Where She Went
A Novel
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4.0 • 1 Rating
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- $21.99
Publisher Description
Women's fiction with a wrenching twist, Where She Went follows one mother desperate to know which secrets took her daughter away from what should have been a normal college experience.
What happens when your worst fear comes true?
Her only daughter has just gone away to college, and Maggie O'Farrell knows she's turning into one of those anxious empty-nesters she used to mock. Worrying constantly, texting more than she should, even occasionally dropping by the campus "just to say hi." But Maggie can't shake the feeling that something terrible is about to happen to Emma.
And then, just as Maggie starts to relax, her daughter disappears.
The clues are disturbing. An empty dorm room where Emma was supposedly living. A mysterious boy described as Future Husband in her phone. Dormmates who seem more sinister than friendly. As Maggie combs over the campus looking for signs of her daughter, she learns more about Emma's life than she ever thought possible.
Kelly Simmons delivers another gripping novel in Where She Went, a conversation-starting story of letting go and the secrets that surface when the person hiding them is gone.
Also by Kelly Simmons:
One More Day
The Fifth of July
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Maggie O'Farrell, the heroine of this uneven psychological thriller from Simmons (One More Day), has always been close to her only child, Emma, and her worries about her college-age daughter have ramped up since drug dealers murdered her police officer husband. When Emma began attending Semper University in North Philadelphia, Maggie became one of those helicopter parents she used to deride and she bombarded Emma with so many texts and face-time sessions that Emma finally asked her mother to limit their communication. Maggie's anxieties may now be well-founded when the police show up to tell her that Emma is missing. On a visit to the campus, Maggie is stunned to find out that Emma's dorm room has none of her possessions and her phone is stashed in a roommate's drawer. Chapters alternate between Maggie's search and the events leading up to Emma's disappearance, including her efforts to fit in with her mean-girl roommates. Simmons does a good job depicting Maggie's distress and Emma's self-discovery process, but empathy for mother and daughter diminishes as the plot becomes tedious and repetitive. Hopefully, Simmons will return to form next time.
