as if she is a professional reporter, so without enough logistical support, her actions felt a little immature and quickly lost track of what should matter or not in what she was doing.
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