Title: Remember Mia
Author: Alexandra Burt
Genre: Mystery
How I got the book: I bought it
Summary (from Amazon):
Estelle Paradise wakes up in a hospital after being found near dead at the bottom of a ravine with a fragmented memory and a vague sense of loss. Then a terrifying reality sets in: her daughter is missing.
Days earlier, Estelle discovered her baby’s crib empty in their Brooklyn apartment. There was no sign of a break-in, but all traces of seven-month-old Mia had disappeared. Her diapers, her clothes, her bottles—all gone.
Frustrated and unable to explain her daughter’s disappearance, Estelle begins a desperate search. But when the lack of evidence casts doubt on her story, Estelle becomes the number one suspect in the eyes of the police and the media.
As hope of reuniting with Mia becomes all she has left, Estelle will do anything to find answers: What has she done to her baby? And what has someone else done to her?
My Review (may contain spoilers!):
From the very first page, this book takes hold of you and doesn’t let go until the very last page.
I’ve seen movies and read other books with this same concept before: a child gets kidnapped, no one believes the mother, or worse, they think the mother did it.
Estelle Paradise wakes up one morning to find her seven-month-old daughter missing, all of her belongings gone with her. She was suffering from depression, often thinking of hurting her baby.
Estelle is found unconscious in a ditch in her car with blood around her, a gun, and a missing ear. She has amnesia and while she remembers her daughter, she can’t remember anything else.
The novel takes us through Estelle and her therapy as she tries to put the pieces together. I was beginning to feel crazy myself as I can’t imagine the entire world not believing you and being against you when you’ve lost someone you love. Even her husband wasn’t on her side.
The pieces finally fit together for Estelle, but that doesn’t mean Mia has been found. Most stories like this end with the mother finding their child a few months later. No, Mia was missing for five years which I think is, unfortunately, more realistic.
Once Estelle got her memories back I thought for sure there was going to be a happy ending. Then a few more chapters went by and so did a few a years in-book. I started to wonder if Estelle would ever be reunited with her daughter.
My only complaint was Jack, Estelle’s husband. The kidnapping of their child was surely to take a toll on the relationship, that much I understand. However, Jack wasn’t supportive of Estelle at all once they found her almost dead in a ditch.
He was angry with her, thinking she did something to Mia, and put her in a mental institution to help her remember. He never visited her, never tried to get in contact with her. In the end, when she gets to go home, they get a divorce and go their separate ways.
While they both continued to search for Mia themselves, Jack still doesn’t bother to keep in touch with Estelle about the possible whereabouts with Mia.
The story is told in Estelle’s point of view, so we’re not going to see Jack’s life, but I still wish he was in it a bit more. He just didn’t seem sympathetic to me.
Remember Mia by Alexandra Burt gets 5 out of 5 stars.
Favorite Quote:
“I cry knowing the walls are soundproof and for this moment, in this room of madness, this place of the demented, I want to find the strength to see this through.” –Alexandra Burt, Remember Mia
Be sure to check out my Goodreads to see what I’ll be reading next!
