Eilonwy's Reviews > What Happened to Ruthy Ramirez

Ruthy Ramirez disappeared over a decade ago, on her way home from middle school track practice. Her sisters, Nina and Jessica, have gotten on with their lives okay. But then Jessica sees a young woman on TV who looks just like Ruthy, and the wondering starts again.

This book is hard to describe. It's not a "what happened to Ruthy Ramirez?" thriller with a question mark. And it's not a trauma story about a family that can't heal or anything like that. It's a warm, intimate story about the remaining female members of a family that's experienced tragedy, and who just go on -- loving each other, crabbing at each other, and just carrying a memory of the one who is gone.

And the weird thing is, I could not put it down. Partly because I was curious about how it was going to end. But mostly because I was absorbed into their lives, and how they were going to be affected by learning whether the TV woman was actually Ruthy, or not. I absolutely zoomed through this, which has not happened to me in a while.

And then the ending (view spoiler)[made me cry. I didn't expect to feel nearly as affected by it as I was. Well done, and darn you, book. (hide spoiler)]

This was a pleasantly surprisingly good debut, and I'm looking forward to whatever Claire Jimenez writes next.