Before You Knew My Name

Fabulous debut novel - already looking forward to more from this author!!

Before You Knew My Name follows the lives of two women from very different backgrounds, both heading down the same path as they arrive in New York City, escaping their pasts with big dreams. Alice Lee is just 18, leaving behind a past of bad decisions after a rough childhood filled with loss - now wandering the streets of New York with a stolen camera, $600, and a ton of “what if's” in her head. Ruby is 36, trying to escape her life back in Australia, and a man she just can't seem to get out of her head, no matter how bad he is for her. A fresh start in New York is just what they both need...

When Ruby is out jogging in Riverside Park and finds Alice Lee's dead body floating in the river, her world shifts and she can't explain the connection she feels to this Jane Doe. Ruby can not get this young woman out of her head and is determined to find answers and closure. With the help of some new friends, oddly all drawn together by death and loss, Ruby helps Alice Lee find her name, and is determined to bring justice to the man who took away her chance at a beautiful new life.

I loved the alternating POVs and especially hearing Alice Lee's voice from beyond the grave. I was immediately sucked into this novel and did not want it to end!

Haunting Yet Preachy. This is a book in the vein of if i stay, though here we know up front that our narrator is dead - and she knows it. Still, when searching through my memories trying to find a comparison point, that is what comes up and I think the comparison works. This tale has a similar haunting effect, not from the haunting itself (though the narrator is, if anything, a benevolent ghost just trying to be helpful), but more from the style of the story being told. There is a lot of trauma here in terms of child molestation/ exploitation (though within the last few months pre-18th birthday, at least on screen). adultery, abuse, and safety generally. It is on this last point - safety generally - that this book veers too far into the "preachy" side, hammering the reader over the head several times with its own metaphorical version of the murder weapon used here, and this is the reason for the star deduction. Still, overall the tale is solid if a touch slow, but interesting enough to want to find out what is going on and to keep reading through the end. Very much recommended.