Lena has been missing for over 4000 days, when her parents get a call to say a lady has turned up at the hospital and matches her description with a child. Lena’s parents arrive but is it her? Where has she been and who has kept her for all this time?
This was a book of three parts for me, the first I whizzed through and enjoyed. The middle I hated and found boring and then the last I loved. I’m glad I kept at it but it didn’t grip me in the way I hoped.
Thank you to netgalley and the publishers for this arc in exchange for my honest review.

"After all, I'm drawing the woman lying on the kitchen floor and I definitely need carmine for her. [...] It's always the best colour to use for drawing fresh blood. Claret's fine for old blood, and for really old blood the brown crayon is the best."

I'm not usually into thrillers but I devoured this book in two days! It reminded me a little bit of Emma Donoghue's Room although it is told from multiple perspectives. It was exceptionally eerie and every chapter ended with tiny little cliffhangers that make you want to never put it down! Sometimes some characters decisions seemed too convenient for the sake of the plot, but regardless I really enjoyed it. The very last chapter after the epilogue moved me quite a bit, adored it!!

My thanks to Netgalley and publisher Quercus Books for the ARC.
Wow, this is a psychological thriller and a half! It certainly gives the little grey cells a good work-out as the reader is led down one path and then has to backtrack their thinking. A gripping read and so well written.

A 23yr-old student, Lena Beck, is missing, having not returned home from a party in Munich, Germany, over 13 years ago. Her parents Matthias and Karin have lived only for the day she is found - 4825 days in fact they have waited for word from Gerd Bruhling, Chief Inspector heading the investigation. A late night phone call from Gerd gives fresh hope - a woman called Lena - according to her daughter Hannah, has been the victim of a hit and run accident near the Czech Border. She bears certain similarities to missing Lena.

Lena has been stripped of her identity; has 2 children Hannah (13) and Jonathan (11). They are confined in a log cabin as if they were survivalists - forcibly cut off completely from the outside world. Papa controls everything they can or cannot do - the rules have to be obeyed. They are locked in, there is no daylight and anything useful as a weapon is locked away, until...…….. one day...……..

Told from Lena's point of view in the first instance, before the accident, the story unfolds then with Hannah's and Matthias's views. I will not write any more for fear of spoilers, but suffice it to say, there's lots of red herrings, and twists in this tale. Beware, though, there is some physical violence as well as the darkest of psychological abuse.

Excellent thriller, thoroughly recommended.

I found this quite tricky reading to begin with as couldn't seem to get into the flow of the story but, my god, am I glad I stuck with it! The way the story tripped and changed was really great and I didn't see the "baddie" for who it could have been!

This was a compelling read. I was riveted from the start to find out about Lena and what had happened to her. The characters were very relatable and the story I felt moved quite quickly which kept my interest.

Totally different to what I was expecting, Dear Child is such a deep, nuanced novel about the different types of trauma that come with abduction, obsession, and fear. Absolutely riveting.

Well written but I really struggled with this book. Some good twists but overall, not for me - sorry

A little hard to get into and definitely a bit too long. I didn’t see coming some of the twists but didn’t enjoy as much as I thought. No match to Room

This took me a while to get into - I think becasue it jumped around a little and the characters were new to me but I was gripped with confusion over who was who and what had happened. The daughter is an amazing character, who really makes this story so different to others that a similar theme. my heart really went out to the parents and their longing for their daughter to come home safe - and although I didnt like some things the characters did I wasnt judging them for it.

A woman is involved in a car accident and along with a young girl they are taken to hospital. Who is the woman? the girl tells a nurse she is her mother and that her brother is home alone. This story is written on behalf of three of the characters Jasmine, Hannah and Matthias through the whole book. It’s a gripping story giving a very vivid picture how an abduction and isolation affects all the characters in the story and how they all deal with the ongoing problems that they all face.

Dear Child was a beautifully written novel that for whatever reason didn't work for me.

Maybe it's due to having read a few similar stories recently, women kept in the woods, a child who has an isolated life at the hands of a father who imprisons the mother- I didn't really feel that this added anything to that theme and I personally found it all quite predictable. 

There is however a lot to recommend it to if this is the kind of novel you love. Hannah, the young girl, has a strong resonant voice and an intriguing way of looking at the world. As I said there is also some quality writing so it wasn't entirely a bad read.

Overall I think this should do very well and is certainly worth a look- it just wasn't quite for me.

A shocking story centred around an abduction and the trauma of those affected. Hausmann has a gripping and intriguing style of writing, with well-developed characters and plenty of twists and turns along the way.

The novel focuses on three characters and I particularly enjoyed how each had a different view of the events and were all affected differently.

However, I did feel the story stalled a little in the middle which caused me to lose interest slightly. Overall, an enjoyable read with a satisfying conclusion.

Thanks to Quercus and Netgalley for the ARC.

The first half of this book was great, engaging and interesting but then it changed tone and I found myself flipping backwards and forwards to re-read sections to understand what was happening.
A young woman and her daughter are taken to hospital via ambulance after escaping from a cabin in the woods where they have been being held captive for the past 4 months. However everything is not as it seems.
The plot was interesting and I felt connected to the characters. Overall I enjoyed the storyline and enjoyed the ending.

Dear Child by Romy Hausmann a chilling five-star read. This is a compelling and chilling story, I finished it a couple of days ago and it has taken me a while to gather what I want to write, and I still don’t know what to put. It’s a story that will challenge you, the author does a great job of showing us the side of childhood trauma that you don’t often see. I also liked how the author used multiple points of view to portray the story, we get to hear their story. If you have nails before this story, you may not have any after as you will be kept on the edge of your seat, as this is a nail-biting story. It has some parts that need a polish, but when you realise this is a debut novel it makes you realise just how good the writing is.

A fantastic start to this novel which had me gripped but sadly it started to meander and lost my interest a third of the way through. However I do feel that this would make a wonderful, taut movie. And more a case of it isn’t you but me.

This is a shocking and gripping story of abduction and captivity which centres on the trauma of those immediately involved - the ‘mother’ and the children but also of those who lost their loved ones.

The author explores the outcome through 3 voices - Matthias (the father of Lena), Jasmin (who escaped) and Hannah (the daughter). Each suffers and are marked differently from the experience. We also follow the police process as the two detectives try to pierce together what happened in the cabin.

The book had a good gripping plot with twists and turns I did not expect.

Thankyou to Quercus and Netgalley for an early copy of Dear Child!

This was great, I really enjoyed it. From the first few pages I was gripped— which is always something you want when you start a new book. I felt that the characters were well-drawn out and the book overall was extremely entertaining and well-written. Would definitely recommend and read more from this author in the future!

Thank you for the opportunity to read 'Dear Child'. From the very beginning, the story had me intrigued and kept me interested as it unfolded. Unfortunately, real-life abductions like this have come to light over the last decade or so - fortunately, this is a work of fiction! Well written and recommended.

A well written book which draws the reader in and keeps the interest right up to the unforeseen end. The story is told between three main characters, Jasmin, Hannah and Mathias and is quite horrifying in how control can breed acceptance. The story has a great many twists and turns, it captivates as well as makes one reflect on the dark horror of human nature when it tries to capture, protect and control. The book flows well and develops pulling the reader in in true thriller style with a lot of mystery which cannot be predicted.

This book has drawn a lot of comparisons to Room, because it’s a story about a woman, Lena, and two children, Hannah and Jonathan, held captive in a windowless shack by a man. But for me it was a very different story. As well as the perspective of one of the children, born and raised in captivity in the middle of a remote wood, we hear from Lena herself and Lena’s father, who has been searching for his daughter since she went missing 14 years before.

The story opens with Lena in hospital, having managed to attack her captor and escape, only to be hit by a car. Hannah is with her, and as the police try to piece together what has happened, it seems that none of the pieces fit. Lena doesn’t seem to be who she says she is, the situation they find when they eventually locate the cabin doesn’t match up with her story, and Hannah’s behaviour is deeply puzzling.

The characters are well drawn and compelling, and the author’s depiction of the impact of trauma is powerful.