Author: Lisa Graff
Publisher: Philomel Books
Publication date: March 5, 2019
Pages: 272
Source/format: Hardcover from Penguin Random House
Rating: ☆☆☆1/2
Synopsis (from goodreads.com):
A book about life, loss, and the secrets families keep, reminiscent of Sharon Creech’s Walk Two Moons, by National Book Award nominee Lisa Graff.
CJ lives and travels with her Aunt Nic, a famous psychic medium who tours the country communicating with her audience’s deceased loved ones at sold-out theaters. Together, they give people closure and forgiveness, and pass important messages on from the Spirit world. While CJ doesn’t have her aunt’s same ability to talk to the dead, she enjoys playing a crucial role in connecting others with their dearly departed. After all, she knows firsthand what it’s like to lose someone she loves—the only way she can talk to her mom, who died hours after CJ was born, is through Aunt Nic.
But when a magician bent on proving that Aunt Nic is a fraud shows up at their shows, CJ learns an impossible truth—that her mother is actually still very much alive. Now CJ no longer knows who to trust. As she learns more unsettling family secrets, CJ must grapple with the lies she’s been told and the lies she’s helped perpetuate. And in the end, she must decide how to reconcile what it means to find her true family and home—and what it means to forgive.
A poignant, heartfelt novel that explores the lengths we go to protect those we love—and how that impulse can often lead us down difficult roads.
M Y T H O U G H T S
Caraway June (CJ) Ames lives with her Aunt Nic, a psychic medium who communicates with the dead and constantly travel across the country. CJ was told her mother passed away when CJ was a baby and CJ's mother is able to talk through Aunt Nic. CJ befriends Jax Degaldo, her friend Oscar's nephew. I enjoyed reading how CJ teaches 16-year-old Jax how to drive stick despite her being only 12-years-old. CJ and Jax form a friendship bond and they go on a cross country road trip to find a tether to CJ's mother's spirit. When they get a clue about her mother's home town of Bakersfield, they travel to talk to a couple regarding CJ's mother's friend's parents.
Lisa Graff weaves in magical realism within Far Away. The ink drawing of the octopus that appears in multiple places is symbolic. The messages vary from "Take Heed" to "Slow Down" and CJ thinks it's her mother sending warnings. A man named Gerald explains that people are "Charmed" with the octopi. I loved seeing how to octopus is incorporated into the book as drawings long the pages of the book.
When CJ finds out that her mother is still alive and is not living in the land of Far Away, she feels disappointed and feels a sense of betrayal from her aunt and her mother. CJ never questioned whether the messages Aunt Nic conveyed about CJ's mother are indeed from her mother. She always assumed that Aunt Nic is telling her the truth. CJ loses faith and wants answers to her questions.
I feel like we need more information about why Aunt Nic lied to CJ and how CJ's mother wasn't in CJ's life. CJ should have been more furious about what happened but she forgives very easily which I was surprised about. I wanted more closure at the end of the book.
Lisa Graff weaves in magical realism within Far Away. The ink drawing of the octopus that appears in multiple places is symbolic. The messages vary from "Take Heed" to "Slow Down" and CJ thinks it's her mother sending warnings. A man named Gerald explains that people are "Charmed" with the octopi. I loved seeing how to octopus is incorporated into the book as drawings long the pages of the book.
When CJ finds out that her mother is still alive and is not living in the land of Far Away, she feels disappointed and feels a sense of betrayal from her aunt and her mother. CJ never questioned whether the messages Aunt Nic conveyed about CJ's mother are indeed from her mother. She always assumed that Aunt Nic is telling her the truth. CJ loses faith and wants answers to her questions.
I feel like we need more information about why Aunt Nic lied to CJ and how CJ's mother wasn't in CJ's life. CJ should have been more furious about what happened but she forgives very easily which I was surprised about. I wanted more closure at the end of the book.
Far Away is a coming-of-age story about a 12-year-old girl who learns the shocking truth about her mother from a secret that has been kept for many years. This road trip journey is about discovering oneself and about true friendship.
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