Watch Over Me

Don’t let the YA tag dissuade you if you don’t generally read books for that audience; Watch Over Me has definite appeal for an adult crowd.

The main character is an 18-year-old young woman who has aged out of foster care and is searching for her place in the world. A ghost-story-that-isn’t-a-ghost-story, Watch Over Me is a book about confronting our own ghosts—literally and figuratively.

La Cour’s arresting prose seamlessly inserts the speculative elements into an exploration of recovery from guilt and grief in a way I found breathtaking. 

This is my favorite book in the entire world (at least for the time being)!

The voice and writing are deliciously lyrical, while also offering a raw, authentic look at mental health and the deep human longing to belong. I recommend this book to just about everyone I meet, whether they struggle with mental health or not, because the descriptions of nature, the believable magical elements, and the portrayal of friendship always take my breath away.

I truly struggle for words to explain what this book means to me… so you’ll just have to read it!

There’s something about the paranormal slant of this book that allows it to highlight so much of the journey from ignoring the past and moving forward, to re-remembering the past and learning to accept it and move forward with it rather than running away from the events that shape us.

Brilliant writing. Great for anyone who has gone into a new situation feeling completely out of place. Deals with PTSD/Repressed memories in such a thoughtful way.