What a gripping mystery/thriller.

This was a very disturbing but good read.

Thoroughly enjoyed from start to finish and could not get enough of.

This is a must read for anyone who enjoys a good thriller!!
Absolutely loved the characters, the plot, the tension -  impossible to put it down.
Certainly recommended!

Full review will be available on the 27.01.2020 on bookstechnica.wordpress.com

The story is masterfully structured with fragments of the story given at the right time and the right place. Throughout reading the book, I realised more and more just how brilliant Hausmann pieced together everything for me, the reader. It was like seeing a puzzle being built in front of my eyes. Clinging to every word that she had set on paper, trying to see underneath it, to make sure there were no clues buried underneath. Although this is Hausmann’s debut on the English market, this is her second novel, her debut being Marta schläft (trans. Marta sleeps).

Originally published in Germany and topping the charts, Dear Child is the perfect psychological thriller for new readers to the genre that are looking to see what a good and well-written novel can do. Still, it also pleases the readers that love the genre because it hits all the right notes.

Translated by Jamie Bulloch, I believe that credit needs to be given where credit is due. Bulloch captures perfectly the tone set by Hausmann and conveys it in English perfectly. Although the dialogue, to native English speakers, might sound off (or would require some adjusting to do) I would remind them that the tonality and the structure are linked to it being a foreign book and needs to read as such.

Wow. I really enjoyed this book. I don't tend to go for books set in other countries, other than the UK and the US but after I read the description of Dear Child I thought I'd give it a go.

Lena lives in a windowless cabin, held captive by her "Husband" they live with their 2 children but by no means do they lead a happy life. He controls everything, timed toilet breaks, and strict rules. Lena plans her escape, and suceeds.... But is all as it seems? After so long in captivity does she even know who she is?

This book is so creepy, it got under my skin and I couldn't put it down. Its absolutely full of twists that I never saw coming, from start to finish. I would highly recommend it.

Thankyou to NetGalley, Quercus Books and the author, Romy Hausmann, for the opportunity to read a digital copy of Dear Child in exchange for an honest and unbiased opinion .
Such a great read. I found the storyline to be well written and fast paced. Thoroughly enjoyable read. I cannot wait for more from this author.
Well worth a read

Thirteen years ago a young student Lena dissapeared without a trace, now young woman who had an accident claims that she is Lena and that she was abducted and kept in a cabin in a woods. She is also a mother.
Is she really Lena and who is the monster- kidnapper? Children calls him Papa.

Wow, wow, wow! What a book! Full of suspense, twists and turns! It kept me guessing till the end. So well written, from different perspectives and characters are complex, the story just flows.

And in the end, everything is just about love, even if it turns us into monsters, each in our way.

Must read!

'Dear Child' is a book that had me hooked from the first page. This book is definitely a page turner and one that you won't be able to put down until you have finished it.

I liked that this was told in three different perspectives as you are able to see the trauma that Jasmin went through during her four months in captivity and how she is having to cope back in her normal life, the grief Matthias went through from never having answers to what happened to his daughter thirteen years ago and the childlike innocent of Hannah who had only ever known life in captivity.

When I started this book, I didn't know it was a translated book but knowing that definitely made the book more appealing to me as I always want to read more translated books.

'Dear Child' is a fast-paced thriller that will have you hooked but will also make you feel the pain that all of the characters are going through. I think I would recommend this book to anyone who loved reading 'Room'.

Thank you to Quercus Books for providing me with an advanced copy of this book via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

Well that was twisty and just all kinds of... wrong!

This is a hard one to review without giving anything away but I will try. A woman escapes captivity only to hit by a car on the first road she come to. The driver is shocked but calls an ambulance immediately. As they head to the hospital the paramedics ask her name and a child’s voice says “Lena, her name is Lena”. But it’s not! And how did Hannah end up in the ambulance with her?

In the hospital the woman, whose real name is Jasmin Grass, doesn’t say much while she tries to work out what is going on and how to answer the questions posed by the police. It seems that Lena is another young woman who disappeared 13 years ago never to be seen again. Lena’s parents, Matthias and Karin Beck, rush to the hospital as their police officer friend tells them a woman, who could be Lena, has been brought in. Even through the injuries Matthias sees immediately that she is not Lena, but he also sees the child Hannah who is the spitting image of Lena.

The story is told from the POV of Jasmin, Matthias and Hannah. Hannah (13 years old) is a strange, almost robotic child - highly intelligent but emotionally quite blank. Jasmin describes the cabin she was held in, with the children, how she bashed her captor’s head with a heavy snow globe and fled. And Hannah tells authorities that Jonathan, her younger brother (11 years old) is still at the cabin - cleaning up the blood. Yikes, is that weird or what? Matthias is not very likeable, yes he is a grieving father but a lot of his behaviours are wrong and unhelpful.

As the story progresses nothing is quite what is seems. Each of the major characters is processing their trauma differently, and this is an issue the author handled very well. It is a good reminder that trauma responses can and do vary. Nevertheless, there was always something a bit odd about Hannah. Jasmin was left as a bundle of nerves not being able to trust anyone. Then the anonymous notes started...

It got quite nerve shredding as the thing that Jasmin feared most seemed about to happen. But how could it be? Of course everyone is hiding something and when the truth does finally come out the answer is both surprising and shocking! It doesn’t happen often but I was quite uncomfortable at times while reading this. Thanks to Netgalley, Quercus Books and Romy Hausmann for providing a copy for me to review. My opinions are my own.

A dark and disturbing thriller that is at times lost in translation but still an engaging read.

This book has an explosive start. There’s no preamble, you’re thrown straight into the story and along with the main characters you’re expected to figure it out.

I really enjoyed the main characters’ defiant stance. It not only saves you from certain aspects of her abduction that would otherwise be glorifying her ordeal. But it also paints her as a survivor. She’s tough and certainly not broken.

Characters in this book are a little off key. I’m not sure if this is down to translation or just poor editing. I found Hannah, the teenager, to be deeply disturbing. I couldn’t figure out if she was a totally naive child, or complicit in her father’s actions. The final scenes depicting her drawing a picture of the main characters friend and choosing the right crayon was just plain weird. Her brother, Jonathan hardly has any airtime in this book when really he was the one that needed the most attention.

I couldn’t quite understand the relationship between the main character and her roommate/best friend. It didn’t seem romantic but they were very ‘close’ and I’m not sure if the author intended for their relationship to come across as unrequited.

Another unusual relationship was that of the main character and her one surviving relative, her mother. We’re told that they didn’t get on well with each other but what mother would abandon their child after being abducted?

As far as policing goes, don’t expect much procedural. They didn’t think to get an efit from the main character of her abductor and waited what felt like ages for her to agree at their drawing of him. I would’ve thought they’d have pushed harder for results.

Overall I did enjoy this book and I was hooked to find out what would happen. I just feel that a lot of the problems or issues I’ve detailed came about through this book being translated.

Thanks to NetGalley for my advance copy in exchange for my honest review.

I have seen Dear Child hyped up on Instagram, in a bunch of Facebook reading groups, etc. I was almost convinced that it would not live up to the hype and OH MY GOODNESS I am here to tell you that it DOES live up!!! Romy so wonderfully weaved a gripping story that yanked me in from the beginning and kept me needing to know what happens next and I couldn’t put it down! I finished in less than a day. The characters are so phenomenally developed and full of depth. My jaw dropped so many times that I might as well have just read with it permanently hanging open! I definitely recommend Dear Child and I only regret that I can only give 5 stars!!!

Huge thank you to Quercus via NetGalley for allowing me to read this book!

I was thrilled for this late approval for an ARC by the publisher, as I had heard great things since it's publication.
I have an obsession with fiction about abductions and this was right up my alley!
It had a unique slant (why did the child Hannah look like missing Lena, but the mother didn't?) and it was executed well.
I did struggle with the writing style at times, although I'm not sure if it had to do with the original novel or it's translation. It wasn't clear writing, it was subtle and inferred a little too much for my liking.
Still, a very enjoyable read that is definitely worth reading!

With thanks to Netgalley and the publishers for the arc, which I have enjoyed reading.
Dear Child by Romy Hausmann is a debut book for the author and it is extremely fascinating, clever, entertaining and thoroughly engrossing. The storyline is well written and well crafted and the characters are fascinating, the children in particular are intriguing. I found the book totally engrossing and wouldn’t hesitate to read other future books by the author.
Highly recommended.

This is a very gripping and frequently twisted tale with quite complex characters yet you can understand how life has caused them to be who they are. This is told from three perspectives, that of former hostage ‘Lena’, Matthias who has been frantically awaiting news of his missing daughter Lena for 13 years and also that of Hannah, Lena’s daughter who has never known the world outside her cabin. Whilst Matthias was great at keeping the story going and providing the background to Lena’s disappearance it was both ‘Lena’ and Hannah that I found utterly compelling due to their conditioning by Hannah’s Papa. The ending was surprising and I could actually understand what had lead the kidnapper to do what he had which is all the more creepy. Overall this is an original read and has also been very well translated from its original German, you wouldn’t know it was a translation in honesty.

Dear Child is the third novel by best-selling German author, Romy Hausmann. It’s a hit-and-run car accident that brings unconscious Lena and her daughter, Hannah, to the hospital emergency department in Cham. As Lena is treated, Sister Ruth talks to Hannah. What she learns from this poised, controlled young girl sets off alarm bells: within a short time, a late-night call is made to parents in Munich.

Matthias Beck and his wife, Karin immediately set out for Cham, near the Czech border: even waiting until morning is too long to find out if the woman is their daughter, their Lena, missing for almost fourteen years. Police are searching for an isolated cabin in the woods, and a boy called Jonathan: Hannah’s brother. Will Matthias and Karin finally have an answer?

There are three narrative strands: Matthias gives the perspective of the heart-broken father who has never stopped searching; Jasmin’s is a second-person narrative addressed to Lena and details some of her ordeal; Hannah’s words, with dictionary definitions, encyclopaedic facts, rules and schedules, but also glimpses of violence, succinctly illustrates the conditions under which Lena and her children lived in the cabin in the woods.

Of course, it quickly becomes apparent that Hannah is an unreliable narrator, including what are clearly fantasies, and not revealing all she knows. Some of what she says will leave the reader gasping. Nor can Matthias be completely relied upon, while Jasmin’s mental state after her escape also affects her perceptions.

What a brilliantly-plotted, twisty tale Hausmann gives the reader! There are plenty of red herrings keep the reader guessing until the final chapters, and even after the dramatic denouement, there are more surprises in store. Hausmann describes the power of the media to colour the public perception of an incident by questioning the virtue of the victim, and also demonstrates how powerlessness can drastically influence the choices one makes. A gripping and thought-provoking read.
This unbiased review is from an uncorrected proof copy provided by NetGalley and Quercus