Bern's Bookcase: The Child Finder Book Review

The Child Finder - "Each child she found was a molecule, a part of herself still remaining in the scary world she had left behind. Eventually they would all come together and form one being, knitted together in triumph. We are not forgotten, her action told her. You will not put us aside." 

 

Madison Culver disappeared in the woods one snowy day as her family searched for a Christmas tree. One moment she was there, the next she was gone. The snow swiftly covering her tracks. Madison was presumed buried in the snow or scavenged by animals. How could a 5 year old girl survive for long in the cold, snowy woods? 

Love and hope go hand in hand. After 3 years, Madison's mother still believed someone had taken her and that she was alive. Desperate but unwilling to give up on her daughter she contacted Naomi, a private investigator known as the Child Finder, for help. 

Naomi had a special talent for finding missing children. There had been a time when Naomi herself was a lost child. There are many questions in regards to Naomi's past. The trauma she endured is buried deep within her. Fragments of memories inevitably coming to the surface in her dreams. Is her mind protecting her from what had been done to her or from her own terrible guilt? 

The story unfolds from various perspectives giving us different insight at various points in the story as it switches from the past to the present. We get a first hand account of Madison's captivity and it was heartbreaking. It literally broke my heart to read those parts. Denfeld wrote with sensitivity, her words almost poetic in their blending of Madison's nightmarish reality with her magical fairytale like fantasies. Yet there was no mistaking the imagery - the moments were still dark, terrifying and horrible. She endured horrors no child should ever have to endure.

It feels almost impossible to explain how a book seeped with such darkness and sorrow was also full of love, hope and bravery. Yet it was. I look forward to reading more from Rene Denfeld and seeing what happens with Naomi in the future.

"No matter how far you have run, no matter how long you have been lost, it is never too late to be found."