Don’t speak to strangers. Don’t accept sweets from people you don’t know. And most importantly don’t get into a car with an unknown person. These are all titbits of advice that we give to children in the vain hope that we can protect them even when we’re not around them.
Trudy Florucci gave all this advice, and more, to her young daughter Ernestine; however, when a man wearing a rabbit suit offered his paw to little Ernie, those pearls of wisdom flew out of her mind as she gazed up, mesmerized by the six foot tall fluffy bunny.
Rhonda Farr was just a regular woman on her way to a job interview when she stopped for fuel and witnessed the most bizarre event ever – a large, white rabbit calmly abduct a smiling, little girl.
Jennifer McMahon’s ‘Island of Lost Girls’ instantly caught my attention from simply the title and the beautiful photo on the cover (yes, sometimes it will help you judge a book). There’s no doubt that reading this intriguing, emotional story will evoke memories of child abduction cases such as Madeliene McCann who was taken from her room in Portugal whilst her parents were having dinner at a nearby restaurant, Jaycee Dugard who was kept hidden away for 18 years, Elisabeth Fritzl whose own father kept her captive in a dungeon below his house… and these are the well-known cases that make it to the headlines. There are hundreds of other child abduction cases occurring every year; it’s a parent’s worst nightmare, their child never comes home, there are no traces of what happened and worse still there’s no contact from the kidnapper. Is the child alive? Dead? Hurt? Suffering? The mind races through all the possibilities, each one sounding worse than the previous.
McMahon’s story is set in a small town in the United States where everyone knows everyone and where nothing much ever really happens – unless it’s something tragic. So when little Ernie is taken away in broad daylight by a costumed person, the town inhabitants go into a frenzy.
A helpline is set up at the fuel station from where Ernie was taken, by Pat, the station manager who recruits people to collect any leads that may come in. However she’s not entirely sure about allowing Rhonda to help, a fact that doesn’t go unnoticed by Rhonda herself, which only makes her feel even worse than she already does due to being the only witness to the abduction and not having been able to do anything about it. Moreover whilst still reeling from the shock of one of their neighbours being taken away, the town’s inhabitants also have to deal with an influx of press people; suddenly they’re on the map and on the news.
The book is a series of flashbacks and present time seen from the perspective of Rhonda who is reminded about her own past when her childhood best friend, Lizzy, had also gone missing. Rhonda’s past comes back to haunt her as she tries to deal with the memories of that fateful summer – when Lizzy, her brother Peter, and Rhonda herself were an inseparable lot; until they decided to stage Peter Pan in the woods.
Are the two abductions connected? What happened all those years ago between the children’s families? Why did Lizzy stop speaking? Would Rhonda ever get the chance to tell Peter how she truly feels? And who is Birdie?
The book takes a detailed look into families, friendships, and relationships and how the past always has a way of coming back and how the truth can never be buried forever. As the past and present merge, questions arise leaving the reader in suspense
and wanting to better understand the situation whilst always being taunted by the unknown – who is the bunny rabbit?
JENNIFER McMAHON: Island of Lost Girls, sphere, RRP €9.50
Don’t speak to strangers. Don’t accept sweets from people you don’t know. And most importantly don’t get into a car with an unknown person. These are all titbits of advice that we give to children in the vain hope that we can protect them even when we’re not around them.
Trudy Florucci gave all this advice, and more, to her young daughter Ernestine; however, when a man wearing a rabbit suit offered his paw to little Ernie, those pearls of wisdom flew out of her mind as she gazed up, mesmerized by the six foot tall fluffy bunny.
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