Library of Lost Things by Laura Taylor Namey - ADVISABLE

Library of Lost Things by Laura Taylor Namey, 352 pages. Inkyard Press, 2019. $18.

Language:  PG-13 (46 swears, 0 “f”); Mature Content: ; Violence: G

BUYING ADVISORY: HS - ADVISABLE

AUDIENCE APPEAL: AVERAGE

17yo Darcy is counting the days until she turns 18 – not so that she can leave her home, but because then DCFS can no longer take her from her mother.  And she knows that they would if anyone from outside her very small circle of friend (yes, just one) ever saw their apartment – the apartment that is full of all the things her mother hoards. Darcy lives most of her life inside the books that she inherited from her long-absent father and even works in a secondhand bookstore. Then Asher starts coming into the store - the handsome recent high school graduate, who had a promising future as a pilot, only to have his dreams crushed when he was in a terrible car accident. As their relationship starts developing, Darcy has to decide how much of herself she wants to share – especially since there are parts of that story she only thought she knew.

I thoroughly enjoyed Namey’s look at a child living with a hoarding parent (though the books that I have read always have the mother as the hoarder). She adds more dimension to the psychology of hoarding and recovery from hoarding. Darcy is a sympathetic resilient main character and her ability to recognize and deal with her own problems is solid and satisfying. The romance is a nice addition and I love that is just that – not the focus of the narrative.

Cindy, Library Teacher, MLS