"Little Lovely Things"

“Little Lovely Things”

Written by Maureen Joyce Connolly

Review written by Diana Iozzia

To be perfectly honest, this book was completely different than what I expected it to be. “Little Lovely Things” is about a woman named Claire who has a terribly, sickly reaction to a vaccine and takes Benadryl. She becomes severely ill while driving her daughters to school. She chooses to pull over in a seemingly vacant gas station, throws up in the bathroom, and loses consciousness. She awakens to see that her car is missing, as well as her daughters, Andrea and Lily.

This novel sounded to me like a mystery. It sounded like we were eagerly anticipating the resolution, to see how the cops and Claire beat the clock to rescue her children. However, this took a sadder note, rather than thrilling. This book was reminiscent of “Room” and “The Glass Castle”, studying the adults and the children that surround this plot. In my head, I started to realize that I must have misinterpreted the premise. After re-reading it, I noticed that it was a bit desperate in description, but this book reads easier and calmer.

We read through Claire’s perspective as she tries to find her children. We read through Moira, who with her cousin (and lover) Eamon, kidnap the girls to rescue them from who they think is a druggie mother. Moira ends up raising one of the children, Andrea, later named Colleen. We also read through Colleen’s perspective. We lastly read through Jay’s perspective, a Native American man, who finds Lily and then believes he can use his psychic abilities to find Andrea. A nice addition to this story is that all of these characters’ perspectives are told in third person, rather than the frantic pacing of first person.

I found this book to be great in some ways and then disappointing in others. Although I enjoyed that this wasn’t grisly or terrifying, it still left that feeling of fear and danger looming like a storm cloud. Although we believed that Andrea / Colleen was safe in Moira’s hands, how well can we trust someone who would kidnap a child (no matter if she thought she was rescuing them)? I loved the pacing, the characters, and the description. No scene felt too long. No character felt unnecessary.

There is an element of the story that I wasn’t enamored of. Jay, although a sweet and caring character, is highly unrealistic. I won’t explain all of the details. However, know that Jay’s psychic powers are completely redundant and far too common in solving mysteries. I’ve read two books in the past week that have involved an intuition, and I feel it’s a tired trope.

I highly recommend this book, but definitely go into it not believing it to be a thriller. This was definitely suspenseful, but it had that endearing grip of an emotional and important fiction.

I received this book for free. I was given the opportunity to read and review it, and I chose to do so.