Brave Girl, Quiet Girl by Catherine Ryan Hyde is yet another powerful novel by a highly competent, prolific writer. Hyde’s writing allows the reader to get into the heads of her characters. I could see the world from the eyes of the various personalities, could feel their pain, their anxiety, and their fragile grip on hope.
The story takes place in present day Los Angeles. Brooke uses every excuse she can to get away from her over-bearing mother. Brooke, thirty-nine, divorced with a two-year-old daughter, Etta, is financially forced to live with her mother. Although Brooke begrudgingly acknowledges gratitude that her mother lets her stay there, the woman is so negative and overbearing that Brooke must get out of the house. Because her own car is old and untrustworthy, she borrows her mother’s elegant Mercedes to take her daughter, Etta, to a movie.
After the movie they return to the car and Brooke dutifully straps little Etta into her up-to-code car seat in the backseat of the car. Brooke has just settled behind the steering wheel when a carjacker rips open the door, drags her out of the car, climbs in, and drives off. Brooke watches, terrified and helpless, as the car speeds down the street, with Etta still in her car seat.
On the other side of town, Molly, only sixteen, is living on the streets in a bad section of Los Angeles. She’s been homeless ever since her mother kicked her out of their Utah home. Unbelievably, on her way to the wooden crate she calls “home,” she finds a baby, on the sidewalk, still in her car seat, abandoned. Molly looks around for the mother, but finds no one looking for this sweet child. Shielding the little girl from possible, if not likely danger, she tries to find help, to notify police. Her cell phone stopped working months ago. Danger lurks everywhere. This baby could be a gold-mine for people with evil intentions.
Brave Girl, Quiet Girl is a gripping story, with huge dollops of compassion across generations and financial circumstances. I highly recommend this compelling and emotional novel.
Wow, I’ve always enjoyed her books and this one sounds fantastic, I have to get it. Many thanks, Mary, for the review!
Thanks for the comment, Irene. I have loved her books, too. She writes with so much heart!