Spinderella chose ‘Dear Child’ by Romy Hausmann. Originally a German novel that was translated to English (among other languages). A Psychological thriller filled with manipulation and held in captivity.

Trigger warning; abduction, living in captivity, abuse.

The only thing I hated whilst reading this book was the lack of chapters. During the day I read in my book and when in bed I continue on my e-reader. But the lack of chapters in the book (there are only two chapters) was making it hard to find where I stopped in my paperback.

Within the chapters you switch in POV’s; we have Lena, Matthias, Hannah and Yasmin.

Lena Beck has been missing for 14 years; after attending a party she just dropped off the face of the earth. Without a body ever being found her parents Matthias and Karin keep hoping she’ll be found alive someday. When the phone rings in the middle of the night and their family friends / police inspector telling them they’ve found Lena and she’s in hospital near the Czech border; Matthias doesn’t hesitate, he and Karin drive to the hospital hoping to see their daughter in good health.

Hannah, a 13-year-old girl has come in with Lena, claiming she is her daughter. Hannah is ghostly pale and looks more like a 6-year-old then a 13-year-old. She tells the nurse they weren’t allowed outside and lived in a cabin in the woods and that her brother Jonathan is cleaning the stains in the rug right now because Lena had a silly accident. Lena struck their father in the head with a snow globe so there are stains in the carpet.

Matthias is flabbergasted, the woman in the hospital bed has a scar just like his Lena and she looks similar but she isn’t his daughter. She’s an imposter, why is she lying?! But when he sees the little girl, Hannah he’s even more lost for words because he knows she is his granddaughter, she is Lena’s daughter. She looks like an exact copy of when Lena was young. So, what happened?!

The police found the cabin, a man is dead but also unrecognizable. His face isn’t much of a face anymore. Lena’s account of hitting her husband only once doesn’t stroke with the damaged done to this man. The boy is in shock. When this news comes back to Lena she feels relieve and tells them she’s actually Yasmin, she was abducted 4 months ago by a man that held her in captivity to be a mother for the children, calling her Lena.

When the story unfolds a whole lot comes to light, but what about Lena? Where did she go? What happened to her? The end is something else, justice has been served but at what cost? Will the children adjust to reality?

This book is a solid ⭐⭐⭐⭐ read.