Me & Emma

Written from a child's point of view, this story is absolutely riveting.....right to its shocking conclusion. The heroine, 8-year-old Carrie, is rather matter-of-fact as she weaves her woeful tale. You can't help but root for her and her little sister Emma as they attempt to navigate through a pretty pathetic existence. I can only hope that women reading this will heed its subtle warning: be careful who you choose for your mate.

I am so glad that my pleasure of the book was not spoiled by the give-away that many reviewers have shared. If you haven't read the other reviews, don't do it. This is a touching story told by a child who is the victim of abuse. I will never forget it.

I had never heard of this book until I saw it at Costco with the Costco Book Club Selection sticker. I'm so glad I bought it! Like another reviewer, I started this book one afternoon and did not go to sleep that night until I finished it. My heart went out to Carrie and Emma. Some things that happened during the book that I thought were inconsistencies were totally understandable by the ending. I will be passing this one on to my daughters.

I started this book on Saturday morning and finished it Saturday afternoon. I couldn't stop reading. It's such a compelling drama and I felt so connected to the sisters in the story. You root for them and cry for them and get angry for them and just when you think that things are finally going to turn around, they get worse. The twist in this story is a real jaw dropper. It's not the happy ending you hope for but it's more like what would really happen in a case like this. Anyway, don't pass this one up.

For eight-year-old Carrie Parker, life is divided into before and after. Before her beloved father's death, her family lived a relatively happy life in the small town of Toast, North Carolina. Now she and her sister, Emma, endure daily verbal and physical abuse at the hands of their stepfather, Richard, and the emotional absence of their mother. "A big sister has to look out for a baby sister," says Carrie, and she does her best to protect herself and Emma from Richard's fists. ME & EMMA is narrated by Carrie, who lays out the details of her life with a child's intuitiveness and touching simplicity. Central to the story is her relationship with Emma, the one constant in a hardscrabble existence. In many ways, Carrie and Emma are opposites. Carrie has a dark complexion and Emma is fair, "like someone got bored painting her and just left her blank for someone else to fill in." Carrie is older by two years, but it's often the fearless Emma who leads the way. Emma is more of a realist, while Carrie, whose most cherished possession is a book of stamps from around the world, dreams of far away places. In particular, Bermuda, where she believes it's "too pretty for anything to be wrong, and I bet they even have a law that would keep people like Richard out altogether." As the story unfolds, Carrie devises ways to escape the reality of her home life, from an aborted runaway attempt that has dire consequences to hiding behind the living room couch. "Behind-the-couch," she says, "is like another room for me and Emma. It's our fort. Anyway, we usually head there when we've counted ten squeaks from the foot pedal of the metal trash can in the kitchen. The bottles clank so loud I think my head'll split in two." The narrative alternates scenes from the past --- dominated by Carrie's memories of her father --- with events in the present, making the difference between the two all the more heartbreaking. Throughout, Elizabeth Flock's imagery and phrasing is pitch-perfect with lines such as this one: "I can barely remember Momma the way she used to be, before Richard broke her into pieces." Flock's deceptively simple prose belies not only a seriousness in subject matter but also clever subtleties in the plot. Carrie relays information that she doesn't always understand, but to the reader these are important points to look out for in the story. They eventually shed light on devastating family secrets in both the past and the present. ME & EMMA is not purely escapist reading. The injustices suffered by Carrie and Emma --- and their helplessness --- are stark reminders of the cruelty inflicted on children every day by the adults entrusted to care for them. And yet it's this same austerity that drives the narrative. Suffice it to say, you won't soon forget Carrie Parker and her little sister, Emma. --- Reviewed by Shannon McKenna