What Remains of Her: A Novel

What Remains of Her is a heart-wrenching story about a man who has become a recluse after his wife and daughter disappear without a trace. Jonah Baum is a local teacher who comes home to an empty house one day only to realize that his wife Rebecca and daughter Sally are gone for good. He races around trying to figure out where they could have gone. He calls friends, local businesses, everyone he can think of to see if they have seen his beloved wife and daughter. The local sheriff, Maurice, is a good childhood friend of Jonah’s and Maurice’s daughter, Lucinda is also Sally’s best friend. Maurice tries to help Jonah as much as he can with the investigation, but the trail goes cold. For twenty-five years, Jonah lives a squatter in the woods, never forgetting Rebecca and Sally until one day, he finds a little girl about Sally’s age when she disappeared. This is where the story gets interesting and the author plays tricks on the reader. Could this be Sally? No, of course not, although Jonah thinks he sees his daughter’s eyes in the little girl, Sally would be thirty-two years old. I really enjoyed reading What Remains of Her mainly because of the excellent character development. The dialog was well dispersed throughout the book so that the readers could get a good feel as to each of the personalities of the characters. I especially liked Lucinda, who after all those years thought of Sally and kept a stone of Sally’s with her at all times. The friendship that the author created between Sally and Lucinda at the beginning of the book stuck with me throughout the story as the perfect trusting relationship between two innocent little girls. The ending of the story is also quite satisfying as the author did not try too hard to finish telling the reader the fate of the characters. An excellent read.