Find Me

By: Carol O'Connell

Narrated by: Alyssa Bresnahan

Length: 15 hrs and 31 mins

Publisher's summary

A mutilated body is found lying on the ground in Chicago, a dead hand pointing down Adams Street - also known as Route 66, a road of many names and now of many deaths.

A silent caravan of cars, dozens of them, drives down that road, each passenger bearing a photograph, but none of them the same. They are the parents of missing children, some recently disappeared, some gone a decade or more, all brought together by word that children's grave sites are being discovered along the Mother Road. Kathy Mallory drives with them. The child she seeks, though, is not like the others. It is herself, the feral child adopted off the streets, her father a blank, her mother dead and full of mysteries.

During the next few extraordinary days, Mallory will find herself hunting a killer like no one she has ever known, and will undergo a series of revelations of stunning intensity and effect.

©2007 Carol O'Connell (P)2007 Listen and Live Audio Inc.

Critic reviews

"One of the most poetic yet tough-minded writers." (San Francisco Chronicle)

Not for me

I admit that I really do hate books in which the main character operates in a realm where the whole world provides nothing but two dimensional idiots to prove the hero’s super human worthiness. Making this “hero” female does nothing to enhance that shallow formula. I immediately got the impression that I would need to work harder at the usual “suspension of disbelief” associated with fiction. But there is nothing here that even briefly hooked me with the feeling it was “real”. (now that I am writing this, it occurs to me that the novel very well might translate into a good series of comic books) In this story the author appears to be writing about areas of the country she is not familiar with and it comes off sounding like clich?d text from a tourist book. Making the setting old Route 66 is a little too easy, and trite. And those “super hero surrounded by dummies” moments would be a little more tolerable if the points being made were at least thoughtful or imaginative. But not having a helicopter land in the middle of a gravel parking lot crime scene is not really brilliance to belabor. It is common sense that most readers already understand, let alone your average flatfoot. I did chuckle at elements like this through about half of the book, but I just could not finish it.

Too much rewinding

I've been on the first three chapters for two weeks now and I don't think I have the patience or desire to make it through the remaining chapters. The confusing manner in which the story is told makes it necessary for me to keep repeating the initial chapters just to be sure I'm not missing anything significant. As the story progresses, I feel lost and certain I've missed some critical story development along the way, but sadly I haven't missed a thing.
Unless you have unlimited time and the patience of a saint, I do not recommend this book.

Bored and disinterested

The story started out as a rambling, inconsistent mess. There was not enough information about the character or storyline to catch your interest. I am 1/2 into the first book and still am confused 'what is the point'. The main character is strange, unfriendly and rude. A brief description about her being a 'street child' may explain her hatefulness, but it does not explain why her foster family took her in and kept her and loved her dearly. If she had been raised with love, it does not explain why she is so pissed off at the world and hateful to everyone. If it does not pick up within the next hour of listening, I'm giving up. The basic premise of the book, as described in the summation, sounds like it should be pretty good. Perhaps a better editor could have helped. But the main character is so unlikeable, I doubt it. This was definately a wasted download...

Cries out for a good editor

O'Connell is obviously a talented writer with a gift for describing both places and characters with a few deft phrases. BUT--this rambling, inconsistent, incoherent mess cries out for a good editor. If you must experience it, the book would be better read than listened to, so that you can flip back when you reach those "Huh!?" moments. But I must say the narrator did as well as she possibly could with the material.

Disappointed

Wasn't that impressed with the main character or the plot. It was ok, just not the suspense I had hoped for.

An Interminable Loser

A first review for me, but this was such a poor story I just have to speak up. It rambles more than old Route 66, with a protagonist I neither liked nor could find empathy for. Too many things were never really solved, too many people conveniently setting themselves up to be killed, etc. I was on a trip with nothing else to listen to or I would never have endured the second half of this plodder. Don't waste your points.

Painful!

I'm sorry if the author reads this but OMG! The publisher's summary was nothing like the first half of the book and I couldn't stick around for the second half. What was all that driving around? I expected a book about a woman who has been lost/seperated/kidnapped from her family who comes to these body findings to actually locate her parents. I think I spent too much time (and book credit) trying to piece together the storyline with what I was hearing. After 2 years on Audible, this book gets my worst bood award. Mayben the second half tied all in together and I just quit too early. But, I just couldn't take the driving, stopping,being a hard***, drive again. Save your money/credits.

Not

I was sorely disappointed in the extremely unbelievable and unlikable character that O'Connell has degraded Mallory into. As a rough around the edges child or young adult the brashness worked, but now she's simply a mean spirited ugly woman. The author had to dumb down the surrounding characters to an insulting degree in order to bring off Mallory's smug egotistical know-it-all persona. Are we really supposed to believe that people would be in awe of and blindly follow a rude, unkind, socially retarded woman just because she has green eyes and nice hair? Totally ridiculous, tedious book.

Beginning and ending

The very beginning of this novel is tantalizing and very visual. Characters abound but they are not developed. And the story seems to ramble. Every chapter sounds alike. Narration is very dramatic.
Then it ends with an epilogue as long or longer than any of the previous chapters.

Disorganized and Confusing

I hated Find Me. It was confusing and hard to follow. The scene shifted too often and without proper transition, and there were too many characters. To make matters worse, the author would often call one of the previously named characters by a generic name (like "the old man") so it was unclear who was referenced. I was extremely glad to reach the end of this exhausting and frustrating book.