We’ve Come to Take You Home by Susan Gander is a book that instantly intrigued me from the moment I read the description of it. It was a bit different to the books I usually read but it’s always a pleasure to read something that’s a little out of my comfort zone, particularly when I end up enjoying it. Well I certainly enjoyed reading We’ve Come to Take You Home, that was so striking and moved me in a way that I was quite honestly not expecting it to.
The book was told from the perspective of two characters - Jessica Brown and Sam Foster - who are separated by time. For Jess, it’s 1916 and the time of the first world war and we witness her as a young girl who deals with the death of her father who died whilst fighting for his country and the death of her baby brother before being sent away by her mother to work as a maid for a relatively well-to-do family in London. Meanwhile Sam Foster lives some 100 years later and sees very little of her father who is often away, flying all over the world in his job as an airline pilot. One day Sam’s world is thrown upside down when her father’s future life is in jeopardy following his involvement in an accident. Whilst not becoming clear until towards the end, the lives of Jessica Brown and Sam Foster are very closely linked in a way that was quite unexpected...
Both Jessica’s and Sam’s stories were enjoyable and engaging in their own ways, which meant that both were characters who I felt able to connect to in one way or another. Both girls had a story to tell which I couldn’t help but feel quite emotional about at times and it was a pleasure to get to know each of them as the novel progressed. However, there was one particular story that really stuck out for me and that was Jessica’s, whose experiences I found especially interesting and who I could quite happily have read a whole book about.
The thing I loved most about this book was the way that it was written with some very short, bite-sized chapters that were at the same time packed full of action. For me, I found that the length of the chapters contributed a great deal to this book as they added to the sense of tension and drama that was building from the very start of this very unique and cleverly-crafted novel. Throughout the duration of the novel, Susan Gander’s style of writing was really something very special and overall she did a wonderful job at writing a very complex and intricate novel. My only complaint is that the ending of the book seemed a little bit rushed and I would’ve liked to have seen a bit more to it.
We’ve Come to Take You Home is without a doubt a book that really gets you thinking about all of the possibilities as to how the two girls are going to end up meeting. It's also one that makes you stop, think about and feel grateful for all you have in life. It was a highly compelling read that I could not bear to be parted from and one that subsequently made for very quick reading. For a debut novel it was mightily impressive and I hope that this won't be the first and last book written by Susan.
