The Child Finder audiobook

I cannot in good conscience give this anything less than 5 stars. I'm not sure I have the words to properly describe just how The Child Finder made me feel; it was heavy and disturbing in many ways but contained a haunting beauty that only Rene Denfeld seems capable of mastering. The writing was lush and exquisite, containing her signature trademark stamp of magical realism. I was completely lost in this icy, poignant world, and I can honestly say that I wouldn't have changed a single aspect in her crafting of this fine tale. Highly recommended with caution, as the content could be a little much for some readers (more on this below).Without spoiling any details or going too far into the plot, you know from the blurb that this story changes between various POVs, but is mainly regulated to Naomi and "The Snow Child". Naomi is our protagonist, known simply as the child finder, and she is perfection in her flawed nature and broken past. As she leads the investigation in searching for long time missing Madison, we also get glimpses into another mind, a young girl who will be identified later in the story. The time jumps are not broken up by chapter, so we flow between narratives quite frequently which kept the novel fresh and my attention rapt.I think the reason I'm so drawn to the author's work is how she can insert an essence of magical realism that leans heavily on the realism side. Think a character escaping a horrendous ordeal through their imagination. Once again, this story is really quite disturbing in a sense, but not in the gory, graphic way that most thrillers and action novels tend to be. Most of what happens is implied through this magical realism and child like innocence, but for those sensitive to abuse scenarios, you may have trouble reading this. For me, I felt these plot points only added to the brilliance of the story and were fully necessary and tastefully done.I can't express how, even with the darkness surrounding the story, Denfeld manages to give her books such a hopeful, light filled feeling; in my humble opinion THIS is what makes her books so readable, relatable, and compulsive in nature. If you read her first book, The Enchanted, and loved it, you'll likely enjoy this as well; while the plots are completely different they both contain that fairytale like quality shrouded in a contemporary novel. Highly, HIGHLY recommended as I cannot say enough good things about this book, and I cannot wait to see what Rene dreams up next!*Many thanks to the publisher for providing my copy; it was a pleasure to provide my honest thoughts here. 

this is something I know: no matter how far you have run, no matter how long you have been lost, it is never too late to be found. Rene Denfield’s first novel, The Enchanted, was a dazzling look into a dark place. It showed that even under the bleakest circumstances life and hope can find a way to make the unbearable into a transcendent experience. No sophomore jinx here. Denfeld has done it again.There are similarities in core concept between The Child Finder and The Enchanted. Both deal with imprisonment, with imagination as a tool for psychological survival, for transporting oneself beyond one’s immediate chains. In The Enchanted The Lady represented death row inmates, looking for the truth in their cases, and ways to keep them from dying. In this story Naomi is The Child Finder, a freelance investigator with a passion and a gift for locating missing kids. Her motivation is pretty clear. She had been taken as a child herself. On a winter day in rural Oregon, five year old Madison Culver had vanished. Three years on, the authorities have abandoned hope. Having exhausted all other options the girl’s frantic parents call in Naomi. There is no such thing as a cold case for her. She finds a way, discovers the clue everyone else missed, considers things from a new perspective, haunts relevant locations. She is fearless, fierce, and coldly relentless. Rene Denfeld - image from GannettThe narrative switches between Madison’s and Naomi’s point of view. Madison is held by a man known only as Mr B. We track the development of the relationship between Madison and Mr B. Watch as Madison’s will to survive digs in, as she moves on from victim to actor, from object to powerful player, using her native intelligence and keen observation to give herself at least a chance of surviving. The other tool she uses is her imagination. A favorite fairy tale becomes a mechanism by which she feels hope and a limited sense of freedom even while imprisoned. In talking about The Enchanted, Denfeld addressed a theme relevant to The Child Finder. I think the fantastical elements are important, as they show how the narrator copes with being in solitary confinement for so many years. He escapes through his imagination, including astonishing interpretations of his world. I've worked with men and women facing execution, and am often thunderstruck at how humans can persevere despite horrific circumstances. - from the GR Q/ANaomi follows clues in a procedural style, checking with this person, then that, noting oddities, poring through public records and old newspapers, her feel for a trail making some items stand out. She is shown working on another simultaneous case, and we learn of some of her past successes and failures. Naomi is beset by what she calls The Big Dream, a recurring nightmare that may hold clues to her past. Her investigative prowess has failed so far to let her find out who she really is. As always, after having the dream, she tried to uncover the truth. What part was reality and what part was fantasy? Are the stories we tell ourselves true or based on what we dream them to be? Naomi is a powerfully crafted character, a beautifully moving portrait of anguish, strength, and compassion. She recalls her own escape and subsequent upbringing with an amazingly warm foster mother. Her relationship with her foster brother, Jerome, is a core element here, and it sings. Her brief dealings with an older detective seemed far too brief. I hope that when Naomi returns in subsequent volumes we get to see more of him.As with The Enchanted, Denfeld makes use of her poetic sense, and sparkling command of language, to paint a grim world with great swaths of beauty. And there is considerable darkness here, but graphic unpleasantness is kept to a minimum. (I feel strongly against graphic violence that is vicarious, or exploitative. After working with so many victims, I feel sensitive to honoring how unspeakable crime can be. - from her GR Q/A) The emotional connections are beautifully written. There is a scene in which a very patient foster mother is finally allowed in by a damaged child. If your eyes don’t gush, it’s time to being to bring them in to your ophthalmologist. Something is not working right.As with her earlier work Denfeld offers an insightful look at the baddie, a nuanced portrait of a damaged person engaging in unspeakable behavior. This has particular resonance with the death row characters of The Enchanted, an interest not merely in extinguishing the darkness but in understanding how it came to be. We are also treated to some insight into psychological elements of surviving captivity. Denfeld knows a fair bit about such things, as her day job entails investigating on behalf of death row inmates. She is also a foster mother. In addition to offering keen observation of the world Naomi inhabits, (Naomi ate a large breakfast in the diner, where the waitress no longer called her hon, but nodded indifferently, like she was a local. ) The Child Finder offers a rich supply of supporting imagery, concept and insight. The sometimes necessarily porous line between the real and the imagined is considered. As is the virtue and value of patience, whether as a captive, a caregiver, or an investigator. Where does dreaming leave off and memory begin? There is a balance between seeking the lost and hiding out. The earth, the ground, serves as a worthy image here. In one case, an opening in the earth yields a cornucopia of inspirational stones, a sacred place, in another a dark pit fraught with peril. Naomi as a child and Madison are held in subterranean, cave-like places. Naming issues are considered as well. Madison thinks of herself as the Snow Girl from her favorite fairy tale. Her captor is only ever Mister B to her. Even Naomi does not know her real name. What it means to be human comes in for a look. Ironically, Mister B feels more human for having Madison with him than he had felt before. Madison subsumes her humanity at times under her alt-reality fairy-tale persona. The gripes here are few. There are some moments in which the sentiment expressed seem a bit Hallmarkian. (Her entire life she had been running from terrifying shadows she could no longer see—and in escape she ran straight into life.) There a few of these. In one moment of peril, a rescue seemed a bit deus ex machina for my taste. These small stumbles may keep The Child Finder from quite matching her previous work, but really, can you gripe at Herman Melville for not matching Moby Dick with his next effort? This is still an amazing book.The Child Finder is a beautifully written, gripping page turner, rich with psychological insight, emotional engagement, life-and-death peril, and a memorable cast of characters, rooted in a darkly atmospheric landscape. It is a book that is worth searching for, bringing home, and welcoming into your family.Review first Posted – 5/12/17 Publication -----Hardcover - 9/5/2017-----Trade Paperback - 8/7/18=============================EXTRA STUFFThe author’s personal, Twitter, and Facebook pagesDenfeld had more than her share of hard knocks growing up. You can get a sense from her essay, The Other Side of Loss, that she has suffered much of the pain and sorrow of which she writes.August 11, 2017 - NY Times - GR friend Andrea clued me in to this very moving piece by Denfeld on adopting her own kids, another form of the heroism that is her life - Four Castaways Make a FamilyInterviews – these relate mostly to Denfeld’s previous novel, The Enchanted, but are worth a look-----with Jane Eaton Hamilton-----Denfeld and author Stephanie Feldman talk with each other about genre - Writing to genre stinks: Two debut novelists on the hard line between fantasy and realism — and why it doesn’t make sense - on Salon.com-----Crimereads.com - Denfeld’s close call - MUST READ!!! - The Green River Killer and MeOther Denfeld books I have read and reviewed-----2019 - The Butterfly Girl (Naomi Cottle #2)-----2014 - The EnchantedNovember 9, 2017 - The Child Finder is among the nominees for Amazon's book of the year - Mysteries and ThrillersThe Harper Book Queen included a look at this book in her TBR Tuesdays FB live broadcast from 8/7/18 - it begins at about 8:28

"What were you running from, then?" she had asked."Monsters," was all that Naomi could remember. This is the second book I've read by Denfield, the first being The Enchanted, and both have really affected me. She captures all the ugliness and horrors of our world and wraps it up in a story that feels almost like a fairy tale.I doubt The Child Finder will become as popular as the recent buzz book My Absolute Darling, but it is everything I had hoped that book might be. The stories are somewhat similar - dealing with child abuse and how deeply this can affect its victims - but I found Denfield's take far less gratuitous and far more powerful. Both stories are heavily-influenced by the setting and nature, though I find the writing here much more palatable.The Child Finder is about a private investigator, Naomi, and the missing children she finds. Having once been a lost child herself, Naomi feels a special kinship with missing children and is especially gifted at finding them. Though finding the children alive is never a guarantee. Her latest case takes her on the three-year-old trail of a young girl called Madison. Trekking through the snowy landscape of Oregon’s Skookum National Forest, Naomi clings to the hope that Madison may still be alive. Or that she can at least find remains that will bring closure to Madison's family. Naomi's perspective is interspersed with what feels like a fairy tale - that of the snow girl who was born in the forest, who barely remembers a time before when she had a family who loved her.It is a beautifully-written, complex tale about the cyclical nature of abuse. Denfield considers how a person can come to feel a twisted kind of love for their captor, and how the worst kind of monsters are created. If I were to be critical of anything, I would say that the book does a much better job of handling the psychology than the investigation. I didn't feel like Naomi really "solved" anything and many of the answers felt as if they were handed to her. But, to be honest, it's okay. Because that isn't where the book's strengths lie anyway. It is called a mystery/thriller, but it is more of a sad, psychological contemporary about abuse and the way a child's mind can create a fairy tale to protect them from reality.Very powerful.Blog | Facebook | Twitter | Instagram | Youtube

My reviews can also be seen at: https://deesradreadsandreviews.wordpr...I was very excited to read THE CHILD FINDER. This was another novel that I flew through as once I started reading it, I did not want to put it down."Where are you, Madison Culver? Flying with the angels, a silver speck on a wing? Are you dreaming, buried under snow? Or is it possible, after three years missing, you are still alive?" Three years ago, the Culver family drove to the forest to cut down a Christmas tree. They turned their backs for just a moment and when they turned back, their five-year old daughter, Madison had disappeared. They were frantic and looked everywhere, but it was snowing hard and soon all tracks were covered...Madison was gone.Of course searches were done but there was no sign of Madison. Presumed dead as no one, especially a five-year old child alone could survive the cold. But her parents refused to give up hope.Now three years later, Madison's parents have sought out Naomi's help ....Naomi is known as The Child Finder. She doesn't advertise her services but she gets plenty of work through word of mouth. Everyone who knows her or knows of her, knows she's the best at finding missing children.When Naomi is asked how she finds the children, she tells them it's "because she knows freedom".Madison would be eight, if she was still alive.Naomi is honest with the parents she works with and tells Madison's parents that even if she does find Madison, she won't be the same."she will come back needing you" Child Finding is not a job to Naomi but a calling. Each case takes her new places, with different people and cultures. She's found 30 children. There's no border she won't cross. Naomi is a contradiction. She can be both suspicious and trusting both afraid and fearless. The wilderness doesn't bother Naomi. In fact, she feels safer out in the wild then in a room with the door shut and locked. Naomi knows who to go to for answers, where to look for clues. There's a reason she is so good at what she does. Naomi's past. A time that she was lost...then found. There's so much she can't remember. A sense of loss. Wanting answers but at the same time terrified at what she might find. The big dream she's had off and on for so long. Waking with more questions than answers.Naomi normally never works more than one case at one time. But now she's working two cases in the same town. She prefers to work on her own. Will she learn that there comes a time that everyone can use some help? Will she accept what's being offered to her?The story is told from a few different perspectives and interspersed throughout the book are very unique fairy tales which help the story along. The inclusion of Naomi's other cases added to the story. The descriptions of Oregon's Skookim National Forest were vivid. I could feel the chill of the snow and cold. I could picture the millions of acres of forests, lakes, and rivers.As the book deals with some very important and sensitive issues, it can be upsetting at times. However, I felt that the author treated these issues with complete respect and the underlying sense of hope and love made me want to keep reading.The characters were excellent. The author did a fantastic job of bringing them all to life. Many of them will stay with me. I loved Naomi...of course. But there was such an excellent cast of supporting characters as well. Jerome, her friend Diane (we all need a Diane in our lives), Ranger Dave, and more. But one of my very favorites was Mrs. Cotter, who taught children how to feel safe and how to love again.With a thoroughly engrossing plot and excellent characterization, The Child Finder is a fantastic book that I highly recommend. "This is something I know: no matter how far you have run, no matter how long you have been lost, it is never too late to be found." - The Child Finder Thank you, HarperCollins Canada for providing an advanced readers copy of this book for me to read in exchange for my honest review.

Update: WOW... Kindle $1.99 special today ...Christmas Eve special. .... If you have missed this wonderful book - ‘great price’ today!Wishing everyone who celebrates Christmas a joyous wonderful day!!!!Lately I feel like a broken record ....."This is the best book".....sad, beautiful....extraordinary....written exquisitely!!! Another book - where I was choked most of time. I can't imagine 'anyone' not being completely affected by this book. Author Rene Denfeld outdid herself. "The Enchanted" was phenomenal... yet this is more so. There have been many books about missing children....but Rene Denfeld gave us very unique storytelling- that is so powerful - she gave me hope - and faith - ( where I didn't think was possible) - regardless of how this novel would end. She really 'did' create magic. Beauty from evil. Love from violence. I absolutely loved the characters - Naomi ( The Child Finder) and Madison ( The Snow Child.... the child who loves fairytales)..... Naomi and Madison both melted my heart!!!!! Unforgettable characters!!!Mrs. Cottle, who raised Naomi - her foster care mother- also had my heart. She was the first person that Naomi let's get close to her. Later, Jerome, also a foster child.Well, the very 'first' creature that Naomi let get close to her was a family cat. Several scenes stand out for me-- or 'words':.....Mrs. Cottle washing Naomi's back when she was young.....Twigs.....filtered darkness.....wet roots, smelling their strange savage scent.....rocking.....greasy, pungent, musky....."A snow girl must never fall in love because she would melt and die"....."fairytales are our milk"....."everyone needs faith: faith even though the world is full of evil, a suitor will come and kiss us awake; faith that the girl will escape the tower. The big bad Wolf will die, and even those poisoned by malevolence can be reborn, as innocent as purity itself". ****.....RIGHT WHEN I READ THIS LINE ... my phone rang-- I was interrupted- a called from my doctor. Results came in from the pathology lab. I have skin cancer on my nose. ..... without thinking - but kinda shaking - I got off the phone and kept reading....this line: "Naomi felt tired in a sad way--the kind of tired where you want to run and cry at the same time". ( I could relate). The most 'smiley' moment for me: "OODLES OF NOODLES"..... and glorious purple stretch pants.HOLY MOLY...... this is a 5++++ book!!!!!

There are a lot of good things about this book. But the writing sometimes is too purple, know what I mean. I'm not able to fully immerse myself into the story because of that. But apart from that, I have no complaints.5 stars can be given to perfect books, but also flawed masterpieces. Three years ago from now, a child has disappeared and her parents turn to Naomi to find her. She will find her, at all costs. Naomi herself was a lost child. This fact could have been omitted but it's an important part of the book, so what the heck, let's go with it.I was a bit unfair with the author for writing purple prose, but I really thought that nowadays a lot of new authors want to cram all of their ideas into one book. Rene Denfeld is not one such author, but she comes close to this slight misdemeanor. Altogether I liked what I read, and I recommend this quiet, but powerful story. If you want a better review of this book check out Chelsea's review:-https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

"Each child she found was a molecule, a part of herself still remaining in the scary world she had left behind. Eventually they would all come together and form one being, knitted together in triumph. We are not forgotten, her action told her. You will not put us aside." - The Child Finder Madison Culver disappeared in the woods one snowy day as her family searched for a Christmas tree. One moment she was there, the next she was gone. The snow swiftly covering her tracks. Madison was presumed buried in the snow or scavenged by animals. How could a 5 year old girl survive for long in the cold, snowy woods? Love and hope go hand in hand. After 3 years, Madison's mother still believed someone had taken her and that she was alive. Desperate but unwilling to give up on her daughter she contacted Naomi, a private investigator known as the Child Finder, for help. Naomi had a special talent for finding missing children. There had been a time when Naomi herself was a lost child. There are many questions in regards to Naomi's past. The trauma she endured is buried deep within her. Fragments of memories inevitably coming to the surface in her dreams. Is her mind protecting her from what had been done to her or from her own terrible guilt? The story unfolds from various perspectives giving us different insight at various points in the story as it switches from the past to the present. We get a first hand account of Madison's captivity and it was heartbreaking. It literally broke my heart to read those parts. Denfeld wrote with sensitivity, her words almost poetic in their blending of Madison's nightmarish reality with her magical fairytale like fantasies. Yet there was no mistaking the imagery - the moments were still dark, terrifying and horrible. She endured horrors no child should ever have to endure.It feels almost impossible to explain how a book seeped with such darkness and sorrow was also full of love, hope and bravery. Yet it was. I look forward to reading more from Rene Denfeld and seeing what happens with Naomi in the future. "No matter how far you have run, no matter how long you have been lost, it is never too late to be found."

Denfeld takes us into the deep, dark recesses of a child gone missing for 3 years. The stories conjured up as part of survival. The imagination and its vividness making the missing girl, no longer Madison, but instead now, Snow Girl.Enter Naomi "the Child Finder". She hunts missing children, some more successfully than others. Her own tragedy the catalyst for her search. But this one brings home the truth of her own abduction.Denfeld is a marvel. Interspersing fairytales with the story being told from both snow girl and Naomi. Vivid imagery. And again she successfully does the unthinkable - have us feel sympathy for a monster.Denfeld, you moved me with The Enchanted and did it all over again with The Child Finder. My first 5⭐️ of the year and I'm glad to share it with you.

"There is something I know: no matter how far you have run, no matter how long you have been lost, it is never too late to be found."Three years ago, five-year-old Madison and her parents were picking out a Christmas tree in Oregon’s Skookum National Forest. Somehow, she got separated from her parents and has not been seen since. She would be eight years-old today. Her parents have never given up hope and have hired Naomi who is known as "the child finder." to find their daughter. She is their last hope. The police have investigated, the park service has searched the park for her, search parties have looked for her - no lead have ever been found. She is presumed to be dead, buried deep beneath the snow. That is not an image any parent wants to visualize. Nor do they want to imagine that she has been taken and held captive. All they want is for their daughter to be returned to them and desperately hope the child finder will find Madison.Naomi has a gift for finding lost children as she is a little lost herself, some say she is afraid of being found. When Naomi was younger she was found by migrant workers while running across a field. With no memory of her ordeal, and only knowing her first name, she was raised in a loving home by her foster Mother. She had/has a foster brother Jerome, who is the only person she fully feels safe with. Naomi searches the park and questions locals; her dreams haunt her. She recalls parts of her past as she desperately searches for Madison in hopes of giving her a future with her parents. While investigating Madison's disappearance, she takes on another missing child's case as well. Both cases are devastating and tug on the readers heart strings. While searching for the lost children, the reader is given glimpses into Naomi’s dreams and memories. She is a tough yet tender woman with a strong drive to find lost children.This book is atmospheric, chilly, devastating, and captivating. From the very first page I was hooked. This book became a page tuner for me. I could not put it down! There are sections which are disturbing and may not be easy for some to read. I love how she wove the story of various characters throughout the narrative.This book is well written and draws in the reader with sympathetic characters and not so sympathetic characters. I loved that this book is told through various characters perspectives and touches on mystery, utilizes fairy tales and uses nature as a character. This book has earned all the stars and then some! I highly recommend this book!See more of my reviews at www.openbookpost.com

The Child Finder is a disturbing, yet magically beautiful tale about survival and freedom. When children go missing, Naomi, a private investigator, makes it her life’s mission to find them. Once a lost child herself, Naomi seems to have a magical ability to find those who seem to be lost forever. “It will be people like us that save the world, she said: those who have walked the side of sorrow and seen the dawn" Naomi takes on the case of 5 year old Madison, missing for three years in the dark depths of the mountainous forest. No one believes Madison has survived, not even Naomi, but she will not stop until she finds something to bring this little girl home to her family--dead or alive.Naomi is fighting her own demons, as she once lived in a horrific world filled with pain and abuse. She escaped when she was nine, and taken under the wing of her foster mother and foster brother, Jerome. Juxtaposed with Naomi's story is Madison’s plight in the enchanting, yet sinister forest. “Are the stories we tell ourselves true or based on what we dream them to be?” The Child Finder is an awe-inspiring read. It’s enchanting and horrific at the same time. It’s fast-paced, original, and beautifully written. I cannot wait to read more by Rene Denfeld. This is one of my top reads of 2017. Highly, highly recommend!

An absolute 5 star read!!A five year old girl goes missing during a family outing to the woods to find a Christmas tree, much snow falls here in Oregon and it is a difficult search.Naomi, a renowned Child Finder is sought out by the parents to work this case after a few years of no leads. Naomi has a personal history of being lost herself.This is the story of Madeline, the missing girl and also of Naomi's search in finding herself.I just loved this book!

This story is heart-wrenching and told from two perspectives: a woman named Naomi whose life is dedicated to finding lost children, and a young girl whose imagination and creativity help to make her life situation more bearable.Naomi has a gift for finding lost children and each case unlocks a tiny sliver in a heavy door that lies between her and aspects of her past that she cannot recall. Her tenacity and her ability to place herself in the minds and hearts of young victims have given her a special weapon that police services and other search and rescue people do not have. She never gives up. Three years after Madison disappeared, Naomi finds herself in the middle of one of her most challenging charges: to find this little girl, dead or alive, somewhere in the vast, craggy, snowy and unforgiving environment of the Oregon mountains.Rene Denfeld’s writing drew me in to the story and held me spellbound. There were a couple of times that I felt two things: (1) that the author lost a little control over her story, and (2) conversely, a couple of small areas where the story felt a bit forced.At the same time, both the child finder’s perspective and that of the child narrator had the same feeling of loss of control and a need to force events, so it made sense from that point of view. The key is that I should have felt it without being quite so aware of it. In other words, it didn’t flow completely from the narrative and it pulled me out of the story a couple of times.While this story and its characters may not have been perfect for me, they come very close – close enough that I could experience with the characters their thoughts and feelings, their determination, and their will to not just survive but to also do whatever is necessary to redeem themselves in their own eyes.I adore Rene Denfeld’s writing and her ability to create strong, believable characters who are on a quest to achieve a goal or goals despite the odds against them. Her writing is lyrical and weaves a spell that is not easily broken. I look forward to reading more of her work in the near future, and recommend this book to anyone drawn to adventure stories with gritty and realistic mysteries entwined.With thanks and appreciate to Jamie for lending me the use of a computer to write and upload my review. May my computer’s current shop visit be the last one for a very long time!