Libro.FM(Audiobook)/ Indiebound/ Hachette Books/Amazon/Barnes & Nobles/Kobo

Review Written by: Jessica C.

Synopsis, Taken from Hachette Books:

In what passes for an ordinary day in a psych ward, Dr. Zoe Goldman is stumped when a highly unusual case arrives. A young African American girl, found wandering the streets of Buffalo in a catatonic state, is brought in by police. No one has come forward to claim her, and all leads have been exhausted, so Zoe’s treatment is the last hope to discover the girl’s identity.

When drugs prove ineffective and medical science seems to be failing, Zoe takes matters into her own hands to track down Jane Doe’s family and piece together their checkered history. As she unearths their secrets, she finds that monsters hide where they are least expected. And now she must solve the mystery before it is too late. Because someone wants to make sure this young girl never remembers.

The Girl Without a Name is a powerful novel of memory and forgetting, of unexpected friendship and understanding…and of the secrets we protect no matter the consequences. – See more at: http://www.hachettebookgroup.com/titles/sandra-block/the-girl-without-a-name/9781455583775/#desc

Review:

There is a crack in everything. That’s how the light gets in.

The readers of The Girl Without A Name are introduced again to Zoe Goldman not much longer after Little Black Lies ended. Zoe is in a better place and consistent with her relationship with Mike, however she still deals with her inner struggles to overcome her own insecurity and ADHD.  In what would be an otherwise typical day in the psych ward for Zoe, her day suddenly changes upon the arrival of a young African-American female who is catatonic.

Zoe makes all attempts to break the girl’s catatonia and when the girl comes to she is unable to recall where she came from or her name. However, as Zoe’s relationship as the young girl’s doctor progresses she begins to realize that things may not always be as they seem. Upon coming to the girl deals with memory loss that goes beyond recalling her own name. Jane Doe eventually remembers that she is Candy and the journey to unravel Candy’s mystery starts for Zoe.

The mystery of Candy possesses so many unexpected twists and turn. Secrets and lies that the reader, nor Zoe, expected to discover are unearthed. That which is unearthed leaves a bit of what Zoe was used to unraveling around her. Trusted friends and coworkers are no longer who they seem, and no one believes Zoe with her discoveries.

There is a crack in everything. Don’t forget. It’s the cracks that make us human.

Without giving the plot away, the story holds Block’s typical finesse for twists and turns. What the reader will think is only a story of “who is Jane Doe?” becomes so much more then that. A story that falls far deeper into the shadows then some of us which to think of. The truth of it is shocking but presented in such a fashion the reader can do nothing more then connect and sympathize with Zoe and her patients.

I am praying for us all. And for the cracks nobody can fix. The cracks that let the light in. The cracks so big we could fall right through them.

I look forward to the next story of where Zoe’s fellowship takes her. Until next time… happy reading!