Looking for JJ

Anne Cassidy

Alice Tully just wants to live a normal life, or appear to live one. After a tragedy 6 years ago, she is obsessed with researching Jennifer Jones in the papers. Soon history will catch up with her, and all hell will seem to break loose.

This isn’t an easy book to read, or a comfortable concept. The blurb on the back is in fact a little misleading. But I can’t explain it without wreaking the book. Let’s just say there’s a child, child killer involved, and I think that some of the judgements in the first place were wrong.

The first section of the book is from Alice Tully’s perspective. Apart from her obsession with Jennifer Jones, and some strange character quirks, you would say she was an ordinary girl. This is the part where the author weaved her spell around me effortlessly, until she dropped a bomb.

Look, the second part didn’t work for me. I was uncomfortable of the way JJ was treated from the beginning and her nativity. I guess she was only 10, and she didn’t know much, but still! I totally understand her humiliation, and even some of her reactions. She’s never been taught to control her feelings in a positive way. This is where the rapport you developed with Alice Tully spills over, and made it bearable. Unfortunately, I found that I wanted to skip through this section to find out what was happening in the present, and I had little interest in the ins and outs of who was going to be killed. I actually guessed incorrectly who would die.

Parts 3 and 4 were a great ending. I was made pretty sad by part 3, and part 4 gave me hope for the future. How can your past not catch up though?

If you want more information than what I’ve given you here, DO NOT GO TO WIKIPEDIA. You will spoil the whole suspense of the book for yourself. If you want some more hints or aren’t sure this book is for you due to specific trigger warnings or something similar, email me! Just fix the address to a normal gmail address.