Review: What Janie Found

What Janie Found by Caroline B. Cooney
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

Jennie Spring was that girl on the milk carton. Kidnapped as a toddler, she lived most of her life thinking she was Janie Johnson. She was raised by the parents of the young woman who kidnapped her. When the deception came out, both families were stunned. The Johnsons had no idea their daughter had kidnapped young Janie. Years later, Janie now has two families. She lives most of her life with the Johnsons, who raised her, but is trying to form stronger relationships with her birth family, the Springs. When Mr. Johnson has a stroke, and Janie is tasked with helping out with the family finances, she finds something that threatens to topple the carefully constructed world she's built for herself.

Dun dun duuuuuuun.

This might have been a better read for me if I had actually read the first three books in the series. As it is, Cooney's novel is a little too "after school special" for me. The central premise feels really melodramatic and overwrought. At no point did I think "Yeah, I can understand the conflict here." Instead, I found myself wanting to shake these people and ask "Why are you being such complete morons?" The final straw, for me, was Stephen's girlfriend, Kathleen. As she's written in the later parts of the book, she's just completely, unbelievably awful. She's completely self absorbed and rude.

The cover design is amazing, and manages to evoke the sorts of YA horror that I still really love from the late 90s/early 00s, but this ends up being a perfect example of "don't judge a book by its cover."

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