This was a good debut novel that brought me right back to my childhood in the 80s. It centers on middle schooler Bee, who is in constant competition with her younger sister Audrina while also navigating the general ins and outs of being at that age, and the disappearance of a young neighbor girl.

As others have said, the pacing of the book is a bit slow and a lot of it takes place in Bee’s head. That being said, I could empathize with her and I thought that author really captured what it was like to 12/13 years old and all of the big feelings that come with that age. There is a tragic undertone through the entire book, starting with the disappearance of 4 year old Sally and culminating with another tragedy that is foreshadowed through the story.

I was truly surprised when it was revealed what happened to Sally, and I was fascinated by what the whole situation did to those who loved her and across their small NJ town.

Overall, this was a good book and I greatly enjoyed spending a few hours in Bee’s head. Despite a lot of sad content, I felt hopeful when I finished the story. Thanks to Netgalley for providing me a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Wow what a debut. This book transported me back to a time in my childhood with swimming pools, bike rides, running around with my friends. This story takes places in the mid 80s, a more innocent time before the cusp of technology.

Sibling relationships are extremely complex and I thought this author did a great job of portraying that. This is a coming of age story mixed in with resentment, love, jealously, death, sibling rivalry and so much more.

Excellent novel!! I was really impressed with the writing style of this book and also how well the story flowed. Definitely recommend this book to anyone! Great characters as well.

I'm completely blown away that this is Karen Winn's first book. The depth of feeling, the character development, and the sensitivity with which the events in the story are treated were wonderful and very nuanced.

This story of two sisters, their ups, their downs, and their good times and bad will remind many of us of the relationships we've had with our sisters or those of our children with their siblings. The mystery of what happened at the lake, which is a big event in the book and these characters' lives, almost become less important to me than the unwinding of the sisters' relationships.

This is a beautiful read, one that I highly recommend.

Thanks to Netgalley, the author, and publisher for an ARC at my request. All thoughts are my own.

This book blew me away! I was unable to but it down. Perfect, dazzlingly, very well written. The details the author described throughout the book was so amazing. The characters and storyline were fantastic. The ending I did not see coming Truly Amazing and appreciated the whole story. This is going to be a must read for many many readers. Thank you! Thank you! Thank you! No spoilers. Beyond amazing I enjoyed this book so very much. The characters and storyline were fantastic. The ending I did not see coming Could not put down nor did I want to. Truly Amazing and appreciated the whole story. This is going to be a must read for many many readers. Maybe even a book club pick.

Bee lives in the shadow of her younger sister, Audrina, or so she believes. She feels neither pretty nor popular as her sister. They bicker then make up then bicker again. When their four year old neighbor goes missing from right under their noses, they grow more sensitive to one another for a while. This ends. Haunted by a selfish action, Bee eventually slips into self-loathing. When Audrina is diagnosed with diabetes, the family bonds together. Can it endure? Karen Winn’s protagonist is so real in her self-doubt, guilt and worry, the reader feels both irritation and empathy towards her. Her story, as well as the entire novel, are disturbing, frightening and at times heart-breaking. All in all, a special work.

I got through 60% of this book, and was honestly SO bored....I was waiting for a plot twist to keep me engaged but it was too repetitive for me.

This is a hard book to review. On one hand it moved at a glacier pace, a pace so slow that it would make a sloth say DANG! On the other hand, I kept reading it for the small little bread crumbs that the author would taunt the readers with.
This book is about two sisters, Bee and Audriana. Bee is the eldest is always trying to impress Audriana. Meanwhile Audriana is younger, more popular, and more social. One day at the favorite swimming hole, their 4 year old neighbor Sally goes missing.
As a reader you would think that small child missing would be enough to craft a story out of. Oh no, not this author. This author decided to throw in a first kiss, drug abuse, infidelity, childhood diabetes, and more.
The book went off into so many paths that at times it was hard to really understand the full scope of what all was happening.
The child missing doesn't get resolved till the end, almost as an after thought.
But more of the story is also treated like an after thought, the first kiss, the infidelity, the hair pulling.
Overall, I was left with just a MEH feeling about the book.

Such a good read! I was wrapped up in simmers long ago ! The nostalgia, the lazy days of summer!

This was a great debut book by this author and I look forward to reading more from her for years to come !

It’s already too much for a highschooler to handle, when the tragedy struck once. So forget about it when it decided to strike twice over the course of few years. Especially at the age either you take blame for everything and retract to your shell or turn into a full blown bully to handle the trauma. Bee did the former: first the neighbor girl, then her own sister, she felt responsible. For everything, for everyone

This is a story of a girl who wanted to be her sister’s best friend, her parent’s poster child, and be meaningful to someone. She felt left out when her sister started to pay more attention to a 4 year old neighbor girl and gave her favorite bracelet to the little one. The little girl tragically disappeared and took away her sister’s spark with her. All Bee was trying to do after this point was trying to manage unwanted attention and become her sister’s best friend again. Once she started to feel like she got hold of things, second tragedy struck: her sister died

Eventually she grew up to be fine mother of two daughters. Eventually she managed to come to term with her trauma. She put all her energy into making things better for other like her sister would have done. It was good story on sisterhood and what it means to lose one.

The title of this book is perfect. It is the story of two families living in their little part of the world - which is suburban New Jersey in the 1980's. I particularly liked this backdrop, as it depicted that era so perfectly - before cell phones and social media, when summers were spent hanging out with friends and neighbors, playing games, going to the pool, shooting hoops and riding bikes. I always enjoy coming of age stories, and this book was a perfect telling of the main character, Bee's, coming of age. The book is beautifully-written and explores so many family dynamics: siblings, parents and their children, and spouses. Through the well-developed characters the author tells a heart-wrenching story of love, loss, regrets, and forgiveness. Thank you to Net Galley for the opportunity to read the ARC.

This book was so good. I stayed up half the night two nights in a row because I could not stop. An interesting story and you really are left guessing. It took me back with 80’s references which seemed light hearted even though it’s a serious read. I loved this book so much. My favorite to date and I can’t wait to read more from this author in the years ahead.

Our Little World is a coming of age story, focused on 7th grader Bee, her younger sister, Audrina and their new neighbors Max and Sally. Growing up in the 1980's in a small town in New Jersey was nostalgic,; waiting for school to end for the summer, swimming at the lake, playing with friends and heading down the shore. But Bee has her challenges, her sister is pretty and popular and Bee finds herself loving and hating her as she experiences the angst of feeling second best. Bee and Audrina build friendships with Max and his four year old sister, Sally as they enjoy summer days at the Lake and the fun of summer, until tragedy strikes. Powerful emotions, suspicions and fear begin the erode the feel of safety in the small town. Bee's family relationships are affected as is Bee's mental health. Our Little World is a debut novel, beautifully written and thought provoking. Articulating the emotions and thinking of a 7th grade girl is a challenge and was well done by Karen Winn. Ms. Winn, I hope you keep writing. Thanks to Netgalley and Penguin Group/Dutton for this ARCin exchange for my honest review.

So this was a great book to end the week with. It was so good. I think the setting of New Jersey in 1985 played such an important role in the telling of this story. It really did take me back to a different time and place when I was growing up.  This book really does show the end of innocence for Bee, but also for the entire town of Hammend as well.

"Our Little World" follows Bee Kocsis as she prepares for a summer of not doing much with her younger sister, Audrina. However, when the Baker family moves across the street, things change between the sisters. Bee finds herself "liking" Max, but feeling put out that both he and his younger sister Sally, seem to prefer Audrina, like everyone else does. When Bee sees that Audrina has given Sally a bracelet that Bee has always wanted, she feels jealous and angry. However, things turn tragic after a morning at Deer Chase Lake, when Sally has gone missing. From there the book moves to a town coming under suspicion and wondering what happened to Sally. And we see how the Kocsis family falls apart little by little, and what comes after. 

So, this was really good. At times you may not like Bee, but she's a 7th grader. I felt for her. Being that age and wanting to be popular, having crushes, feeling jealous of siblings that are more popular than you? This book brought that all back to me. Bee is troubled about Sally's disappearance and wonders who could have done it, but also thrives on the attention that it brings her in school that she knew Sally and was there when she disappeared. She loves her sister, but is glad that they are not in the same school that year, instead she feels like she is finally being seen by others and not compared to Audrina. There's jealously, anger, but also love. 

Audrina was complex to me. You could write her off as a spoiled younger sister, but her diary entries, and even her interactions with Bee gives you the sense of her character. She loves her sister just as much, but also hates her too. That is the way of sisters it seems. 

I thought the other characters were done very well too, Bee and Audrina's parents, Father, Mother (I still don't recall if anyone said their names), Max, Max's parents, and the kids at schools. You get a sense of everyone and when the book rolls on through we suddenly find some of these characters 33 years later after that terrible summer that changed a whole town. 

The writing was so good. I really fell instantly into this book. Winn brings back the 80s for me in just writing about things as new information such as the disappearance of Adam Walsh, how excited people were that the first teacher ever was about to go into space, etc.. You read these things and you can feel the coming pall that is about to come over everything. 

The flow of the book was good, but there are a couple of fits and starts towards the beginning. It just felt like the book was trying to tell you too much from the very first before it settled down and let you follow things as they progressed. Also, the main portion of the book follows Bee for a year after Sally dies and then the book jumps forward to about 30 years later. 

The setting of Hammend brought me back to a different time and place. Small towns are their own little worlds and I think Winn showed that wonderfully through her writing. 

The ending was pitch perfect I thought. You also get resolution to the overall story of what happened to Sally, which I was happy about. I hate books that just leave loose ends. But the resolution to it was also bitter as heck when things are "fitted" together.

Our Little World is an impressive debut novel. This book gave me nostalgic vibes which I enjoyed, going back to summers as a kid riding my bike, going to the pool, and playing with all the other neighborhood kids with no worries in the world. I loved the real, true sisterly bond between Bee and Audrina. Both of their characters were well developed and the parents in the book were too, they felt totally relatable. Overall, this was an entertaining, gripping book that I would recommend.

Thank you Net Galley and Penguin Group- Dutton for an ARC in return for my honest review.

It is hard to believe that this is Karen Winn’s first book. It is amazingly well-written with an incredible amount of depth and outstanding character development. Several themes accompany the disappearance of a four-year-old girl in a tight-knit community. Borka grapples with the questions surrounding the disappearance, as well as her relationships with her sister, her parents and her friends. The complex difficulties of being a teenage girl are brought to life vividly. Some of the descriptions in this were so powerful that I found them difficult to read, which is a high compliment to the author. This would be an ideal choice for book clubs and I will be recommending it to library patrons.

This was such a beautiful story - I definitely teared up a bit. This book was so moving. I can’t stop thinking about it. Highly recommend, 4 stars.

A perfect title for this gradually building story of flawed families, intertwining tragedy that will touch an entire community, hidden secrets and finally...atonement. A good debut with rich characterizations.

While this book started off intriguing and like it may be full of mystery and suspense, it quickly became redundant and boring, the initial problem was anti-climatically solved and we where given a new problem that was easy to spot from a mile away. Sad,y, I cannot recommend this book.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for the opportunity to read it.

4.5
The writing, the writing, the writing! This is a truly an exceptional debut novel by Karen Winn.

Our Little World is a coming of age story which takes place in a small town in New Jersey in the 1980’s. After 4 year old Sally goes missing at the beach, siblings Bee and Audrina, along with their families, friends, neighbors, and community are left to deal with the aftermath and to try and make sense of it all.

The character development is superb and the nostalgia of the 80's is captured beautifully. The emotions and experiences are raw, honest, heartfelt, relatable, and thought provoking. I was immersed and invested from beginning to end.

I have become a huge fan of Karen Winn and look forward to whatever she writes in the future. Thank you to NetGalley and @duttonbooks for this ARC in exchange for my honest opinion.

Our Little World publishes May 3, 2022, add it to your list now!