Never Be Alone (Home Street Home Series – Book 5) by Paige Dearth

4 Stars

391 Pages
Publisher: Fiction With Meaning LLC, AuthorBuzz
Release Date: March 21, 2018

Fiction, Horror, Mystery, Thriller, Kidnapping, Torture, Sexual Abuse, Domestic Violence, Sex Trafficking, Drug Usage

Eight-year-old Joon lost both of her parents. After being in a temporary shelter, there was an opening at a foster home. Jamie, the social worker told Joon this was a better option than a group home. When they arrive they are greeted by Aron, the foster mother, and her two sons, Deen and Dobi. Joon has a bad feeling about the situation and tries to tell Jamie with her eyes. She quickly becomes a victim of torture at the hands of her new foster family. She openly wished for death to come for her. At 12 years old, she ran away and met a homeless woman named Ragtop. When Ragtop does not come home one night, she is on her own and homeless again. She meets another young girl, Pringle. Two years later, she is sold to a pimp and Pringle was murdered.

The book had a steady pace, the characters were developed, and it was written in the third person point of view. I must be honest; this was a difficult read. Also, there are many triggers that could affect some people.

Well-developed characters. Interesting plot. Vivid descriptions. A wonderful read!

*I received a complimentary ARC of this book in order to read and provide a voluntary, unbiased and honest review, should I choose to do so.

Paige Dearth is honest and open about the abuse she had to endure in life and writes topics around this, things she knows.

This book however hard to read, however hard to stomache is unfortunately real life and we can’t ignore this and become someone who buries their heads in the sand, how can we become aware if we turn a blind eye?

Heart rending, and a book you won’t easily forget.

I’ve read other books by this author and this one seems a bit odd at times.

Is it written in third person?
As some replies and sentences seem misdirected.

It also, in parts, comes across as a manual or brochure.
Or was that me?

If you’ve read it, please comment and let me know.

Unfortunately I’ve had this book for some time and recently started reading. It took me about 25 pages before I was completely hooked. I thought the endangered child aspect would have been too much but it was so well done. I look forward to more books from this author.

Thank you for the opportunities to read this book. I have attempted it on a number of occasions but unfortunately I haven’t been able to get into it.

This story is heartbreaking! I havent read many books about homelessness. I cant even imagine being in that kind of situation. I enjoyed the story but the writing style wasn't my favorite. That being said it was still an enjoyable read.

This book was so amazing. It was heart wrenching. The story show how hard it is to survive abuse and live a difficult life on the street. I cried through most of the book. It will be hard for you to put the book down. But well worth the read. Amazing author. I will be reading more of her books.

I didn’t enjoy this as much as I thought I would. The premise drew me in but I tend to find the writing mellow dramatic and a bit over the top as if the author is attempting too hard to shock the reader and making the story unbelievable in the process. Interesting to begin with but hard to stay hooked on.

This story is heartbreaking. It's such a weird thing reading a book like this. Part of you is like there's no way this could happen, that someone could be this evil but then you realize there are people like this all the time abusing children.

Pros:
• The way she writes homelessness is pretty spot on to what it's like to be homeless.
• You don't get a chance to read books centered around homelessness.

Cons:
• It's never explained why Joon doesn't bring along any of her belongings. She doesn't have clothes or even pictures of her parents. Her parents are only children but no aunts or uncles or cousins?
• The writing sometimes came off childish even when through the words of adults.
• The book seemed so long and repetitive. Definitely could have been half the pages it was.

Poor 8 year olds Joon learns her parents have died and having little time to come to terms with that loss and their death, she suddenly has life as it was, the comfort of home and live ripped from her.

In foster care, Joon is subjected to the most horrific abuse and after four years of torture and her foster brother’s attempt to steal her innocence, she finally runs away to Philadelphia’s poverty-stricken streets.

Being homeless, Joon has to fight with all her strength just to stay alive, the untold danger and desperation really evident for such an innocent young girl.

The is a book that you read with a heavy heart but one of pride and love as we share Joon’s journey.

Though this is a work of fiction, this book was a hauntingly realistic novel about homelessness, foster care, the system failing you, drug addiction, prostitution, survival and hope. It was a heartbreaking read, but so beautifully written. I don't know why it took me so long to pick this book up. At times it was tough to get through some parts because of the sheer horror this young girl suffered through - So much loss and desperation and hopelessness. Despite her tumultuous battle for survival, I was very pleased with how Dearth came full circle with her ending. I will definitely be reading more from Dearth.

Join has had a rough childhood. In this book she looses her parents to an unknown incident, she is sent to an abusive foster home where she endures neglect and is tormented physically. Sexually, and psychologically. She reaches her breaking point before she's a teen. She becomes homeless, looses friends to drugs among other things. In the end will she
Prevail? I found the ending to be very abrupt i would have liked it to be longer and more of a conclusion. But I do enjoy reading these types of books

Paige Dearth lived a childhood no child should ever have to live. The fact she can write her stories after what she went thru is amazing at best.
What I like most about her stories is the heart and would she puts into her characters and how she can portray the evil human beings just as well. I have cried reading every one of her books and always wait anxiously for her next.

Thank you Paige for your honesty and the reality of your work.

From the first page of this book, the knowledge that Joon's life is horrific is unavoidable. She starts out with losing her parents to an unknown incident, then goes to a horribly abusive foster home where she is not just neglected but tormented. She is physically, psychologically, and sexually harmed. When she reaches her breaking point, before she's even a teenager, she walks away from school and the hell she's come to call home. From that moment on, she's homeless.



Throughout her years on the streets, she continues to be abused. She makes friends, and loses them to drugs and death and mystery. She tries to trust people and ends up hurting more. She bears so many scars, already, from her time in the foster home with Aron.



Joon spends her entire adolescence on the streets, scurrying from place to place and trying to just survive. She struggles daily with what she is doing, what she has to do to survive, and how she can maintain her humanity. A common complaint she has is that people who are not homeless do not see her or others like her as human. She receives criticism and condemnation for "choosing" to loaf about on the streets rather than go home and "follow the rules." Peoples' narrow-mindedness is so accurately portrayed, I found myself outraged page after page.



By the end of the book, Joon has lost everything but her own humanity. She's lost her childhood, her innocence, her friends, her parents, her education. In the 11th hour, she finds a purpose and ultimately finds someone she thought she would never see again. So she comes full circle and rides off into the sunset on the train.



Where I struggled with in this book was the lack of purpose. When I reached the end and there was such a casual conclusion to all the hell Joon went through, I had to check again and make sure this wasn't a work of non-fiction. There's not really much of a story here. Not much of a tale. What we have is a portion of a person's journey who went through unspeakable experience after unspeakable experience. Joon doesn't triumph, she endures. She doesn't conquer, she changes direction. There's something to be said, for sure, for the girl's ability to persevere throughout all of the horrors she experiences. Not just persevere, but maintain her goodness and kindness.



Once we reach the end, though, there's no real sense of accomplishment. I did not even feel the satisfaction of knowing that this character achieved a monumental goal she'd been aspiring to throughout a long a difficult journey. In a matter of less than 10 pages, she "realizes" what her purpose is in life, is on the far end of accomplishing her goal, and reconciling with an old friend. The end. I felt cheated, honestly.



Perhaps what the author was doing was commenting on the unfairness of life and society. Joon endures so much, yet she doesn't get a happy ending, as far as the reader knows. Every other time in this book that she has gone off to something better with a person she loves, she has suffered more at their hands. We have no real reason to think that something different is going to happen this time. We hope it will be different, but we don't know. That lack of certainty, I think, bothers me more than anything else.



We have traveled with Joon as only a reader can. We have been privy to her private fears and anguish, her pain and suffering, her longing, her hope. And we are left on the last page with uncertainty. It is tragic. There's no other word for it. Joon, forever more in my mind, will be synonymous with "tragic."

Where do I begin on a review for this book? First I would like to say, it was a very eye opening experience to what life on the streets can be like especially for a young person. You hear things on the news and see it in movies, but this story about Joon really made me stop and think. Also you hear about abusive foster homes and parents, but this story really brings that into reality. When Joon was 8, her parents both died and she was put into a foster home. The torment, terror and abuse she went through for 4 years in that home brings tears to my eyes. No child should have to go through that. At the age of 12, Joon runs away and starts her life on the streets. This life is one of violence, fear, helplessness, sorrow and more. Joon struggles year after year wanting and trying to find a purpose in her life. She never gave up on helping others and wanting better for herself.

This book really opened my eyes to what a homeless person goes through each day. We often take the littlest things like food, shelter, bathing, etc. for granted. So many people think homeless are lazy and choose that way of life. Instead we see people like Joon and others she meets along the way, in a life that they were forced into. This book isn't the genre I normally read, but I am so glad I did read it. It's a story that will remain with me for many years to come. This is an emotionally charged book and worth the read,

Thank you NetGallery for sending me an ARC copy to read and review.

I definitely had mixed feelings about this one. This is a difficult story with a lot of hard topics for young adults.

Joon's story is a difficult one, having lost her parents at a young age and being sent to foster care, her emotional state is already fragile. Joon is then faced with the worst possible scenario, an abusive foster mother. Joon has two options, stay with her foster mother and brothers and endure their abuse, or take to the streets and pray that she can survive. While neither option is appealing, Joon decides that she would rather be homeless, than deal with the abuse.

While on the streets, Joon faces what many would expect, the elements, starvation, drugs, prostitution, sickness, and even further abuse. Joon's story is a tragic one. While I feel that there is a lot to take away from this novel, my biggest complaint would have to be in the narrative itself. It's told in the third person, rather than the first person. Can you imagine the impact Joon's story would have had if she were the one to tell it?

With everything that happens to Joon and the friends she meets along the way, I had a very difficult time connecting and feeling the emotion that was needed. This novel could have been amazing, really, if only we were made to feel the emotion rather than being shown the emotion. Perhaps, the choice to write in the third person narrative is because it is intended for young adults and maybe writing in the first person would have made it too dark, but let's face it, these are not easy topics, and if the idea is to tell the story so that young adults speak up, and realize these realities exist, then it needs to be harsh.

All that said, I did enjoy the novel and the storyline. It's a sad story, almost inconceivable at times.

I want to thank NetGalley, Fiction With Meaning LLC, and Paige Dearth for allowing me the opportunity to read this novel in exchange for my review.

A child with no parents. A evil foster mother. A runaway with nowhere to go. With no family, Joon is sent back to foster care. After years of cruel treatment, she decides to runaway and live on the streets. Now she is homeless being 12 yrs old and homeless isn't so great. A group of teens take her in and help her, although they do this she still has trouble trusting anyone. She don't know who to trust anymore.

This story is very raw and straight forward with how a homeless teen would do anything to survive on the streets. It forces you to confront and realize how many homeless teens their are, it will make you uncomfortable at times. Joon gets put into foster care when she is 8 yrs old, this book shows you 4 yrs of unimaginable horror that she has to endure, when she gets threatened by her foster brothers, she figures a life on the streets would be better than this life.

So she runs into a group of teens who want to help her, but some want to help themselves to her. This story and Joon will stick with you forever, when you think of Never Be Alone, it will give you chills. and make you cry for Joon in your sleep. This book has really hit me hard..

Will you cry for Joon? Maybe? Depends on how you take stories like this in.. I will always have this story on my mind.. Thank you for allowing me to read this book, in exchange for this review.

Paige Dearth is an unbelievably talented writer . She brings sorrow , joy, disbelief , anger with her talent of writing that will pull you in and hold you till the last word.

Paige Dearth never, ever disappoints me. She is utterly genius, albeit a bit mad at the very strength she has for writing books such as this, but you can't help but fall in love with the characters. You love the characters, and you root for them, and you understand them - Paige is one of my absolute favorite authors.

Beware that there is a lot of sensitive topics and content in this book that may be a trigger for some people and may not be suitable for everyone.

Wow this book was amazing! I cannot say enough about how gripping, emotional and raw this book was. I loved it!

This book was a true page turner for me and I found myself so deeply immersed in the storyline and events of the novel that I was unable to put this book down. I would have read it in just one sitting if I didn’t have other things going on, it was that good of a book.

The main character Joon was an incredible character. It was great watching her character growth throughout the novel, and watch her blossom like a flower in such adversity. She was exposed to so much as a young child and it was interesting to read about her growth as a person and character in the book. After losing her parents at a young age she was brought to live with a foster mom named Aron and two foster brothers. Of course being so young at the time she was nervous and apprehensive of being brought to live with strangers in a strange home. Her social worker tried to ease her fears and told her this was a great family for her to be raised with.
Joon soon learned that her foster mom Aron isn’t who she presents herself to be, and although she seems sweet and nice when others are around, Aron knows different. What goes on behind closed doors is so nasty and ugly, I felt bad for poor Joon.

Eventually Joon escapes years later from the home and lives on the streets, vowing to never return to Aron and her abusive home. Joon is then faced with homelessness and learning how to survive on the streets. She swears anything is better than living with Aron.

Joon is a strong character, full of love, kindness, and determination. She is a sweet young girl who I felt so bad for reading this novel. I felt as if I was a part of the novel as well, and right there along with Joon as she was living her life on the streets. I had so many emotions reading this novel, and found myself on the edge of my seat as I read chapter after chapter.

Without saying too much about this book you have to read this one for sure! Be sure to add it to your TBR you will not be disappointed.