DON'T TRY TO FIND ME by HOLLY BROWN

I've stewed over this review for several days, not quite sure how I feel about this book.  It is the story of the disappearance of a 14 year old girl named Marley, the reaction of her mother Rachel, and the actions of her father Paul.  Marley had run away on purpose and we are with her while she's gone so we have the benefit of knowing where she is and what's happening in her life.  

I sympathized with her parents of course.  Who wouldn't?  Paul takes charge and runs the search for his daughter like a political campaign.  He's in his element and the publicity takes over his life.  We wonder though, does he care about anyone but himself?

Despite my mixed feelings about Paul, it was Rachel who got to me like a fingernail scratched on a blackboard.  She's completely dominated by both Paul and Marley.  She has no self-confidence, has lived for many years as the family whipping boy, blamed for anything that goes wrong despite her best efforts.  She had taken Marley to a therapist for her problems when they lived in San Francisco and then talked Paul into a move to a small town thinking that would ease the pressure on Marley.  But she comes home that fateful day to find a message on the whiteboard in the kitchen:  Don't try to find me . . .

Marley has made an immature decision that she will come to regret, but what will become of her parents' marriage and the family dynamic?  Why does the therapist come back into the picture?  Will they find Marley?  Will something awful happen to her?  That's what kept me reading despite my irritation with all three major characters.

I suppose the plot is well worked-out but I just wasn't on board with it all the way.  

Source:  publisher William Morrow