Me and Emma (Paperback)

by Elizabeth Flock (Author)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review
The title characters in Me & Emma are very nearly photographic opposites--8-year-old Carrie, the raven-haired narrator, is timid and introverted, while her little sister Emma is a tow-headed powerhouse with no sense of fear. The girls live in a terrible situation: they depend on an unstable mother that has never recovered from her husband’s murder, their stepfather beats them regularly, and they must forage on their own for food.

Stop here and you have a story told many times before, as fiction and nonfiction in tales like Ellen Foster, or I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings --stories in which a young girl reveals the horrors of her childhood. Me & Emma differentiates itself with a spectacular finish, shocking the reader and turning the entire story on its head. Through several twists and turns the reader learns that things are not quite the way our narrator led us to believe and everything crescendos in a way that (like all good thrillers) immediately makes you want to go back and read the whole book again from the start. --Victoria Griffith --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Publishers Weekly
"I got handed lemons, too, y'know—but I learned how to make lemonade with them.... No one ever told me I had to add sugar but that's life for you. It ain't sweet." That's the jumbled and unforgiving logic that drives Flock's (But Inside I'm Screaming) second novel, a punishing Southern family drama that tries to achieve To Kill a Mockingbird–grade poignancy by heaping tribulations on its child narrator. The novel starts off sweetly, with the smalltown antics of Carrie, a scrappy Scout-like eight-year-old who's always accompanied by her younger sister Emma. Carrie dreamily darts back and forth between her rough-and-tumble present (abusive stepfather, unloving mother) and the happy memories of her dead father, creating a bittersweet picture of her life in Toast, N.C., spiked with colorful Southern language and some feisty supporting characters. But journalist Flock soon loses control of her meandering story and this Southern slice-of-life disintegrates into narrative chaos. The action moves "slow as a crippled turtle," as Carrie's Momma would say, and down-home charm fails to camouflage the creaky, roundabout chronology. After nearly 300 pages of rambling drama, the twist at the end is revealed so haphazardly that it will probably bewilder readers more than surprise them. Sugarcoated it ain't, but instead of delivering profundity, Flock's tough love turns poor forsaken Carrie into a caricature.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 304 pages
• Publisher: Mira Books (March 2006)
• ISBN-10: 0778300846
• ISBN-13: 978-0778300847
• Product Dimensions: 7.6 x 5 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 7 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.1 out of 5 stars See all reviews (121 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #1,954,825 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

46 of 49 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Slow in spots, but smacks you like a ton of bricks, May 8, 2005

By	frisky2000 "frisky2000" (smallville) - See all my reviews (TOP 1000 REVIEWER)

This review is from: Me & Emma (Hardcover)

Aside from the author occasionally missing the mark with her intreptation of Southern dialogue of poor white folks, this story is told from the point of view of an abused and all but abandoned 8 year old girl named Caroline (Carrie) who is in a desperate family situation.

Emma, the tough-as-nails younger sister, and Richard, the wicked stepfather, join with Carrie's mother, herself a victim of spousal abuse, and together the family moves to a new town, away from their haunting roots, only to set up in an area where the main attraction for the older folks is playing a banjo in the back of a general store and perfecting their shotgun technique on tin cans.

Carrie is in an awful situation at home, constantly bearing witness to the physical and mental cruelties of Richard. She misses her father, who was brutally murdered when she was just a small child, and she finds it difficult to do well in school, make more than one true friend, stay out of trouble at home. Emma is her only salvation, her only guts and defense in a cruel and heartless existence.

I can't say much more for fear of ruining the story. Suffice to say you will be mesmerized by the poignancy of this story, your heart will absolutely break for their suffering, and you will be torn between rooting for a happy ending and just wishing the pain would stop at whatever the cost. There were chapters that left me shaking in sobs, I was so in pieces over the graphic abuse. And reading it from a child's perspective is what made it all the more heart wrenching.

You won't close this book with a smile on your face, rather, with a heavy heart. It is tremendously hard-hitting and will stir your soul.

14 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars You won't soon forget Carrie and her little sister Emma, March 5, 2005

By	Bookreporter.com (New York, New York) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Me & Emma (Hardcover)

For eight-year-old Carrie Parker, life is divided into before and after. Before her beloved father's death, her family lived a relatively happy life in the small town of Toast, North Carolina. Now she and her sister, Emma, endure daily verbal and physical abuse at the hands of their stepfather, Richard, and the emotional absence of their mother. "A big sister has to look out for a baby sister," says Carrie, and she does her best to protect herself and Emma from Richard's fists.

ME & EMMA is narrated by Carrie, who lays out the details of her life with a child's intuitiveness and touching simplicity. Central to the story is her relationship with Emma, the one constant in a hardscrabble existence. In many ways, Carrie and Emma are opposites. Carrie has a dark complexion and Emma is fair, "like someone got bored painting her and just left her blank for someone else to fill in." Carrie is older by two years, but it's often the fearless Emma who leads the way. Emma is more of a realist, while Carrie, whose most cherished possession is a book of stamps from around the world, dreams of far away places. In particular, Bermuda, where she believes it's "too pretty for anything to be wrong, and I bet they even have a law that would keep people like Richard out altogether."

As the story unfolds, Carrie devises ways to escape the reality of her home life, from an aborted runaway attempt that has dire consequences to hiding behind the living room couch. "Behind-the-couch," she says, "is like another room for me and Emma. It's our fort. Anyway, we usually head there when we've counted ten squeaks from the foot pedal of the metal trash can in the kitchen. The bottles clank so loud I think my head'll split in two."

The narrative alternates scenes from the past --- dominated by Carrie's memories of her father --- with events in the present, making the difference between the two all the more heartbreaking. Throughout, Elizabeth Flock's imagery and phrasing is pitch-perfect with lines such as this one: "I can barely remember Momma the way she used to be, before Richard broke her into pieces."

Flock's deceptively simple prose belies not only a seriousness in subject matter but also clever subtleties in the plot. Carrie relays information that she doesn't always understand, but to the reader these are important points to look out for in the story. They eventually shed light on devastating family secrets in both the past and the present.

ME & EMMA is not purely escapist reading. The injustices suffered by Carrie and Emma --- and their helplessness --- are stark reminders of the cruelty inflicted on children every day by the adults entrusted to care for them. And yet it's this same austerity that drives the narrative. Suffice it to say, you won't soon forget Carrie Parker and her little sister, Emma.

--- Reviewed by Shannon McKenna

10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars I hate to say it, but I enjoyed this tragic tale, October 15, 2007

By	J. A. Davis "jadecat" (Northern Michigan) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This review is from: Me & Emma (Paperback)

Written from a child's point of view, this story is absolutely riveting.....right to its shocking conclusion. The heroine, 8-year-old Carrie, is rather matter-of-fact as she weaves her woeful tale. You can't help but root for her and her little sister Emma as they attempt to navigate through a pretty pathetic existence. I can only hope that women reading this will heed its subtle warning: be careful who you choose for your mate.