Welcome to Litsy!

When Valerie, an inexperienced hiker in her 40s, disappears on the Appalachian trail, the Maine game warden office pulls out all the stops to find her. Bev, the game warden organizing the search, becomes emotionally invested in finding Valerie, trail name Sparrow, as she learns more about the missing woman & the joy she brought to those who met her. An absorbing story about the wilderness, mothers & daughters, and an increasingly desperate search.

A Page-Turner mystery/thriller about a hiker lost on the Appalachian Trail. Several friends and acquaintances have hiked the AT and I appreciated the glimpses into what that experience might have been like for different kinds of folks.

Image: an antique work bonnet recently donated to the costume collection archive at my job

An Appalachian Trail hiker goes missing in Maine and a search and rescue team is deployed to track her down. We get the point of view of the hiker and the main warden in charge, as well as the family and various leads they are following as the days tick by and survival odds wane. Interesting to see what that process looks like. Good book.

I loved this book. It was a very compelling read, a literary thriller more so than an outright thriller/mystery - the characters and relationships were just as interesting as the mystery, if not more so. There were a few lines that really struck me. Thanks @squirrelbrain 🖤

I was expecting a thriller, but this was more of a mystery layered with stories of three strong and vulnerable women. I‘m what one may call an indoor cat, but I love people who enjoy the great outdoors like these women.

Not my pic because…indoor cat. 🐱😉

Really liked this read. A hiker goes missing while hiking the Appalachian trail. Three viewpoints from woman who are involved in some way. Quick read with a lot of feeling.

I kept seeing this book classified as a thriller, and I think that threw my expectations off a bit. I definitely enjoyed it even if it had a different feel than I anticipated. Yes, there was some mystery and some tense moments. But its true strength was the characters—their authenticity, their family relationships, and the way they each seemed to grow in their ability to see themselves and their relationships with more truth. #bookblanket

Here's an idea: All emotions start out as love. Later, that love is worked on by the forces of luck and suffering.
Hate is just soured love.
Fear is wounded love.
Longing is homeless love.
Love, not pain, is the mother. Love is the taproot.

#TagYoureItTuesday

Tag you‘re it, @Lesliereadsalot You posted about the tagged book that fits today‘s scavenger hunt theme. If you want to play along find a book post that fits the theme and tag that person.

Thanks for the tag @Chrissyreadit ❤️

A good story with multiple points of view about a hiker who goes missing while walking the Appalachian Trail in Maine. In addition to the hiker we hear from the warden on the ground who‘s trying to find her and an elderly lady in a nursing facility who‘s following the national coverage. Well drawn characters and a mystery about what really happened there added to my race to finish this one. I wish it had made me feel more than it did.

This missing hiker thriller has multiple POVs that connect to in the search. Good, the Maine warden‘s character was its strength. Nice mix of interviews, media and narratives to move the plot along. It‘s good as a summer read.

A missing hiker and those looking for her, a case of overly high expectations I think thwarted my experience with this one. It was still a good book, better than average even, but I went into it thinking I was starting what was destined to be one of my top reads of the year and it just wasn‘t.

I went into this understanding what the plot was, rescuing a woman lost on the AT which I wasn't sure would grab me. The story grabbed me because of the characters and how the author chose to introduce them, whether through interviews or POV chapters. I liked the motherhood theme that ran throughout even more. And I like the soft message of interconnectedness in humans and trees.

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

I was fortunate enough to attend a book club session with Amity Gaige during the Read With Jenna Book Festival. Hearing her speak about her inspiration and process had me so excited to read this. Her passion came through on the page. Yes, it‘s a story about a lost hiker, but it‘s much more. The perfect mixture of adventure, friendship, mystery, and homage. Well fleshed characters, too. Loved it!

Valerie walks the Appalachian Trail and gets lost in Maine. To keep sane she writes letters to her mother. In the mean time a search project is led by Lt Beverley, a woman with a past too. And there‘s a retired armchair sleuth also looking for Valerie.
It‘s a light pick for me, not as good as Sea Wife

📸 Egina, Greece

Five FULL BLOWN stars for this one! I loved the different perspectives and various media. I was completely enthralled by the suspense of the missing hiker and whether or not Bev would find her. I love the way Gaige is able to connect characters. I love what this novel says about family and mistakes, reconnecting and forgiveness. I remember the real-life missing hiker (the one searchers were so close to finding) that Gaige based this novel on.

I‘m continually thrown off by these lines above the page numbers. My brains registers them as a page break, but they‘re not. Every page…😵‍💫

This is a tremendous story about a through hiker lost toward the end of her AT adventure in Maine. But it is also about relationships of women and women who are different, in unexpected roles and the sisterhood that can be formed between strangers. It‘s also about healing family. A five star read for me!!!

It‘s been a long time since a book made me stay up past my bedtime. This one was so worth it though. It‘s one of those books where the story is about one thing (missing hiker in Maine) but really it‘s about something else (women.) I loved this. Might be my favorite all year.

Finally a quiet night on the porch. Got a good book, baseball is on, and my candle is lit.

Starting one of my most anticipated summer reads tonight. Hope it doesn‘t disappoint!

Here‘s an idea: all emotions start out as love. Later thst love is worked on by the forces of luck and suffering. Hate is just soured love. Fear is wounded love. Longing is homeless love. Love, not pain is the mother. Love is the taproot.

Thank you Helen for the birthday card and this book 😘 I can‘t wait to read it! 🖤 @squirrelbrain

This is mostly a story of mothers and daughters. Three women and their life with their mothers and daughters come to life while searching for one of the women lost in the woods.

Really enjoyed this one. An ongoing rescue mission and the story of three woman and their families as background.

Definitely page turning! In this case, audio pages. 😉

Amazed at how safe the AT historically has been re: crime given how isolated it is in some segments.

Oh my gods. The ending of this book just gutted me. But in a good cathartic way. This is about a woman who gets lost while hiking the Appalachian Trail. But it‘s about so much more. The descriptions of the trail, the hikers, the environs, the search, the searchers, the family, shows how much more complicated the Appalachian Trail actually is and how unprepared most of us are to be out in raw nature. ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Suspenseful read about a lost Appalachian Trail hiker, a Maine game warden leading the search, and an older woman following the hunt online. The three women's stories intersect, and they also include poignant observations about love, loneliness, and the wilderness. Recommended.

No woman is a star. No woman is a god or a tree or a magician. But for a while, in your arms, the universe was the right size, and I knew where I was 🤱

I truly enjoyed this one.

I realized that I really like stories like this, where a hiker must battle not only their own inner self but also the harsh surroundings of the trails and all that it entails.

Even though I figured out the mystery early on, the writing was so captivating that I just had to keep listening.
The audio was extremely well-done.

Just starting this and it looks promising. I love Maine, and have always secretly wished I could hike the Appalachian Trail (I'm nowhere near in shape for it, but there's something appealing about the idea). Looking forward to a good read!

A tender story about mothers an daughters and the beauty and danger of nature. I highly recommend this book.
Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the advance copy.

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

An introspective wandering through the woods. I found myself rewinding at times just so I could luxuriate in beautiful sentences. The characters were magnetic, enhanced by the multicast audiobook narration. 🎧

I never quite knew who the MC was until I realized the focus would remain on three POVs as one goes missing on the Appalachian Trail of Maine. There is a mystery here but mostly it serves as the catalyst to reveal the life stories of those 3 women each with ownership to that mystery. …I can imagine this as a book Jenna‘s production company might adapt for screen.

While there‘s a missing hiker and the search for her is at the core of the narrative, this isn‘t really a mystery/thriller. It‘s about three women - Valerie, the missing hiker; Bev, the Maine Warden leading the search; and Lena, an elderly woman in Connecticut who remotely aids the search - who they are, what formed them, and how they navigate through the world. It‘s well-written, engaging, and I was invested in the outcome from the beginning.

An irreverent review to Netgalley:

Thanks so very little for making me want to cry. I miss my mom. I miss my mom everyday. If my mother made me the person I am today don't thank her for that either.

There were some portions where I deeply hoped Valerie‘s disappearance wasn‘t going the way I feared it might. And it didn't. Still, it did end in poignancy for me. 'Cause I miss my mom.

I give lousy book reviews, sorry about that.