What’s it all about?:
Kate Rickman seems just like any other nineteen-year-old girl. She goes to university, she dates nice, normal boys and she works in her local tourist office at the weekend. But Kate’s not really normal at all. ‘Kate’ is in fact a carefully constructed facade for a girl called Jennifer Jones – and it’s a facade that’s crumbling fast. Jennifer has spent the last nine years frantically trying to escape from her horrifying past. Increasingly desperate, Jennifer decides to do something drastic. She contacts the only other girl who might understand what she’s dealing with, breaking every rule of her parole along the way. Lucy Bussell is the last person Jennifer expects any sympathy from, but she’s also the last person she has left. Finding Jennifer Jones is the powerful sequel to the highly acclaimed, Carnegie Medal nominated Looking for JJ. It is a tense, emotional thriller about guilt, running away and wondering if you can ever truly know yourself.
What did I think?:
Finding Jennifer Jones is the last book in our Kid-Lit challenge for this year and one we thought we’d leave until last to savour as we enjoyed the first book in the series so much in 2016, Looking For JJ. Quite often, I find the second book in a series a bit of a let down if I’ve loved the first so much but luckily, this wasn’t the case at all with Finding Jennifer Jones. It was just as gut-wrenching and poignant as the first novel and it instantly made me remember why I loved the author’s writing style so much when Chrissi and I first discovered her.
As with many series in young adult fiction, I think you will get much more out of the Jennifer Jones duology if you read Looking For JJ first where it introduces our main character, Jennifer Jones and explores the reasons why she finds herself living with a new identity. She is constantly on edge about the risk of people discovering who she really is and more importantly, what she did in her past which still continues to haunt her, as it well should. In this second novel, she has been forced to move once again and assume yet another identity whilst she goes to university, works part time at a tourist information centre, makes new friends and a love interest and desperately tries to live a normal life. However, this is easier said then done when the ghosts of her past still continue to torture her everyday life and it’s not long before she considers breaking the very strict terms of her new existence just to try and feel free once more.
Hopefully I’ve been just vague enough for people who haven’t read the first book in the series yet, both of which I highly recommend. Anne Cassidy is a fantastic author for young adults and really explores the gritty, darker side of human nature in a way that elicits your full and frank sympathy, particularly for our female protagonist, Jennifer. She realises unequivocally the gravity of her actions when she was a child and does not try to make excuses for them but obviously deeply regrets what happened as a terrible, unforgiveable mistake. As the reader, we too are appalled by what Jennifer did but at the same time feel so sorry for what she has gone through and still continues to suffer. Perhaps, we even think, she might have been punished enough? This is a story I was completely compelled by and it was wonderful to re-enter Jennifer’s world and catch up with her life after the tense and life-changing events of the first novel. It would definitely raise some talking points considering the subject matter and is is nothing short of page turning.
For Chrissi’s fabulous review, please check out her blog HERE.
Would I recommend it?:
But of course!
Star rating (out of 5):
Don’t miss our post on January 2nd when we reveal our Kid-Lit titles for 2018! Hope everyone has a wonderful New Year.
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