Author – Megan Miranda

Publisher – Crown books for young readers

Publish date – 29th January 2019

Genre – YA/ Mystery

POV – First person, present tense

Rating – 4/5

Summary –

“From the New York Times bestselling author of All the Missing Girls and The Perfect Stranger comes a captivating thriller about two teens who connect when each discovers a mysterious radio frequency, which suggests their family tragedies are mysteriously connected.

After surviving an infamous family tragedy, sixteen-year-old Kennedy Jones has made it her mission to keep her brother’s search through the cosmos alive. But then something disturbs the frequency on his radio telescope–a pattern registering where no signal should transmit.

In a neighboring county, seventeen-year-old Nolan Chandler is determined to find out what really happened to his brother, who disappeared the day after Nolan had an eerie premonition. There hasn’t been a single lead for two years, until Nolan picks up an odd signal–a pattern coming from his brother’s bedroom.

Drawn together by these strange signals–and their family tragedies–Kennedy and Nolan search for the origin of the mysterious frequency. But the more they uncover, the more they believe that everything’s connected–even their pasts–as it appears the signal is meant for them alone, sharing a message that only they can understand. Is something coming for them? Or is the frequency warning them about something that’s already here?”

Full Review

(Avoid Spoilers – read the Quick Review)

Kennedy and Nolan have both lost family, they both feel alone and they’re both searching for something. A sign, a lead, an answer. When both their signals emit a strange frequency, the same one, they find each other. Come find me is an emotional mystery, with two wonderfully written protagonists, on a journey through loss and grief. It’s real, mysterious, clever, dark and a little funny. Unravelling in surprising twists and ending in hope.

For some reason when I picked up this book and read the blurb, I was convinced it was a YA about aliens. The cover made me think psychological thriller and as I was reading at some points I considered supernatural, thriller, mystery…

In some ways there are those different elements as you’re reading through and peeling back the different stages of the story but in its essence the uniting and constant theme felt like grief and the desperate search for closure.

And it did a wonderful job at depicting and exploring that in a real and encompassing, grounded way even though the circumstances felt surreal at times. The rest was an interesting mode to travel that main theme. Signals, premonitions and mysterious events, it even gets a little existential, made it all riveting and complex.

Though slow to pick up, you get a strong sense of Kennedy and Nolan from the first few chapters. Hints and details scattered throughout to give you some sense as to what’s to come. I found myself eagerly waiting for them to come together and see them interact and combine their viewpoints, and it pays off.

Kennedy and Nolan’s meeting is funny and cute. I loved watching them bounce off of each other. As a couple they’re easy to ship, which I found myself feeling before they’d even met. It holds off, really starting in at about 50% through and progressing slowly and gradually which felt natural for the story and the characters.

Once the story picks up it really grasps you. It is so easy to become absorbed in the two main characters as they try to make sense of their personal tragedies. Easy to feel invested with their goals and stakes.

The ending is wrapped up and satisfying. I’m not often surprised by mystery stories, but I hadn’t predicted much of anything in the ending of Come Find Me except a couple of threads here and there. Not because of the revelations being entirely out of the scope of possibility – it was all carefully wound together throughout the story. It was more how it was all presented by Miranda that made the outcome unpredictable. I think maybe the presumptions I’d made about the book’s genre added to throwing me off as well.

Miranda did well with providing the closure you really want for Kennedy and Nolan while making it clear it is still a journey ahead for them. There’s no resetting from loss and while both characters are left with their answers and finally able to heal, there is no getting back what they’ve both lost.

– 4/5 Intuition, premonition, satellite signals and strange frequencies combined into an emotional mystery.

Buy it – Come Find Me