“When you get scared in your chest and your stomach, you could try to invite what scares you in. Pay attention to it. Let it play back in your memory. I’m only understanding it myself, but I think we have to face the things that scare us in order to move on from them. It might be the only way to stop being afraid.”
Watch Over Me is LaCour’s latest novel and she has done it again. Nina LaCour is one of those authors whose gorgeous writing style you could pinpoint with just one line and her signature melancholic tone is there from the very beginning. LaCour is a master when portraying that sense of longing and self-doubt lonely people feel when trying to connect with others.
The author also develops her beautiful prose and imagery with the same care she did in her previous works. Evocative and delicate, her words are a force of nature, and they are able to imbue the pages of her novel with a myriad of emotions. Her every word is full of life; a feeling of soft, distant sadness that drenches your soul for days even after finishing her novels. Surprisingly, that is not a negative thing because it transforms into a gentle feeling of yearning that becomes a bittersweet ache.
In Watch Over Me, Nina LaCour places her main character, Mila, in an isolated, stranded setting: a farm next to the sea for foster children, where she is to work as a teacher. However, unlike her previous novel, the protagonist is not completely by herself this time and instead, she is surrounded by a loving family of foster children…and a group of ghosts. As a result, Mila does not only have to fight against loneliness, but against the much more difficult situation of feeling alone while surrounded by people. And not just any people, but an incredibly tight-knitted group of individuals whose personalities shine through even if they have barely any presence in the narration. This is especially remarkable in the cases of Lee and Lizz, who become quite an intriguing pair, but also help Mila immensely through her healing journey.
In line with the rural, idyllic setting of the novel, the story moves along with a languid, yet steady and gripping pace, that goes back and forth between Mila’s present and glimpses of her past. Even if a bit confusing at first, the pieces of the puzzle that make Mila’s mind up fall into place beautifully and just at the right times. Through these movements in time, the reader gets to understand why Mila is unable to feel loved and cared about by her newfound family and why she doesn’t trust herself most of the time. Furthermore, LaCour makes use of weather and natural elements—mainly fire for her past and water for her present time. This is a stunning use of imagery to make a clear distinction between the two timelines and symbolise how polarising the two situations are, even if they might appear to the protagonist as the same at first glance.
Combined with these jumps in time, LaCour makes a magnificent use of a somewhat unreliable narrator. Reminiscent of the classic novel, The Turn of the Screw by Henry James, the reader cannot be sure whether the ghosts and the tokens of her past Mila finds at the farm are real, fabricated by her own mind, or manipulated by the people around her. Nonetheless, no matter what the truth is, LaCour’s main goal with the use of ghosts is to establish a representation of how our past selves influence our present and the haunting of past trauma. And that is, undoubtedly, a brilliant parallelism, for an apparent ghost story becomes so much more. Yes, the narration is still spooky and haunting at times, but it also becomes a tale of self-exploration and growth where the real monsters to overcome are trauma, insecurities and fear. Mila’s journey towards becoming a new person—free from her past, but also being able to maintain her best memories—is one that many readers will be able to relate to.
Overall, Watch Over Me is a moving tale of chosen family, loneliness, self-discovery, healing from past trauma, and learning to accept love. Many of these topics are no stranger to Nina LaCour’s readership, but she is always able to make them feel brand new. Comforting, relatable, and delicately frozen in time, LaCour’s prose is a true pleasure to read.
Watch Over Me is available from Amazon, Book Depository, and other good book retailers, like your local bookstore.
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Synopsis | Goodreads
Nina LaCour delivers another emotional knockout with Watch Over Me, the eagerly anticipated follow-up to the Printz Award-winning We Are Okay.
Mila is used to being alone. Maybe that’s why she said yes to the opportunity: living in this remote place, among the flowers and the fog and the crash of waves far below.
But she hadn’t known about the ghosts.
Newly graduated from high school, Mila has aged out of the foster care system. So when she’s offered a job and a place to stay at a farm on an isolated part of the Northern California Coast, she immediately accepts. Maybe she will finally find a new home, a real home. The farm is a refuge, but also haunted by the past traumas its young residents have come to escape. And Mila’s own terrible memories are starting to rise to the surface.
Watch Over Me is another stunner from Printz Award-Winning author Nina LaCour, whose empathetic, lyrical prose is at the heart of this modern ghost story of resilience and rebirth.
