Whistle in the Dark
Summary (from the publisher): Emma Healey follows the success of her #1 internationally bestselling debut novel Elizabeth Is Missing, winner of the Costa First Novel Award, with this beautiful, thought-provoking, and psychologically complex tale that affirms her status as one of the most inventive and original literary novelists today.
Jen and Hugh Maddox have just survived every parent’s worst nightmare.
Relieved, but still terrified, they sit by the hospital bedside of their fifteen-year-old daughter, Lana, who was found bloodied, bruised, and disoriented after going missing for four days during a mother-daughter vacation in the country. As Lana lies mute in the bed, unwilling or unable to articulate what happened to her during that period, the national media speculates wildly and Jen and Hugh try to answer many questions.
Where was Lana? How did she get hurt? Was the teenage boy who befriended her involved? How did she survive outside for all those days? Even when she returns to the family home and her school routine, Lana only provides the same frustrating answer over and over: "I can’t remember."
For years, Jen had tried to soothe the depressive demons plaguing her younger child, and had always dreaded the worst. Now she has hope—the family has gone through hell and come out the other side. But Jen cannot let go of her need to find the truth. Without telling Hugh or their pregnant older daughter Meg, Jen sets off to retrace Lana’s steps, a journey that will lead her to a deeper understanding of her youngest daughter, her family, and herself.
A wry, poignant, and masterfully drawn story that explores the bonds and duress of family life, the pain of mental illness, and the fraught yet enduring connection between mothers and daughters, Whistle in the Dark is a story of guilt, fear, hope, and love that explores what it means to lose and find ourselves and those we love.
Jen and Hugh Maddox have just survived every parent’s worst nightmare.
Relieved, but still terrified, they sit by the hospital bedside of their fifteen-year-old daughter, Lana, who was found bloodied, bruised, and disoriented after going missing for four days during a mother-daughter vacation in the country. As Lana lies mute in the bed, unwilling or unable to articulate what happened to her during that period, the national media speculates wildly and Jen and Hugh try to answer many questions.
Where was Lana? How did she get hurt? Was the teenage boy who befriended her involved? How did she survive outside for all those days? Even when she returns to the family home and her school routine, Lana only provides the same frustrating answer over and over: "I can’t remember."
For years, Jen had tried to soothe the depressive demons plaguing her younger child, and had always dreaded the worst. Now she has hope—the family has gone through hell and come out the other side. But Jen cannot let go of her need to find the truth. Without telling Hugh or their pregnant older daughter Meg, Jen sets off to retrace Lana’s steps, a journey that will lead her to a deeper understanding of her youngest daughter, her family, and herself.
A wry, poignant, and masterfully drawn story that explores the bonds and duress of family life, the pain of mental illness, and the fraught yet enduring connection between mothers and daughters, Whistle in the Dark is a story of guilt, fear, hope, and love that explores what it means to lose and find ourselves and those we love.
Review: I received an uncorrected proof copy of this novel from HarperCollins.
This novel opens in the aftermath of a parent's worst nightmare: the disappearance of a child. Jen Maddox is by her teenage daughter Lana's beside, who was found after being missing for four days. Lana is bruised but largely unharmed, but refuses to talk about where she was or what happened to her, leading Jen to speculate wildly. In the months following the family's ordeal, Jen is unable to let go of her compulsive need to know the truth. She stalks her daughter on social media and obsessively scours the internet looking for clues, always imagining the worst case scenarios.
Despite the fact that this novel opens in the aftermath of a crisis, Healey's narrative is able to sustain a high level of momentum and suspense throughout. The tone of this novel is dark and tense; Jen's distress is palpable and the reader is constantly on edge as the narrative follows Jen's fear that her daughter will go missing again or hurt herself. There is also an eerie, almost supernatural, air to the novel. Throughout, Jen imagines she hears voices in her house and sees a cat inside in the middle of the night that her husband insists must have been a dream. And Jen shares haunting memories, such as the man on the train she encountered when her daughter was a baby, her own real life "Rumpelstiltskin," who made her promise to name her daughter Lana; "He seemed deadly serious and gave Jen such an intense look, such a frightening stare, that she promised. [...] And it was odd, but Jen felt that they'd made some kind of bargain, she and this man: her baby's name for his absence" (38). At times, the reliability of Jen as a narrator was doubtful, as she became so paranoid that she even begins to suspect her husband and daughter are conspiring against her: "They were whispering. They were working together, conspiring. Perhaps they had been from the beginning" (265). Jen's inability to cope with her daughter's issues leads to a leave of absence from work, indicating some mental health issues, namely anxiety, of her own.
This novel is a excellent snapshot of a love so heavy it can feel like a burden. "Why did she have to drag this love around everywhere when, sometimes, she'd like to leave it behind for a few hours?" (173). It also provides a glimpse into a mother daughter relationship in the midst of crisis and a love that supersedes, even when mother and daughter don't always see eye to eye. This novel also excellently portrays the helplessness of dealing with mental illness, as Jen so desperately wishes to help her daughter overcome the demons she's fighting against. Although at times this novel feels anxious and unsettling, it was an excellent snapshot of a mother facing her worst fears for her child and struggling to understand her daughter who has transformed from a baby with simple needs into a moody teenager battling mental illness.
Stars: 4
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