Trigger Warning.
We Weren’t Looking to Be Found is the story of Dani, a politician’s daughter in Texas Struggling with toxic relationships, familial problems, self-destructive behavior, and heavy substance abuse problems. Dani runs from her family and winds up at Peach Tree Hills a rehabilitation facility in rural Georgia. Camilla is a shy girl who dreams of attending a prestigious performing arts college and after being rejected time and time again she is finally accepted but she finds she is no longer able to attend. Cammila struggles with overly critical thoughts, depression, High anxiety, and self-harming behaviors. With seemingly nothing left, Camila attempts to take her own life but after her failed attempt is sent to Peach Tree Hills facility where she meets Dani. The two girls get sick of the pressure and general nature of the facility and escape to a party in a nearby town. At the party, both girls fall right back into the old habits that they had been working to overcome. In an attempt to show the girls responsibility and allow them to try and rebuild the bond that they severed after the events of the party, they are asked to clean out a storage room. There they find a set of letters that help the girls realize that they aren’t as alone as they think and that together they can start to heal.
This book discusses heavy thematic topics with a focus on self-harm, substance abuse, and difficult family dynamics. While the author tries to keep it lighthearted with a blossoming friendship and a found sense of belonging I found it to be forced. With the added mystery element I felt as though the author added too many things all at once without fully developing any other plot points which made the story hard to follow and difficult to get into. For example, at the beginning of the book, the author put a heavy focus on the ethnicity of these girls but after a short while it was a completely minute detail after it had been such an important aspect of the narrative. While I valued the way the author brought in so many different components to the lives and mental health problems these young girls faced it felt implausible and like she was reaching for something to add in hopes to keep these people interested. For an award-winning book, it felt quite juvenile in that the writing, language, tone, and overall sense of the book were either over or underdeveloped and hard to believe. mental health problems are a difficult thing to write about in a way that readers can relate to but in this book, I felt like there was nothing in the story that felt realistic enough to relate to.
Overall I value the perspective the author brings to her book but I feel as though they could be two separate stories. I love mysteries and I enjoy reading about the experiences of characters and reading about their struggles and how they work through them but having both together didn’t really work for me and it felt like a stretch I couldn’t just accept, which made the other tough stretches and plot holes harder to overlook. I am glad I read the book to better understand the experiences, lives, and struggles of others but I wouldn’t read it again.