Precious by Sandra Novack

The storyline of Precious just altogether irked me. The majority of the book centered around the Kirsh family and hardly any attention towards Vicki Anderson who went missing at the beginning of the story. Then way too much detail was given on the relationship between Eva and her pathetic married high school teacher. He was such an idiot I wanted to flick him in the forehead! Then there's Eva's mom, Natalia who left her two daughters to discover herself with another man overseas and then returns back home which just about made me want to throw the book across the room. She behaved as if leaving her family shouldn't affect them at all and she could pick up right where she left off. I know life is messy and I wasn't asking for rainbows and butterflies, because I can tell you I've experienced my own fair share of mess - but still!

I mean sure, the characters were all complicated and flawed, but there was no redemption to them and they were so independent of each other. The story didn't drag on at all and was actually written really well in a way to pull you in therefore it was easy to get into, but at the end I was just blah about the whole thing and eager to fill my head with something else.

I'm so sorry, I'm not trying to rag on the author at all - it was just the storyline and premise that I was disappointed with. Not my cup of tea, but there are others out there who fully enjoyed it. So please check out their reviews for a more well-rounded opinion!

Book Addiction
Booking Mama
The Literate Housewife
Fizzy Thoughts

Description: The summer of 1978, ten-year-old Vicki Anderson rides her bike to the local park and goes missing. Her tight-knit blue-collar Pennsylvania neighborhood, where children roam the streets at night playing lightning tag, above-ground pools sparkle in backyards, and flowers scent the air, will never be the same.

Down the street from Vicki’s house, another family is in crisis. Troubled by her past, headstrong Natalia Kisch has abandoned her husband and two daughters for another man. Frank Kisch, grappling with his anger, is left to raise their girls alone, oblivious to his daughters’ struggles with both disappearances: Eva, seventeen, plunges into an affair with her married high school teacher, and nine-year-old Sissy escapes to a world of imagination and storytelling that becomes so magical it pierces the reality of the everyday.

When Natalia unexpectedly returns, the struggles and tensions that have built over the summer erupt into a series of events that change the Kisches irrevocably—forcing them to piece together their complicated pasts and commitments to each other.

In this haunting, atmospheric debut, Sandra Novack examines loss, loyalty, and a family in crisis. Lyrical and elegiac, Precious illuminates our attempts to make sense of the volatility that surrounds and consumes us, and explores our ability, even during the most trying times, to remember and hold on to those we love most.

Rating: **

Recommend: I'm sorry, but I really can't recommend this one. But the other reviewers definately would, so don't forget to check out what they had to say!