“A mother’s psyche edges toward madness as she tries to solve the puzzle of her daughter’s disappearance. A gripping tale of heartbreak and eternal hope.” Beth Hoffman, author of the NYT Bestseller “Saving CeeCee Honeycutt” “Unique, mysterious, and thoroughly absorbing, Sophie Last Seen is a touching story of love, loss and survival. I loved it.” Alison Gaylin, USA Today Bestselling author of “If … author of “If I Die Tonight”
Six years ago, ten-year-old Sophie Albright disappeared from a shopping mall. Her mother, Jesse, is left in a self-destructive limbo, haunted by memories of her intense and difficult child, who was obsessed with birds. Trapped in her grief and guilt, Jesse stumbles through her workdays at a bookstore and spends her off hours poring over Sophie’s bird journals or haunting the mall to search for the face of her missing child.
When Star Silverman, Sophie’s best friend, starts working at the bookstore, Jesse is uncomfortable around the sarcastic teen, who is a constant reminder of her daughter. But Star has secrets of her own, and her childhood memories could be the key to solving Sophie’s disappearance.
With help from Star and Kentucky “Tuck” Barnes, a private detective on the trail of another missing girl, Jesse may finally get some closure, one way or the other.
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Parenting is hard. We make mistakes. We all make mistakes. And usually our mistake dissolves into nothingness and we move on. We might feel remorse, we might even apologize to our child for whatever we did or said that we shouldn’t have.
But what if? What if we think the unthinkable? Say the unthinkable? Do the unthinkable? Who will forgive us then?
Beautifully written with strength and courage, Adelstein is not afraid to show the imperfect side of us. I cannot recommend this book highly enough.
Page turner. Couldn’t wait to find out what happens next.
To have a child taken from you is a parents worst nightmare. Great read on how it tore a family apart as well as affecting the lives of neighbors and friends.
Great book..kept me guessing
One of the best I’ve read in long time can’t wait for next new book from this author
After learning the story of 10 year old Sophie’s disappearance, her parents ensuing divorce, and the way the town looks askance at her, you almost want to look away too. Jesse is a broken woman (who wouldn’t be?) after her only daughter goes missing while the two of them were on a shopping trip to the mall. She turns to hoarding, alcohol and sex to assuage her guilt. Meanwhile, Sophie’s best friend Star is also feeling guilt – she was supposed to have gone to the mall with Sophie and her mom that day.
While Jesse takes to heart the message from a grief brochure to “never stop looking” you hope that at some point Jesse and Star can heal and move on. Both have secrets of their own that need to be shared before that can happen. Fortunately for Jesse her ex-husband is still there to listen, and a private detective (Tuck) lets Jesse know he “sees” her. Star finds relief in cutting, and I think there should have been a trigger warning for that.
If you like a book that is hauntingly told, with very different main characters, you will enjoy this novel by Marlene Adelstein.
Thanks to Hidden Gems Books for a review copy of this book.
The fear of every parent. How do you move on from the loss of a child and the not knowing if they are possibly still alive? And with the parental guilt believing you failed to protect them. This book makes you relate to the mother, and consider how you would deal with such a situation. Very thought provoking
When ten-year-old Sophie went missing from a shopping mall, Jessie Albright’s life changed in an instant. She went from being a wife and mother to a desperate woman completely consumed with searching for her missing daughter. Six years later, her marriage has fallen apart, and she has becomesobsessed with seeing signs from her daughter in every piece of trash on the street, every scrap of paper and broken toy. The enormity of her grief is exemplified by the piles of items collecting in her house, threatening to take up all space and crowd her out. Meanwhile, Sophie’s former best friend, Star, is having an equally difficult time dealing with her loss. She is dressing differently, smoking, and cutting herself to try to relieve her pain. When a handsome private investigator comes to town and a stray dog shows up on Jesse’s doorstep, both Jesse and Star find the impetus to start healing so they can move on with their lives. Adelstein doesn’t shy away from the horrible messiness of grief, illuminating the rawness of Jesse and Star’s emotions and how difficult it is for each of them to come to terms with their feelings of guilt. Because Sophie was an avid birdwatcher, birds play a major role in the story, the symbolism of each species a clever way to add meaning and significance. While there is a mystery around what happened to Sophie, this is really more a story about healing, forgiveness, and grief, about finding a way to begin life anew in the wake of terrible tragedy.
Sophie Last Seen is a compelling and heart-tugging story of grief and guilt, and how the disappearance of a little girl is still impacting the lives of the two people who were closest to her. It was intriguing to me that the story was told from two points of view; the mother, Jesse, and the best friend, Star. Jesse and Star are both still reeling from losing Sophie, neither one of them able to move on from the events of That Day. The book is written with raw honesty, no sugar-coating the depth of despair and the lengths to which both Jesse and Star resort as a way of coping with their self-condemnation. This is also a beautiful tribute to a bright, sometimes difficult little girl who loved birds, and who teaches us all to be patient and to really listen…
Lindas Book Obsession Reviews “Sophie Last Seen” by Marlene Adelstein, Red Adept Publishing
Marlene Adelstein, Author of “Sophie Last Seen” has written an amazing, captivating, intense, intriguing, suspenseful and edgy novel. Marlene Adelstein is an amazing writer, and vividly describes the characters, birds, scenery and landscape. Utilizing all of my senses, I could see, hear, feel, touch, taste and smell many of the events described. The Genres for this story are Fiction, Mystery, Suspense and Thriller. The author describes her colorful and quirky characters as complex, complicated and dysfunctional. The timeline for this story is in the present and goes to the past where is pertains to the characters and events in the story.
Jesse has lived other mother’s nightmares for the last six years. Can you imagine your daughter disappearing? Jesse had taken her daughter Sophie shopping, and within a few minutes Sophie disappears. Sophie is ten years old with a fascination and obsession with birds. Sophie often compares the characteristics of birds to people. Sophie has shown her mother that crows are extremely intelligent. After feeding them, the crows often leave Sophie shiny and small objects as gifts. Sophie can also have tantrums if she doesn’t get her way. On this particular day, Sophie is upset that Jesse won’t stop to see a certain bird, and then becomes upset that Jesse won’t let her have a certain shirt from the store.
Star, one of the few friends that Sophie had, is reminded that she broke a promise to go with Sophie shopping the day that Sophie was last seen. Star also has tremendous guilt. Both Jesse and Star are working in Star’s father used bookstore, and struggle with Sophie’s loss.
Both Jesse and Star haven’t found closure with Sophie’s loss, and live dysfunctional lives. They both try to use Sophie’s bird journals for clues to what could have happened to Sophie.
The author discusses the importance of forgiveness, acceptance, faith, hope and love. I would highly recommend this suspenseful novel for those readers who enjoy this genre.
Having a child disappear is a parent’s worst nightmare, and Jesse has been living the nightmare for six years.
Jesse lost Sophie at the local mall and goes back nearly every day to look for clues that might tell where she is. She went a bit too far one day and was banned from the mall.
Jesse and her husband Cooper had divorced shortly after Sophie’s disappearance. Cooper moved on, remarried, and isn’t as obsessed as Jesse. Jesse lives in the house where Sophie grew up, and she doesn’t want to leave in case Sophie comes back.
Jesse’s obsession with finding her daughter turned into hoarding everything she found that she thought was a clue to her daughter’s disappearance. She thought notes, shirts, grocery lists, pages from dictionaries, and bird trivia were signs from her daughter.
The reader follows Jesse through her days along with Sophie’s friend Star as they both can’t forget her and hope she will return. Star sees Sophie as Sophie taunts her, and Jesse sees Sophie as she reads to her and talks to her.
SOPHIE LAST SEEN flows smoothly with some odd, but likable characters. The book addresses many issues and is a book that will tug at your heartstrings. The town of Canaan is a town that helps each other out in any crisis.
I enjoyed the book and also felt the pain Jesse was going through with her obsession of finding her daughter, with remembering her daughter and the secret about her, with her hoarding, and with the fact that she did need to move on and change her current life. I kept hoping it would happen for her.
The tension and suspense ramped up as the book continued.
If you enjoy a bit of oddity, a fast-paced story line, a few ghosts, and characters that will stay with you, then SOPHIE LAST SEEN will be a book you will want to read. 5/5
This book was given to me by the publisher in exchange for an honest review.
Jesse is a broken woman, forever lost in the cycle of searching for her lost ten-year-old little girl Sophie. She sees her everywhere. In the tiny bird patterns in shirts and in the walk of every teenage girl that passes her. Star, Sophie’s best friend, also sees her friend everywhere she goes. When both women embark on a journey for answers, they find the horrible truth.
This book was a roller-coaster of raw emotion, exploring the pain and grief of a mother’s loss. The trauma experienced by the main characters bonds them, making them stronger as they must live with the loss of Sophie. Star and Jesse were very easy characters to sympathize with and throughout the story, their vibrant emotions were incredibly well-written. Through and through, this is a very haunting story.
The narrator did an excellent job of weaving the emotions, especially the pain and grief, into each character. Every emotion that she demonstrated was very realistic, adding that extra level to the book which made it all the more impacting.
This book was given to me for free at my request and I provided this voluntary review.
This book kept the reader guessing if Sophie was still alive after disappearing all those years ago. It kept me interested. Liked the way the author described the characters; very realistic.
It just left something to be desired. It was slow moving without much content.
I recommend reading this book, because these things happen every single day, sadly.
Loved the book so much sympathy for the poor mom glad she finally learned the truth
This book dragged out and was predictable and hard continue to read. But I hate stopping in the middle of a book. A serious waste of time.
Sophie Last Seen is a compelling and heart-tugging story of grief and guilt, and how the disappearance of a little girl is still impacting the lives of the two people who were closest to her. It was intriguing to me that the story was told from two points of view; the mother, Jesse, and the best friend, Star. Jesse and Star are both still reeling from losing Sophie, neither one of them able to move on from the events of That Day. The book is written with raw honesty, no sugar-coating the depth of despair and the lengths to which both Jesse and Star resort as a way of coping with their self-condemnation. This is also a beautiful tribute to a bright, sometimes difficult little girl who loved birds, and who teaches us all to be patient and to really listen…
Sophie Last Seen is the story of a mother’s worst nightmare…a missing child. Sophie was last seen at a clothing store and Jesse has struggled with the fact that her daughter has not been found. Marlene Adelstein has written a suspenseful and vivid debut novel with a bit of a supernatural twist! I can’t wait to read her next book!
It has been six years since Jesse Albright’s daughter disappeared at the local shopping mall. Since then, her marriage has crumbled and she has been obsessed with collecting objects with any connection to Sophie. Her divorce, along with her hoarding, has severed most of her relationships in her community.
Sophie was a unique child who was obsessed with birds at a young age and always carried around binoculars. She was also strong-willed and at times her outbursts stressed out her parents. Her friendship with her friend Star brought the two families together, but since the disappearance, Jesse has not been in contact. A chance meeting brings Jesse and Star together and they begin to unravel the secrets of Sophie’s disappearance.
”Sophie Last Seen” is an engaging novel about a mother who has trouble moving forward after a tragedy. The raw emotions depicted in this story make you connect with the mother as she struggles with her grief. This well-paced story is the debut from Marlene Adelstein.