The Girl Who Couldn’t Leave (Miller)-BoT-Women’s Fiction-Available Now

I’m of mixed feelings about this book.

On the one hand it was a pleasant story about overcoming fears, finding friendships, and learning to trust people. I really enjoyed these aspects of the story and thought they were very well done. Let’s talk about those first.

Fiona is a recluse who never leaves the house and does not interact with anyone. If she were an older lady, chances are that nobody would blink an eye at the behavior. But Fiona is quite young to be this isolated. Something happened that caused her to be so.

The reader doesn’t find out what exactly that is until very late in the book. More on that in a minute.

Fiona has given nicknames to her neighbors (as she has never met any of them). Long story short, a single mum needs an emergency babysitter for her two-year-old and Fiona reluctantly agrees.

Fiona’s growth as she realizes she starts to look forward to the toddler’s visits was nice. It was a good icebreaker for Fiona to realize the importance of human interactions.

From this starting point, Fiona expands her horizons. Her journey is interesting and there are some legitimate uplifting and heartwarming moments along the way.

I particularly liked Fiona’s interactions with another neighbor because they illustrated that all people have problems to deal with and it’s how the individual chooses to address their issues that defines their self-worth.

And sometimes that self-worth can only expand if we help others who need it most. (At least that’s what I got out of it).

While I thought that the themes and messages of the story were highly worthwhile, I am not sure that all of the mechanisms used to convey those messages worked.

One particular subplot about a neighbor’s personal escapades (that everyone could hear) was amusing but didn’t serve much purpose (other than to drive home that everyone has issues).

Likewise, the events that propel Bethany to rely on Fiona seemed contrived, as did the relationship that developed. I don’t mean that in an entirely negative way, it just felt heavy-handed while other parts remained lighter.

And the events that propelled Fiona into seclusion? I expected something much bigger and sinister. While I think that the idea of the event was a good one, the actual retelling of the details made it seem like Fiona was weak and just couldn’t deal. That could have used some tweaking for it to be more suspenseful and threatening.

In all, it just seemed like the author was trying to do too much, especially at the end where the pandemic is mentioned. In fact, the entire last chapter served as a wrap-up that I could have done without. It actually felt quite preachy and took me away from the gentleness of the book.

Which is a shame, because I think there were some good messages to be found. It was quite obvious that the pandemic had an influence on the plot. I just didn’t like that the author didn’t seem to trust their own intuition and felt the need to add unhelpful details into the story to slam points across.

Other readers may have a completely different experience, and I would certainly recommend they give it a try.

Author Bio:

When Catherine Miller became a mum to twins, she decided her hands weren’t full enough so wrote a novel with every spare moment she managed to find. By the time the twins were two, Catherine had a two-book deal with Carina UK. Her debut novel, Waiting For You, came out in March 2016.

Catherine was a NHS physiotherapist, but for health reasons she retired early from this career. As she loved her physiotherapy job, she decided if she couldn’t do that she would pursue her writing dream. It took a few years and a couple of babies, but in 2015 she won the Katie Fforde bursary, was a finalist in the London Book Fair Write Stuff Competition and highly commended in Woman magazine’s writing competition. Since then she’s had four novels published.