Lone Star Book Blog Tour: Finding Esme by Suzanne Crowley (Review)

“It’s the art of finding a heartbeat in the darkness a mile away, a dragonfly wing at the bottom of a river.”

Finding Esme by Suzanne Crowley is a delightful yet mournful coming-of-age story about a young girl carrying far too much weight on her small shoulders. Esme has recently lost the one person she feels loved her best, her grandfather, Paps. Esme’s father, Harlan, has run off again, and her mother, June Rain, is lost in her own world filled with longing and sadness. Esme’s little brother, Bo, is carefree, but there may be more lurking under the surface.

While Esme is naturally the protagonist in Finding Esme, her grandmother, Bee, is a strong force in her life and throughout the book, linked to Esme through blood and the gift of finding things. For both, finding things is a blessing and a curse, and refusing to answer the call of this talent is not an option for either of them. Some things are never meant to be discovered, and their finding often has dire consequences, but some found things create a ripple effect of goodness, reward, and healing.

Paps’s rusting tractor marks the spot on Solace Hill where he breathed his last, and Esme finds her own solace lying under the tractor, accompanied by a horned toad she calls Bump. Rain has a way of making things easier to find that have long remained buried, and when Esme stumbles over a dinosaur bone emerging from the mud on Solace Hill, life becomes even more complicated, mysterious, and magical.

Suzanne Crowley presents a sweet Southern story about loss, abandonment, and the residual effects of leaving, either through death or by just walking away. Esme is an enigma because she seemed all grown up at her premature birth and even now when her twelve-year-old body is reluctant to mature. But Esme is still a child, and the author gives her character a tender heart and all the development and potential she needs to shine, to love, and to grow into her ability to find things, her large ears, and her training bra.

Friendship plays a big part in this story, especially between Esme and her friend Finch, who has his own set of problems but finds solace and sanctuary in Esme’s friendship. With the characterization of these two, I periodically felt a gossamer connection to Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird. The pace, tone, and writing are quite smooth in Finding Esme, floating along on the wings of honeybees and fireflies. The magical realism here is heavy on the realism because while Esme’s and Bee’s gifts for finding things have a supernatural aspect, they are still plausible and believable, even as they are wondrous and full of mystery.

The ending is a mix of heartache, melancholy, closure, and hope. Both finding things and letting go are big parts of this beautiful story and add to the heartbeat and purpose of Finding Esme, leaving the reader with the satisfaction and joy in knowing that good people and good things are still out there just waiting to be found.

Enter the giveaway below on or before February 21, 2020, for a chance to win some fabulous prizes!

I received a free copy of this book from Lone Star Book Blog Tours in exchange for my honest review.