Walk Me Home is a touching story with powerful examples of selfishness, kindness, deceit and determination. 16 year old Carly and 12 year old Jen are the daughters of a woman whose only interest appears to be herself with a suggested history of part-time male partners, the latest 'partner' is Wade and he is the poorest choice Jocelyn has made. The cast in this story includes; the two girls, their mother Jocelyn, her former boyfriend Teddy, current boyfriend Wade, as well as Delores, Alvin, Pam, Virginia, and Chester each of whom are Native Americans of the Wakapi Tribe.Catherine Ryan Hyde is becoming one of my favorite authors. Again in Walk Me Home, she creates characters so real that I feel as though I would recognize them on the street, or maybe I already know many of them in my own acquaintances. Athough this is well written and the characters are well drawn, the plot has a hole in it -- a big hole which is never filled. Carly and Jen quickly leave their home in New Mexico. It is clear that they have just discovered that their mother has died and Carly fears that Social Services will put them in a home -- probably separate homes -- so they are running away in the hopes that their step-father, Teddy, will take them in. Clearly they have no connection to their father, but there must has once been one. Carly in passing says there is no father but gives absolutely no explanation. There mother is described as flitting from man to man over and over again over the life of the girls. That begged the question of whether they were even the children of the same father. Explanation is never given. Did the father just walk away or is he dead? We're never told. Bigger than that is that none, absolutely none, of the adults who come in contact with these two girls ever ask about a father. They are told about the step-father, Teddy, but never, ever ask about the blood father. I waited the entire book for that shoe to fall and it never did. Having lived in Arizona, I liked the Native American aspects and the descriptions of the landscape. I also liked Alvin and Delores and the many people who come in contact with Carly and her sister; they were diverse and interesting.
What do You think about Walk Me Home (2013)?
A bit slow and circuitous, I skipped to the last page just to see how it ended.
—Percy
I really enjoyed the characters and the curve they go through
—ladyothhse
Disappointing book. I was depressed the whole time. Skip it.
—rohithsai
