Publisher's Weekly Review
The "you" in the title of this psychological mystery debut refers to children, not partners. In Olivia Reed's case, what her mother Myla had before she had her were stillborn twins, infant ghosts she's told will follow her through life. But ghosts take different forms as the novel unfolds: are they spirits of dead children, as professional "psychic" Myla insists? Or are they the teenage girls that Olivia begins to "see" when she is 15, believing herself the inheritor of her mother's gift? Are they dead souls come of age, her living sisters, or mad hallucinations? The answers shift as the narrative switches back and forth between the summer of 1987, when Olivia was an adolescent, and the present, when she's traveling with her two children, Daniel and Carrie, after her divorce and revisits her hometown of Ocean Vista, N.J. In this haunted place, "the locus of [her] guilt," she loses nine-year-old Daniel, who is bipolar, on the beach. His disappearance drives the narrative forward, but what's more captivating is Olivia's relationship with her beautiful, unbalanced mother and its parallels with her relationship with Carrie, as well as Olivia's ruminations on the meanings of mental illness. "What I had before I had you" are hidden pasts, leaving indelible traces. Depth of insight, dreamy prose, and an engrossing storyline mark this wonderful debut. (Jan.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.
Library Journal Review
"Sex is only a flea in the fur of love, which is a magnificent tiger, but that love, like a tiger, will kill you fast." This is an early introduction to life for preadolescent Olivia, offered by her charismatic but erratic mother, Myla, who claims to be psychic. Enduring a rather confused existence in Ocean Vista, NJ, Olivia must hold everything together until the oft-disappearing Myla resurfaces, sometimes many days later. But one particular summer, Olivia exhibits her own eccentric behavior. This family history novel, rich in images, moves back and forth between Olivia as a troubled youth and Olivia, 20 years later, as a divorced mother traveling back to Ocean Vista with her two children. Uneasy about her new single parent status, she finds herself dwelling on details of her past, momentarily taking her eyes off her bipolar nine-year-old son, Daniel, who vanishes. As Olivia and her daughter begin their search for Daniel, Olivia's memories of her decidedly dysfunctional family combine with flashes from her unhappy, unstable adult life. Verdict This is a remarkable debut by an award-winning short story writer; Cornwell's psychological study of the stormy relationships in one particular family is engrossing and insightful.-Andrea Tarr, Corona P.L., CA (c) Copyright 2014. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
