Blog Tour & Review ~~ Carry Me Home by Jessica Therrien
Carry Me Home
Jessica Therrien
Published by: Acorn Publishing
Publication date: September 26th 2017
Genres: Contemporary, Thriller, Young Adult
“A riveting page-turner… Jessica Therrien broke my heart into a million pieces — and then put it back together again. This book will haunt and uplift readers long after they turn the last page.”
-KAT ROSS, best-selling author of The Midnight SeaCARRY ME HOME is a fictional novel inspired by the true story of a teenage girl’s involvement in several Mexican gangs in San Jose and Los Angeles. The members of her crew call her, Guera, Spanish for “white girl” and it doesn’t take long for her to get lost in their world of guns and drugs.
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Lucy and Ruth are country girls from a broken home. When they move to the city with their mother, leaving behind their family ranch and dead-beat father, Lucy unravels.
They run to their grandparents’ place, a trailer park mobile home in the barrio of San Jose. Lucy’s barrio friends have changed since her last visit. They’ve joined a gang called VC. They teach her to fight, to shank, to beat a person unconscious and play with guns. When things get too heavy, and lives are at stake, the three girls head for LA seeking a better life.
But trouble always follows Lucy. She befriends the wrong people, members of another gang, and every bad choice she makes drags the family into her dangerous world.
Told from three points of view, the story follows Lucy down the rabbit hole, along with her mother and sister as they sacrifice dreams and happiness, friendships and futures. Love is waiting for all of them in LA, but pursuing a life without Lucy could mean losing her forever.
Ultimately it’s their bond with each other that holds them together, in a true test of love, loss and survival.
Tera’s 4.5 Blush Review
When you can read an entire book in one single sitting, that says a lot. I really enjoyed Carry Me Home. I’ve been on this YA kick after taking a step back for awhile. I just felt like I was reading the same story over and over again. But I’ve come back to the genre and Carry Me Home has reminded me why I still, to this day, love YA.
Carry Me Home is extra special in that you get 3 POVs, but one is of the mother! We never get the parent’s perspective in a YA and it was a fabulous touch as I am a mother now. It really did make this book that much more relateable for me as opposed to just reminiscent!
Rachel takes her children, Ruth and Lucy, after being pushed off the porch by her drunken husband. She finally decided she had enough and refuses to stay in her abusive relationship. When Rachel moves to San Jose with her parents we truly see Lucy start to fall apart and moving to LA shortly after didn’t help matters at all. Although we do get 3 POVs, the story is essentially Lucy’s. She has the most chapters and the longest chapters, but getting her sister Ruth and her mother, Rachel’s, perspective, again, did great things for the story.
This is a story of a young girl spiraling out of control and a mother and sister who literally have no clue how to help her. It’s a story of second chances and just wanting a simple life. It’s a story of redemption. The bond the 3 share truly is unbreakable even pushed to the farthest limits.
“Why is it we cry anyway? What is it about that ugly awful sound that helps us push past our worst moments?”
This is the first book I’ve read by Jessica Therrien. It truly was a great read and would recommend it for anyone who loves a good mature YA.
Goodreads / Amazon / Barnes & Noble
Author Bio:
Jessica Therrien is the author of the young adult series Children of the Gods. Book one in the series, Oppression, became a Barnes & Noble best-seller shortly after its release. Her trilogy has been translated and sold through major publishers around the world, such as Editions AdA (Canada), EditionsMilan (France), and SharpPoint Press (China).
Aside from her Children of the Gods series, Jessica is the author of a kid’s picture book called, The Loneliest Whale. Her award-winning stories can also be found in a published anthology of flash fiction.
Jessica currently lives in Irvine with her husband and two young sons. She is working on an a YA suspense thriller series and a middle grade fantasy series.
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