Watch Over Me

Summary

After turning 18 years old, Mila goes to live with a family out on a farm, which is obviously in the middle of nowhere. She's there as an intern where she works on the farm, has food and housing, and is responsible for teaching students (the children who live in the house). She gets close to a seven-year-old named Lee, who is also one of her first students. He is also new to the family, and she finds that she relates to him in more than one way. While on the farm, she sees ghosts who gather in the field — that's when she learns this is a nightly thing.

This book dives into themes of abuse, forgiveness, trauma, hardship, and learning to love and trust.

Final Thoughts from my notes:

I loved feeling like I wanted to reread it right after finishing it. This is a book I will be purchasing on hardcover so that I can annotate and read the book through different lens. I also really enjoyed the writing. Between this one and another book I was reading — Watch Over Me had me immediately hooked. I will definitely be reading more from this author. I also love a good slow burn — I love only knowing bits and pieces then seeing how it all comes together in the end. It's always incredible.

anyway i'm sending my next therapy bill to nina lacour

while i was enjoying this book for the subtly supernatural ghost factor and hoping it would be some sort of spooky story with a wicked family, i was humbly surprised to find out it was a story about overcoming childhood trauma, and the ways we may project our traumas unknowingly. i started the healing process of my childhood trauma last year, and reading this book felt like a warm hug with some tears falling on my shoulders. like mila, i found my healing family too, and it's incredible feeling

but y'all lmao idk what i'm going to do until yerba buena drops in paperback... lmao

y a quelque chose dans l'écriture de nina lacour qui m'impacte tellement à chaque fois, c'est horrible. la preuve elle vient de me faire revenir sur ce site.
ici elle traite de choses super lourdes, de traumatismes, de regrets, du deuil, d'erreurs, de solitude, de dépendance émotionnelle, d'imprégnations, de projections... et pourtant tu termines ta lecture, tu fixes le mur et t'as l'impression d'avoir lu un bonbon.
il a pas fait l'unanimité et je pense comprendre pourquoi, mais je suis beaucoup trop sensible à ce qu'elle fait. je l'ai trouvé sublime.

Thank you to Dutton Books for Young Readers and Netgalley for providing me with an arc for review!

Watch Over Me is such a delicately soft book that talks a lot about trauma, grief, and finding your own found family. LaCour had a unique take on ghosts and what other significance they could have. It's just so tender and haunting in a way I was not expecting.

really 4.5 but..... WOW

read this on a COMPLETE whim because allisonpaiges recommended it as one of her fav books of all time and i saw it was short so sure why not??

i S O B B E D during this entire book in the best most spirit cleansing way possible. i needed this book.

“A leap. Look how precious you were. A spin. How worthy of love you were. A dip. Look at your heart, intact. Reach to the sky. What a miracle it was. Swoop to the grass. How steadily it beat for the people you love.”