An Amazon Charts, Washington Post, Wall Street Journal, and USA Today bestseller.
From the author of The Art of Inheriting Secrets comes an emotional new tale of two sisters, an ocean of lies, and a search for the truth.
Her sister has been dead for fifteen years when she sees her on the TV news… years ago on a train during a terrorist attack. Gone forever. It’s what her sister, Kit, an ER doctor in Santa Cruz, has always believed. Yet all it takes is a few heart-wrenching seconds to upend Kit’s world. Live coverage of a club fire in Auckland has captured the image of a woman stumbling through the smoke and debris. Her resemblance to Josie is unbelievable. And unmistakable. With it comes a flood of emotions—grief, loss, and anger—that Kit finally has a chance to put to rest: by finding the sister who’s been living a lie.
After arriving in New Zealand, Kit begins her journey with the memories of the past: of days spent on the beach with Josie. Of a lost teenage boy who’d become part of their family. And of a trauma that has haunted Kit and Josie their entire lives.
Now, if two sisters are to reunite, it can only be by unearthing long-buried secrets and facing a devastating truth that has kept them apart far too long. To regain their relationship, they may have to lose everything.
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Masterful and haunting is the only way to describe this book. It’s a study in how to reveal story in the narrative one hungry intense breath at a time.
Great read
Most of this book was slow and a bit boring. It was also beautiful and heartbreaking and deals with addiction and suicide and abuse and loss. The very end of it gutted me completely. I’m not sure I would have read it if I had known how difficult a book it is but by the time I got to that point, I needed to know what happened.
This book entails much reminiscing about early childhood and later adulthood between sisters. One presumably died in a club fire the other the only one living after an adopted brother drowned while surfing. We are fed bits and pieces of this scene and that scene enough to get a taste of what is more to come. It keeps you hanging on salivating for more as you can’t stop reading. It sorta prepares you for the moment of the big reveal. But there really isn’t a big reveal, only the last little tidbit that is frosting on the cake. Delicious.
I am in love with the characters Josie/Mari, Dylan and Kit. Such a broken family, but incredibly strong individuals. I may not agree with some of the life choices being made, but living in a survival mode doesn’t allow for better. I didn’t want the story to end. Such vivid descriptions and beautiful language had me transported to the other side of the earth.
When Kit sees her long-dead sister on the news, alive and well, she doesn’t know then that she will go halfway around the world to find her. Nor does she know what she will find when she gets there.
This is a haunting story of the strength of a sisterly bond, hope that people can overcome even the most challenging beginnings and love. I listened to the audio version and had a hard time doing anything else until it was done.
Highly recommend this book.
The opening line for the summary of this book mentions two sisters, an ocean of lies, and a search for the truth. On the surface, the story is exactly that. Josie has been dead for fifteen years when Kit suddenly sees her on the news, prompting Kit to travel from California to Auckland, NZ to discover the truth.
But there is always more than one truth. And journeys are rarely as simple as they seem. What Barbara O’Neal does eloquently, exquisitely, enchantingly is to peel back the many layers of Kit and Josie, piece by piece, so that you se these characters in the glory of their humanity – the good, the bad, and the ugly. The power of the ocean to soothe and calm. The strength of sisterhood to nurture and protect. The love of family and the anchor it provides. And how each of these gifts can be brutally mauled and savaged and ripped away by circumstances and misunderstandings.
The haunting beauty of New Zealand comes alive under the masterful wieldings of O’Neal’s prose, but it never outshines the characters, including the cast of supporting people, each one drawn with depth and insight. You revel in their hopes, anguish in their fears, pray that resolution will come. Your heart will be touched, deeply.
I know it’s only March and the year has barely begun. But When We Believed in Mermaids is my new favorite. I’ll be thinking of this book for many moons to come.
Honestly might be the best book I’ve read this year. It kept popping up in my recommendations and I kept skipping over it, but I have zero clue why. I was riveted and truly loved this from start to finish. Extremely well written and timeless and I wish I had a Simon or Javier in my life.
Lovely. A good telling of how relationships go wrong, and how to rescue them. Compelling story.
I found myself hurrying along and thought maybe we could get to the point quicker while reading it . BUT …. after finishing it I notice im thinking of parts of the story all the time. I think of the characters like they were real and part of my life . Like my past or something. So there is something special about it! Glad I read it and I wonder what the sisters are doing now.
I enjoyed this book so much! It was deep and it was emotional. It was beautiful in it’s descriptions of the settings – both San Francisco Bay and Auckland, New Zealand – parallel universes in this story. One being a place a sister stayed and the other the place a sister escaped to.
They grew up together devoid of parental supervision in an atmosphere of adult indiscretions. The older sister was drawn into the dark side, the younger was able to rise above. But the tragedies of their lives haunted them both, each in different ways and miles apart.
I loved the back and forth of the story, from the point of view of each sister, only one knowing where the other is. I also love the way it comes full circle, and the supporting characters that help it happen. It was hard to put down and I highly recommend it!
Wonderful story and characters.
Fabulous read! If real life didn’t get in the way I’d of read this at one go.
A Strong , Emotional Story of two sisters,one running from the past and one running towards it for answers.Would recommend this to anyone who likes Strong characters with Emotional ties.
Superb imagery. Three-dimensional characters. Sublime scenery. This book will keep you up nights until you reach the last page.
It’s a good telling of trying to make peace with your feelings about the past, the damage that sometimes defines you. I really enjoyed it.
Story of 2 sisters Kit and Josie/Mari. Kit, an ER Doctor from California sees a news report of a night club bombing in New Zealand and catches a glimpse of her sister, Josie who reportedly died in a terrorist attack in France years earlier. Josie, now Mari survived the attack and used it as a chance to reinvent herself, leaving behind the addicted, confused, lost girl. Kit goes to search for Josie/Mari and in the process they both revisit their childhood and the family tragedies that shaped their choices and lives.
The characters were well developed and although they both suffered through childhood trauma both Kit and Josie/Mari were strong, accomplished, empathic women. The ending was, perhaps a smidge too warm fuzzy for my taste but overall I really liked this book.
This is the story of Kit and her sister Josie. The grew up in a home that was filled with turmoil. Parents who didn’t take the time to parent instead spent their time with alcohol and drugs. And an “brother” who came into their lives when they were teenagers who was left to care for them, but struggled with deamons of his own.
Josie ran away and killed in a terroist attack on her train. For 15 years Kit and her mother have mourned her. Already Kit had lost her father in an earthquake and her “brother” Dylan to a drowning. Focusing instead of keeping herself out of trouble, Kit becomes an ER doctor. One day, while watching the news of a fire in New Zealand, Kit swears she sees her sister in the background. Slowing the video she becomes more convinced that Josie is somehow alive and she needs to go and find her. She gets on a plane to New Zealand to search and find out the truth.
Kit is determined to find her, but in taking this journey she is forced to re-live her past. Old memories and old wounds resurface and Kit can no longer run away.
This was a pretty good book. I listened to it as an audiobook on my long car rides and it kept me entertained. It is an easy listen and the story flows well between the two sisters. There are a few eye rolling moments for me – things that just seem a bit silly or overdrawn, but for the most part, a good story. Kit and Josie are likeable characters and it was interesting to see how two sisters from the same house had two very different life outcomes.
I would say check this one out. As an easy beach (or winter pretty soon) read or a good audio book.
Letting go of the past, forgiveness, and ties between sisters are the themes of this exciting lost and found story. It swept my over worked brain to a faraway paradise.
I read this book for my book club and thoroughly enjoyed it. It’s a novel about two sisters’ childhoods and how they collide with their adult selves. The story addresses neglect, alcoholism, suicide, sexual assault and the danger of secrets while also delving into love, forgiveness, and recovery. Ms.. O’Neal kept me interested as the story moved along as a steady pace. It made me hopeful but also made me cry a few times too. I would recommend it to adults but may be a little intense for early teens.