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    The Nowhere Child
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    The Nowhere Child
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    The Nowhere Child
    Audiobook9 hours

    The Nowhere Child

    Written by Christian White

    Narrated by Kirsty Gillmore

    4/5

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    Unavailable in your country

    Unavailable in your country

    About this audiobook

    Finding her is just the start…

    A dark and gripping debut psychological thriller that won the 2017 Victorian Premier’s Literary Award, previously won by THE DRY and THE ROSIE PROJECT.

    ‘Nervy, soulful, genuinely surprising’ A. J. Finn, bestselling author THE WOMAN IN THE WINDOW

    ‘One of the best books I have ever read’ *****

    ‘Well wow! I didn’t see THAT twist coming!!’ *****

    ‘I lost sleep over this book’ *****

    One photograph is all it takes to turn your world upside down.

    You stare at the picture. It shows a missing child who was abducted from her Kentucky home twenty years ago.

    But the kidnapped child doesn’t just look like you; she is you…

    Your real name is Sammy Went – and the people you thought were family have been lying to you all your life.

    But what really happened all those years ago? And how far would you go for the truth?

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherHarperCollins
    Release dateMar 21, 2019
    ISBN9780008276577
    Unavailable
    The Nowhere Child
    Author

    Christian White

    Christian White is an internationally bestselling and award-winning Australian author and screenwriter. His debut novel, The Nowhere Child, won the 2017 Victorian Premier's Literary Award and screen rights were quickly acquired by Anonymous Content (US) and Carver Films (Australia). He also co-wrote Relic, a feature film starring Emily Mortimer. Christian lives in Melbourne with his wife and their adopted greyhound.

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    Reviews for The Nowhere Child

    4/5

    102 ratings14 reviews

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    • 5/5
      Just plain TERRIFIC!!! I read The Wife and the Widow so I had missed this debut novel. The twists and turns were wonderful---definitely a page turner!
    • 4/5
      Wow! That was a pretty awesome debut novel. I never would have guessed it was a debut. All the characters seemed well thought out and could understand their actions ... given the topic. My only issue is that I felt like the ending was rushed. I feel like we were in the middle of the story on one page, then suddenly everything was over. I think an ending a bit more detailed and involved would have totally made the book.
    • 3/5
      Sad to say this is relegated to my “meh” pile. Promoted as a thrilling, gripping “exhilarating ride,” this was certainly not my reading experience. I was keen to find out more about Pentecostal fundamentalist cults who handled deadly snakes, but this element wasn’t detailed enough for me. This novel only became a page turner for me towards the very end of the story. Perhaps my expectations were too high as there has been much hype about this book. Even the name “Sammy Went” annoyed me.
    • 4/5
      The opening chapters were excellent, with Australian Kim being confronted with the fact that she is almost certainly really Sammy Went, who went missing in the US at the age of two. Then the plot splits between Kim travelling to Kentucky and meeting her birth family, and chapters set around the time of Sammy's disappearance. After a while these got increasingly dramatic and I started to skim them. The descriptions of the church where worship involved handling snakes were interesting in an appalling way. Then things got very over-dramatic and I was rolling my eyes, but the very final twist was great and I really didn't see it coming.
    • 5/5
      Full of twists and turns, this book has the perfect mix of suspense and drama. While it followed the typical plotline of a great psychological work, it had its own unique aspects. I don’t want to give any spoilers away, but I will say that this book will keep you guessing. Just when you think you know who the bad guy is, you’ll have the rug yanked out from underneath your feet. The author was inspired by Gillian Flynn to write this piece and it shows.

      Since I listened to the audiobook, I also got to hear Katherine Littrell’s smooth narration.

      Fantastic story. Recommended to all Gillian Flynn, Ruth Ware, and Mary Kubica fans.
    • 4/5
      4.5 stars.

      The Nowhere Child by Christian White is an enthralling mystery that is quite clever and unique.

      Thirty year old Kimberly  "Kim" Leamy lives in Melbourne, AU and teaches photography. Her world is turned upside down after she is approached by an American stranger who tells her she might actually be Sammy Went, who was kidnapped in Kentucky twenty-six years earlier.  After receiving information that confirms her identity, Kim travels to the United States to try to piece together the events that ripped her from her family in Kentucky. But the biggest mystery she is hoping to solve is how she ended up living in Australia.

      Unable to get answers from her stepfather, Dean, Kim hopes that confronting her past in Manson, KY will untangle the truth about her life.  Her reception by her birth family is not quite what she expects. Her brother Stuart has never given up hope his sister would be found. Her sister Emma tried to move forward by admitting Sammy is most likely dead. Their mother Molly clings to her faith although the fundamentalist church that is the cornerstone of her religion is no longer the powerhouse it once was. Kim's father, Jack, left town years ago and she is uncertain whether she will meet him.  While Kim is not necessarily finding irrefutable proof of how ended up Australia, she does uncover a clue that raises more questions than answers.

      Interspersed with  the events unfolding in the present are chapters that detail the day of Sammy's kidnapping and the ensuing search for her.  The Went family is somewhat fractured with Molly sometimes losing patience with her young daughter. She is deeply religious and clings tightly to the church that Jack has long since abandoned.  After Sammy's disappearance, Emma is forced to grow up too soon as she discovers shocking truths about her family. Stuart does not handle the kidnapping well and he reverts to a happier time in his young life. Jack's world begins spinning out his control as he frantically searches for his daughter just as his life begins to implode.

      With chapters alternating between Kim's search for answers in the present and the days after her kidnapping in the past, The Nowhere Child is a fast-paced and spellbinding mystery.  The characters are interesting and well-developed but not all of them are easy to relate to or like. The plot is well-developed with just enough suspense to keep the pages turning at  a blistering pace. With stunning twists and unexpected turns, Christian White brings the novel to a jaw-dropping conclusion. An absolutely brilliant debut that I found impossible to put down and highly recommend to fans of the genre.
    • 4/5
      On 3 April 1990 two-year-old Sammy Went is taken from her home in small town Manson, Kentucky, USA. After suffering what is likely postnatal depression, her mother did not bond well with her third child, Sammy, and became deeply entrenched in the world of a snake-handling religious cult, a world Sammy’s father was raised in, but is distancing himself from. A Pentecostal fundamentalist group, the Church of the Light Within handle poisonous snakes as part of their cult. 26 years later, Kimberly Leamy is happily living in Melbourne, Australia, but her world is about to be turned upside down. An American man approaches her and explains that after a searching for her his entire life, and due to the results of a DNA test, he is certain she is Sammy Went, and that he is her older brother. Needing answers, Kimberly travels to America to find her birth family and figure out why she was taken. She may find those answers, but the cost may be her death due to rattlesnake bite if her small hometown’s snake-handling fanatic preacher has his way. A well-crafted suspense story and an interesting insight into the weird world of a snake-handling religious cult.
    • 5/5
      I've had this book sitting on my Kindle for some months now, courtesy NetGalley, and now it has been chosen by our book group for our monthly read.Kim Leamy is approached by someone who has been searching for his lost sister for years. He has scanned thousands of online images looking for similarities to an artist's impression of what his sister would look like nearly three decades after her disappearance. But he is American and Kim has a hard job thinking that the woman who brought her up would have been a kidnapper.However he tells her that a DNA test he has had taken by a Melbourne lab says there is a 98.5% probability that she is is sister. When she approaches her father it is obvious to Kim that there is some truth in what the American is telling her, that her father knows, and she decides to go to America to find out the truth for herself.A well constructed interesting story, with good mystery elements.
    • 3/5
      I've done pretty darn well not requesting psychological thrillers, and can't say I'm much missing them. This is one I had before I made this decision. A two year old child is taken, a young woman now in her twenties is found by her possible brother and told she might be the child. A church, a cult? A leader with strange ideas that he seems to exert at will over his followers and snakes, Rattlers to be specific and I find snakes cringeworthy, and this religion has many.Ended up liking this more than I thought I would when I began reading. It started out rather weakly, but thankfully both the plot became more interesting and the writing stronger. So many themes in this book, which was part of the problem with my perception of what was happening. All these different threads, all in one family, one town, one book? Stretches credibility. The pace after the initial slowness at the start picks up, and by books end, again my opinion, too many things are thrown into the mix. Though if you like a faster paced thriller, with a few likable characters, this one will do.ARC from Netgalley.
    • 4/5
      A very good first novel. The pace was a tad slow to begin with but it soon picked up and the story grabbed my attention...specially when Kimberly went to America to meet the family she hadn't had any contact with in 28 years. It's difficult to say very much about the story without giving away a lot of spoilers...but I will say that I never saw the plot line coming that tied it all together. I'd recommend it to anyone who likes mystery...suspense...and a little crime.
    • 2/5
      I thought I was really going to enjoy this book. The beginning did set the stage for what I hoped would be a story that would keep me on the edge of my seat. The more that Kimberly dug into her past the more secrets that she uncovered. There were many tangled webs.What suffered for me with this book are the characters. None of them including Kimberly drew mw into the story. Additionally, the emotional connection towards Kimberly was not as strong as I would have liked. Thus; my interest in the overall story was mild at best. I kept reading because I did want to know the truth. The truth was sad but a good ending to the story. At least the ending is a bonus as there is nothing worse than to read a whole book only to end with an unsatisfying ending.
    • 5/5
      Kimberly Leamy was between classes at Northampton Community in Melbourne, Australia where she taught photography classes three times a week when she was approached by an American stranger. He then proceeds to show her a picture of two year old Sammy Went who was abducted from Manson, Kentucky right after that picture was taken. James Finn, the American accountant, thinks that Kimberly is Sammy Went. Kim believes this is a case of mistaken identity because she was raised by an incredible mother, recently deceased, who would never have stolen a child.However, as she starts to investigate her family, there are too many unanswered questions, so she travels to Kentucky to find answers. This is an exciting novel with lots of twists and unexpected turns until you arrive, breathless, at an incredible climax!This is Christian White’s debut novel. He says in the author’s notes (I love the author’s notes!) that that he had no real idea of how to write a novel. He had tried and failed before. So, he turned to Stephen King and read his book, On Writing, which is part memoir part how-to-guide which gives you a clear roadmap to turning your idea into a manuscript. It worked extremely well in this case! Looking forward to his next book.
    • 2/5
      Stuart Went, masquerading as American accountant James Finn, travels to Melbourne where he seeks out Australian photography teacher Kimberly Leamy and tells her that she’s actually a girl who vanished from her home in Manson, Kentucky in 1990 when she was just two years old. Stunned, Kim is unable to believe her loving mother was a heartless kidnapper but Stuart soon convinces her that she is actually his sister, Sammy.Kim travels from Australia to America to meet the family she never knew she had. But the mystery of that kidnapping may put her in unexpected danger.This quick-read story offers an interesting premise as it ponders the consequences of learning that your entire life has been a lie. How could the loving parent who raised you actually be responsible for kidnapping you, for stealing you away from your real family? And how do you reconcile the life and family you know with the family you’ve just discovered?Aside from some unnecessary coarse language and a few bewildering, overly-violent scenes, the story unfolds without any real surprises. The characters, excepting one or two stereotypes, are reasonably well-crafted, but readers may find it difficult to establish empathy with them. Long before its reveal in a last-minute plot twist, astute readers will easily solve the kidnapping mystery, but the straightforward story plays out fairly well. However, an awkward de rigueur subplot involving a homosexual affair adds nothing to the narrative and detracts from the telling of the larger story. And, from the beginning, the cult subplot [definitely not for the faint of heart] seems to serve only as a thinly-disguised target for the vilification of religion. Alternating between the present day and the time of Sammy’s kidnapping, the story unfolds as expected but the predictable narrative fails to build suspense, leaving the reader feeling as if it’s all rather pedestrian.I received an e-copy of this book from St. Martin’s Press/Minotaur Books and NetGalley.#TheNowhereChild #NetGalley
    • 4/5
      This is a classic good read for when you want a book you can't put down. The plot is very clever and well-sequenced, and keeps you turning pages. I devoured it. If you need a good distraction and have hours at hand, you'll find that Christian White has given you the perfect gift.
      I have to say that I don't read as widely in this genre - thriller/mystery/detective - as in other genres, so my comparisons are limited. I liked the pace of this story, but I did feel it gave me less in the way of character development/reveal, less atmosphere, and less real tension than i have recently struck in other books (notably Jane Harper's 'The Dry').
      I found the people and the places rather bland - I couldn't tell the difference between scenes set in Australia and scenes set in Kentucky. They all speak the same language - there's no sense of idiomatic inconsistencies. Although many characters mention that they like Kim's accent, she never notices theirs - or much else that is different about America. Kim's accent appears to be the only point of differentiation. Driving on the other side of the road? Not worth a mention. 'larger serving sizes' - yes, but most Australian who've been there would spell this out as in OMG they gave me a steak the size of the plate and massed eight potatoes on top. Anyway, small quibbles.
      I did pull up short, though, at the American woman S&R diver who used the phrase 'like trying to find a hymen in a whorehouse' in 1990. Really? That's just horrible. What, was she trying to be one of the 'boys'? Or is that the way women in 1990 Kentucky spoke? Whatever happened to 'needle in a haystack'. Still, that might be a genre thing - this quick thriller style seems to revel in short, sharp, shock-effect language.
      White is a writer of great talent and promise. I will definitely read his next, which I understand is in the pipeline.