The Year of Fog by Michelle Richmond

Category: Adult fiction

Published: 2007, 369 pgs.

Audiobook

Review: 3.5/5 stars

In the first chapter of The Year of Fog by Michelle Richmond we meet the narrator Abby Mason, a photographer who is engaged to a man who has a 6 year old daughter, Emma. While Abby and Emma are walking together on the beach the unthinkable happens, Emma disappears. Abby tells her story of guilt, heartbreak, longing, and searching that she endures.

I enjoyed this book. I thought it was insightful and interesting. However, at one point one of Emma's shoes is found and she describes it as a tiny size 3. Anyone who is very familiar with children would know that a "tiny size 3" fits a 1-year-old not a 6-year-old. When I read that I immediately knew that the author doesn't know children very well and didn't take the time to find out the shoe size of a young child. That put me off a little and I think it tainted my view of the book. I realized later that the book really wasn't about a child as much as it was about a woman who loves a child and that little mistake doesn't invalidate the rest of the book. The Year of Fog did make me really think about the lives of so many families that have missing children. The news follows them for a week or two and then we don't hear much about them unless more information becomes available. I can't imagine what a living hell it would be, but this book gives a pretty good description.

Rating: 3.1.5--I can't remember what's in this very well. It seems like there were a couple of sex scenes that were a bit descriptive but not too bad. I do remember that there were several f-words scattered here and there.