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Product Description
One of NPR's "Favorite Books of 2019"!A SKIMM READS PICK
A BELLETRIST BOOK CLUB PICK
"This novel reads like a miracle." --NPR
Consumed by the longing for a different life, a teenager flees her family and carefully slips into another -- replacing a girl whose own sudden disappearance still haunts the town.
Fourteen-year-old Cindy and her two older brothers live in rural Pennsylvania, in a house with occasional electricity, two fierce dogs, one book, and a mother who comes and goes for months at a time. Deprived of adult supervision, the siblings rely on one another for nourishment of all kinds. As Cindy's brothers take on new responsibilities for her care, the shadow of danger looms larger and the status quo no longer seems tolerable.
So when a glamorous teen from a more affluent, cultured home goes missing, Cindy escapes her own family's poverty and slips into the missing teen's life. As Jude Vanderjohn, Cindy is suddenly surrounded by books and art, by new foods and traditions, and most important, by a startling sense of possibility. In her borrowed life she also finds herself accepting the confused love of a mother who is constitutionally incapable of grasping what has happened to her real daughter. As Cindy experiences overwhelming maternal love for the first time, she must reckon with her own deceits and, in the process, learn what it means to be a daughter, a sister, and a neighbor.
Marilou Is Everywhere is a powerful, propulsive portrait of an overlooked girl who finds for the first time that her choices matter.
Top Reviews
Left me cold and sad.by Catmandu (1 out of 5 stars)
September 2, 2019
While I normally enjoy coming of age stories and believe this book had an interesting premise, I did not care for it at all. My major complaint is that there are many premises and scenes, large and small, that are just unbelievable. For example, I have a hard time believing that Bernadette's ex-husband, Alistair, would not have intervened in some way when it was incredibly clear that Bernadette was dealing with some combination of mental illness, dementia, and/or alcohol abuse, especially as his character is understood to be clear-eyed, intelligent, and with financial resources. There are many scenes as well that are unbelievable such as when Bernadette is very drunk but then, just a short time later, is physically and mentally capable of skillfully using a gun (the goat scene) or when Cindy talks about how smooth the teeth feel after having had a dental cleaning when it seems pretty clear she's never even seen a dentist and would not even be able to imagine that particular sensation. My other complaint is just how cold the book left me. No one showed any warmth toward Cindy which was overwhelmingly depressing. And the language of the book, while very poetic at times, again felt cold with its emphasis on meanness, feeling alone, and poverty. Overall, a very sad read.
Okay
by Kim (3 out of 5 stars)
August 28, 2019
The story was a little hard to follow and all of the characters are strange and not particularly likable.
Wonderful Story!
by readerchick261 (5 out of 5 stars)
August 29, 2019
I was hooked on this book the minute I started reading it. I fell in love with the characters and the suspense of what would happen next! I can't imagine living the way this family lived but I'm sure there are people that do exist this way. A must read for those that want to broaden their perspectives on human nature and decisions we make that affect us and those we love!
Disappointing
by Cyncha (2 out of 5 stars)
November 15, 2019
I didn't find the writing to be poetic or lyrical. I thought it was very choppy and at times it made no sense at all. I looked forward to buying this book after reading the brief synopsis, but I was very disappointed. The book has been out for quite a few months, and there are very few reviews. I don't think it's garnered much interest. I should have waited for the reviews to come trickling in before buying the book. Lesson learned.
Hard to follow
by Linda (2 out of 5 stars)
September 27, 2019
Wanted to really enjoy this but I just couldn't. The writing felt too poetic at times and was hard to follow. Scenes felt cut short and jumped from one to the next without much context. None of the characters had redeeming qualities which can make it difficult to connect to the story. Would skip this one.
unusual read
by kathleen g (4 out of 5 stars)
July 30, 2019
Is Cindy erasing herself or becoming her best self when she takes over the life of Jude when the latter goes missing? This is an odd novel in some ways and yet in others it's a fascinating exploration of the mind of a 14 year old girl. Cindy's life is not easy; her mother is vacant, for want of another word, her brothers have their issues, and she lives in what can frankly be called poverty. Jude's disappearance has made her mother Bernadette shaky and she so wants Jude back that she doesn't really question Cindy's insertion into her life. The interactions between these two are fascinating. This is occasionally creepy (the plot line screams creepy) but it's always well handled. Thanks to Edelweiss for the ARC. Hard to place this in a genre but it's definitely one for fans of literary fiction and worth your time.
Trust me
by gentle reader (5 out of 5 stars)
August 1, 2019
Sarah Elaine Smith's lyrical prose will float you into the world she renders with such gentle power and such fierce and keen description of the physical and psychic spaces it holds that you will need a cup of tea and a quiet minute to come back out from it, if that's something you ever want to do.
Extraordinary book, overlooked on most summer reading lists
by nyc2cents (5 out of 5 stars)
August 15, 2019
Without spilling too much of the plot, this book follows in the vein of trending best sellers - from Where Did You Go Bernadette?, Gone Girl, Educated, Where the Crawdads Sing, to Normal People -- about emotionally damaged girls/young women as they navigate the world using their own personal manuals for survival.
This book is beautifully written, sometimes poetic in description albeit sometimes the poetic descriptions don't make much sense. Still they are lovely phrasing.
The main character Cindy, is complex and compelling, not evoking pity or sympathy but more often by being surprising--however never out of character.
Beyond the plot, the book is insightful particularly at this time, to life in very rural, very poor America. It keeps one's interest almost like a mystery novel and yet it illustrates, as did HIillbilly Elegy, what daily life feels like in small town, agrarian or manufacturing America, that seems left behind -- for example, no wifi except to travel up to a hill where you might get a stronger signal.
Perhaps one criticism of the book is that while Cindy is a very well developed character, there are other characters who remain flatter. One has to intuit more about them, and perhaps the author could have added more dimensionality. However, I would argue, it is Cindy's story, and the book is written as her narrative. The other characters are as developed as they need to be to understand the world from Cindy's perspective.
I think this book is one of the great books of 2019 and I hope it gets the recognition.
So bizarre it's fantastic...
by Dalai Momma (5 out of 5 stars)
August 15, 2019
A quirky wonderful read with a lovely cover. A book that I anticipated and was glad that it met my expectations.
Cindy lives in poverty. Trying to make a life of her own, trying to get out of the stark situation that she is in she is a character that gives us so much and really makes this so completely wonderful. A heartfelt coming of age. It takes on a very serious turn which makes this story all the more bizarre and engaging. I couldn't even explain this book with spoilers and give it the justice it deserves so I'll leave this at that.
Bizarre in the best way. A coming of age that you probably have never read anything like it before. A strangely beautiful story.
Thanks to goodreads and to author Sarah Elaine Smith for my copy of this book. I received. I read. I reviewed this book honestly and voluntarily
A masterclass in fiction; prose like I've never read before
by Deedi Brown (5 out of 5 stars)
November 24, 2019
"My mother was the kind who would be very offended if you called her a racist. She talked about it all sideways at best. The most you could get out of her was: I don't approve. And she trusted she did not need to speak any further on the subject. As, generally, she did not. Whoever she was talking to usually knew exactly what she meant. Her disapproval met in the air with the disapproval of whoever she was talking to, and the two silent moods married and had their own life, in the air all over us, in the water, in the mind. That was the trick to it, never having to say what you actually meant. Nothing is real if you don't have to say it."
If you read literary fiction in any capacity, if you love when words sing like music, if you read to feel, then Marilou Is Everywhere is not to be missed. I read it on strong recommendation from my friend Hunter (@shelfbyshelf), whose opinion I trust very much. And I'm so incredibly glad I did.
The story takes place in a very small, very rural town where one day, a girl went missing. She stopped on the way home from a camping trip to get an emergency car repair, and she vanished. Meanwhile, Cindy (our narrator) and her brothers are living at home without a mother (again). After Jude goes missing, Cindy's oldest brother is never there, and her other brother is beginning to make her more than a little uncomfortable in the way he looks at her. So she (almost) accidentally slips into the life Jude left behind. Until she can't anymore.
There is just so much to unpack from this story. There's the need for love and belonging, there's the sense of self, there's alcoholism, there's racism, there's classism, there's guilt and family and inner strength and reckoning.
In this book, Sarah Elaine Smith presents us with a masterclass in writing - particularly in writing metaphor. She holds MFAs in both fiction and poetry, which makes her a true gift to the world. I have never imagined metaphors like those she writes - they are almost nonsensical, except that you feel them in your bones and they make all the sense in the world.
And so what she's able to do with Cindy as a character, and with the characters of everyone else seen through Cindy's eyes, is incredible. Cindy is both her own person and a mirror held up to the reader, making you question who you are and what choices you've made in your own life. And yet this is not at the expense of plot; I turned every page more than a little eager to see how everything would resolve.
And the book's final two sentences? They slayed me. Perfection.
"In every switch and ion there is a girl smoking her first idiot cigarette under a corrugated tin roof and etching a difference into the air. Try to find a jukebox free of the sentiment. Try to find a waterfall that isn't made of this. You'll die looking. I promise. The search party will quit and go home."
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