Book Review: Watch Over Me by Nina LaCour

Title: Watch Over Me

Author: Nina LaCour

Genre: YA Literary Fiction

Number of Pages: 272

Rating: B+

Recommended?: Yes

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I liked this a lot more than the last book I read by Nina LaCour, We Are Okay. I liked Lacour’s writing style in both books but this had a much stronger storyline. This book is a really atmospheric look into grief and childhood trauma, and the changes a young woman named Mila goes through when she moves onto an isolated farm to work as a teacher.

One of the things I liked best about this book was how the setting was realistic except for the ghosts, who everyone saw around the farm and discussed freely. I really enjoyed how the ghosts represented loss and healing instead of anything more stereotypically ‘creepy.’ I didn’t feel Watch Over Me was all that character driven and I didn’t find myself connecting to any of the characters all that much. However, the prose and particularly the evocative descriptive passages of the setting were lovely.