Walk Me Home

by Catherine Ryan Hyde

[Leah]

I love Catherine Ryan Hyde. Her novels are so accomplished, so readable, with absolutely amazing plots that no other author could do justice to. Second Hand Heart, When I Found You, Don’t Let Me Go are all amazing novels. So whenever a new Catherine Ryan Hyde is released, it’s a must-buy for me. I appear to have not read her release last year, When You Were Older, but that will be sharply fixed, and when I got a copy of her new one Walk Me Home, I started it as soon as I’d cleared anything else I had to review, because I just couldn’t wait to read it.

Walk Me Home is yet another triumphant Catherine Ryan Hyde novel. It has all the hallmarks of a Catherine Ryan Hyde novel, and I was captivate by Carly and Jen, who after a devastating tragedy, are walking from New Mexico to California in a bid to get to their step-dad Teddy. That in itself is heartbreaking, that two young girls (13 and 16) are having to walk, by themselves, through Arizona in the baking heat with barely any other people around, in a bid to not be seen or captured and sent to foster care. Carly knows that if they can reach California, reach Teddy, then they’ll be OK, their life will be a bit better, but Jen has a secret, and it’s something that’s going to blow Carly’s life to bits.

What I think Catherine Ryan Hyde does best is she takes a small community of people – a group of misfits, or a group you wouldn’t normally give two figs about – and makes you care about them. In Don’t Let Me Go that was shown to its fullest potential, as Gracie was taken care of by so many kind people, and that shows itself again in Walk Me Home, after the girls are caught trying to steal eggs from a lady’s henhouse. That lady is Dolores, and she’s part of the Wakapi tribe, and she isn’t too happy to have two girls trying to steal from her and tells them they can spend a week at her house, working off their debt. Carly’s skittish about Dolores, and acts quite tough, but Jen seems to find Dolores soothing, and doesn’t seem to want to leave. The Wakapi tribe aren’t a real tribe, as Catherine explains in her Author Letter at the end of the novel, but I can see where she was coming from, and I always find tribes and groups of people like that to be so warm and welcoming, they’re always so open and kind, and I liked the values of the Wakapi tribe. How Alvin, the local police officer, was more than happy to help Carly out with trips to the town to use the phone, and who wasn’t all about getting them handed over to a nameless social worker.

I really, really enjoyed Walk Me Home, it hit home really hard, and I felt so sad for Jen and Carly and their mental strength to trek days and days in vast, empty spaces must have been really, really strong. I could never do something like that, I’d have given up and died, lemme tell you. I admired the girls’ relationship, so much. In situations like that, you really have no choice but to stick together but it was more than that and you could tell Jen and Carly were always so close. This was just a wonderful read, with another cast of characters you’ll easily fall in love with. I can’t wait for Catherine’s next book, she’s such an amazing writer and I always devour her books way too quickly, I definitely recommend the book; I always do for Catherine’s books because they are so amazing and she deserves so much credit for being such a wonderful writer.