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Just Get Home
"Breathtaking... so much more than a thriller." —Josh Malerman, bestselling author of Bird Box and Malorie
"Hits the thriller a natural disaster, danger around every corner, and compelling well-drawn characters." —Heather Gudenkauf, New York Times bestselling author
A one-more-page, up-all-night story about two strangers who need each other's help to survive the night after a devastating earthquake shakes Los Angeles.
Beegie is riding the bus when the quake hits. The teenager was heading back to her unhappy foster home, but then she’s thrown into a broken world. Roads crumble, storefronts shatter and people run wild.
Dessa, a single mom, is enjoying a rare night out when it strikes. Cell towers are down, so without even knowing if her three-year-old daughter is dead or alive, she races to get back across town.
As danger escalates in the chaotic streets, Beegie and Dessa meet by a twist of fate and an act of violence. The two form a fragile partnership, relying on each other in ways they never thought possible, and learn who they really are when there’s only one just get home.
“A flat-out thriller [that is] also smart and insightful on timely, important ideas…. Heartbreaking and complicated in the best way… This is addictive reading that changes you as you turn the pages and stays with you long after you’ve finished.” —Laurie Frankel, New York Times bestselling author of This Is How It Always Is
"Hits the thriller a natural disaster, danger around every corner, and compelling well-drawn characters." —Heather Gudenkauf, New York Times bestselling author
A one-more-page, up-all-night story about two strangers who need each other's help to survive the night after a devastating earthquake shakes Los Angeles.
Beegie is riding the bus when the quake hits. The teenager was heading back to her unhappy foster home, but then she’s thrown into a broken world. Roads crumble, storefronts shatter and people run wild.
Dessa, a single mom, is enjoying a rare night out when it strikes. Cell towers are down, so without even knowing if her three-year-old daughter is dead or alive, she races to get back across town.
As danger escalates in the chaotic streets, Beegie and Dessa meet by a twist of fate and an act of violence. The two form a fragile partnership, relying on each other in ways they never thought possible, and learn who they really are when there’s only one just get home.
“A flat-out thriller [that is] also smart and insightful on timely, important ideas…. Heartbreaking and complicated in the best way… This is addictive reading that changes you as you turn the pages and stays with you long after you’ve finished.” —Laurie Frankel, New York Times bestselling author of This Is How It Always Is
352 pages, Kindle Edition
First published April 13, 2021
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 167 reviews
April 13, 2021
***HAPPY PUBLICATION DAY***
This was a wonderful Christmas present -- even in the midst of being somewhat busy with Christmasy things, I started this book. I have never read Ms. Foley, but the premise drew my attention right away. Everyone has heard that at some point much of the coast of California will fall into the ocean, after a major earthquake. In this book it just has!! Some “catastrophe” books as I call them, as well as movies are over the top with details of sounds, the chaos of people and cars everywhere, tons of noise and crashing buildings. This book does have some of those elements and it is very well done. For me the strength of this book was in it’s characters. That’s a very good thing for me!! I need to love or at least understand the characters in books for me to really enjoy a novel.
Dessy is a single mother, working full time with a 3 year old little girl, Olivia. She has a very complicated relationship with the little girl’s father. She gets an invitation for a dinner with some of her old best friends that she hasn’t seen in years. She almost cancels when her usual sitter is not available but then she finds a new babysitter, Hailey. She seems confident and nice and Dessy decides to give herself this one night out!!
This is the reason that Dessy was catching a subway home from dinner when the foreshock and then the earthquake hit!! I just have to share a few short sentences to help you see how wonderfully descriptive Ms. Foley’s prose is: “Dessa burst through the water right next to a scrabbling cluster of rats. The animals were squeaking. Panicked. Clawing at each other . . .An island of terrified rodents. Then they were swimming towards her, squeaking. Claws biting into her hair”. Terrifying to me!!
Our other main protagonist is Beegie. She is a teenager, wise beyond her years, who has been in many foster homes. A lot of hurt has come from her various foster care givers, and she is a traumatized young woman. We meet her as she is deciding to take the night off from her domineering foster mother, Barb. All she has is a bus ticket so she is riding the bus throughout it’s entire route and back just to have somewhere to be alone. Beggie has had some very awful experiences in her young life, some involving men and other life changing incidents such as the death of those close to her. She is in this bus when the earthquake hits. She ends up buried underneath a monumental amount of rubble.
It all happens so fast, within minutes the world around these women and millions in the LA area, has changed for them forever.
How Dessy and Beegie meet, stay together, and endure throughout the days after the earthquake, I will let you discover. I went into this one blind and I couldn’t put it down. This is a novel about relationships which may never have evolved without the earthquake. There are racial issues explored here. I will tell you that there is a rape scene, as I know this is a trigger for many people.There are truly terrifying episodes in this novel and there is always something going on, which I really enjoyed.
The relationships in this novel are exceptional, I really felt as though I could envision what these characters were living through. This ended up being a very emotional novel and extremely well written! Wonderful!!
I received an ARC of this novel from the publisher through Edelweiss.
This novel is set to publish on April 13, 2021
This was a wonderful Christmas present -- even in the midst of being somewhat busy with Christmasy things, I started this book. I have never read Ms. Foley, but the premise drew my attention right away. Everyone has heard that at some point much of the coast of California will fall into the ocean, after a major earthquake. In this book it just has!! Some “catastrophe” books as I call them, as well as movies are over the top with details of sounds, the chaos of people and cars everywhere, tons of noise and crashing buildings. This book does have some of those elements and it is very well done. For me the strength of this book was in it’s characters. That’s a very good thing for me!! I need to love or at least understand the characters in books for me to really enjoy a novel.
Dessy is a single mother, working full time with a 3 year old little girl, Olivia. She has a very complicated relationship with the little girl’s father. She gets an invitation for a dinner with some of her old best friends that she hasn’t seen in years. She almost cancels when her usual sitter is not available but then she finds a new babysitter, Hailey. She seems confident and nice and Dessy decides to give herself this one night out!!
This is the reason that Dessy was catching a subway home from dinner when the foreshock and then the earthquake hit!! I just have to share a few short sentences to help you see how wonderfully descriptive Ms. Foley’s prose is: “Dessa burst through the water right next to a scrabbling cluster of rats. The animals were squeaking. Panicked. Clawing at each other . . .An island of terrified rodents. Then they were swimming towards her, squeaking. Claws biting into her hair”. Terrifying to me!!
Our other main protagonist is Beegie. She is a teenager, wise beyond her years, who has been in many foster homes. A lot of hurt has come from her various foster care givers, and she is a traumatized young woman. We meet her as she is deciding to take the night off from her domineering foster mother, Barb. All she has is a bus ticket so she is riding the bus throughout it’s entire route and back just to have somewhere to be alone. Beggie has had some very awful experiences in her young life, some involving men and other life changing incidents such as the death of those close to her. She is in this bus when the earthquake hits. She ends up buried underneath a monumental amount of rubble.
It all happens so fast, within minutes the world around these women and millions in the LA area, has changed for them forever.
How Dessy and Beegie meet, stay together, and endure throughout the days after the earthquake, I will let you discover. I went into this one blind and I couldn’t put it down. This is a novel about relationships which may never have evolved without the earthquake. There are racial issues explored here. I will tell you that there is a rape scene, as I know this is a trigger for many people.There are truly terrifying episodes in this novel and there is always something going on, which I really enjoyed.
The relationships in this novel are exceptional, I really felt as though I could envision what these characters were living through. This ended up being a very emotional novel and extremely well written! Wonderful!!
I received an ARC of this novel from the publisher through Edelweiss.
This novel is set to publish on April 13, 2021
August 30, 2021
Heartbreaking, yet heartwarming Just Get Home is everything you could want in a disaster-themed book.
The suspense is there. In fact, I don’t think it ever wasn’t throughout the whole story. The characters are likable and I rooted for them the whole way. The situations were incredibly plausible. And the message was a beautiful one: Just because you look different doesn’t mean you are different. I only read suspense over thrillers once in a blue moon, but this book really made me want to open my horizons more.
There were times that flashbacks and POVs confused me and jumped around, but overall it was an easy book to follow.
Lastly, I cannot stress enough how beyond AWESOME it was that a resources page with numbers and websites for assault victims and victims of crime was listed at the end. It had crossed my mind numerous times why those numbers aren’t put into books with heavy and triggering topics. Huge win there!
4 ⭐️
The suspense is there. In fact, I don’t think it ever wasn’t throughout the whole story. The characters are likable and I rooted for them the whole way. The situations were incredibly plausible. And the message was a beautiful one: Just because you look different doesn’t mean you are different. I only read suspense over thrillers once in a blue moon, but this book really made me want to open my horizons more.
There were times that flashbacks and POVs confused me and jumped around, but overall it was an easy book to follow.
Lastly, I cannot stress enough how beyond AWESOME it was that a resources page with numbers and websites for assault victims and victims of crime was listed at the end. It had crossed my mind numerous times why those numbers aren’t put into books with heavy and triggering topics. Huge win there!
4 ⭐️
June 14, 2021
Giveaway Win!
Trigger Warnings: Rape, Sexual assault, talk of abortion and violent death
It took me a moment to get into this book. The first 80 pages or so I was thinking that this wasn't a thriller. It was more of a character study about two young women trying to survive in a post earthquake ravaged Los Angeles....but then the thriller aspect kicked in for me and I was all in.
Just Get Home is about two women Beegie a Black teenager whose in foster care and who goes through hell and Dessa a young white woman who left her young daughter with a sitter to hangout with friends and ends up trapped downtown after the earthquake. The two women must team up to survive the night and Just Get Home.
Apparently I read another book by this author that I have no memory of but according to Goodreads I didn't like it all that much. So maybe she improved as a writer or I changed as a reader or who knows but I definitely enjoyed this book.
Recommended to reader who like character based thrillers.
Trigger Warnings: Rape, Sexual assault, talk of abortion and violent death
It took me a moment to get into this book. The first 80 pages or so I was thinking that this wasn't a thriller. It was more of a character study about two young women trying to survive in a post earthquake ravaged Los Angeles....but then the thriller aspect kicked in for me and I was all in.
Just Get Home is about two women Beegie a Black teenager whose in foster care and who goes through hell and Dessa a young white woman who left her young daughter with a sitter to hangout with friends and ends up trapped downtown after the earthquake. The two women must team up to survive the night and Just Get Home.
Apparently I read another book by this author that I have no memory of but according to Goodreads I didn't like it all that much. So maybe she improved as a writer or I changed as a reader or who knows but I definitely enjoyed this book.
Recommended to reader who like character based thrillers.
May 6, 2021
Just Get Home by Bridget Foley is a disaster thriller that gives an imagining of what could happen if the Big One, a massive earthquake, hit Los Angeles, CA. The first thing I would say is this isn’t the pretty side of humanity in this story so it would definitely be best said that this one needs a trigger warning, the biggest with rape.
Dessa is a single mother that’s life revolves around her young daughter but has taken a rare night out after securing a babysitter for her little girl. When the earthquake happens the only thing on Dessa’s mind is her daughter, not knowing if her daughter is ok or safe after the earthquake is the one thing keeping Dessa moving on her way home all the way across the city.
Beegie is a young teenager who has seen her share of horrors already in her short life growing up in foster care. Beegie’s current foster situation has her not wanting to return so she finds herself out on a city bus away from home when the earthquake hits. As Beegie and Dessa both find themselves fighting for survival they find their paths crossing and may just need each other to survive.
One would hope that if any true disaster happened in the real world that it would be far far away from most author’s imaginations, including this one, and the people of the world could pull together. However, living in a city where the news is not pretty every day I wouldn’t at all be surprised if things did take a quick, dark turn as they do in this book giving it a realistic but scary and often cringeworthy feeling as reading. I got off to a bit of a slow start with this one so in the end I landed on 3 1/2 stars.
I received an advance copy from the publisher via NetGalley.
For more reviews please visit https://carriesbookreviews.com/
Dessa is a single mother that’s life revolves around her young daughter but has taken a rare night out after securing a babysitter for her little girl. When the earthquake happens the only thing on Dessa’s mind is her daughter, not knowing if her daughter is ok or safe after the earthquake is the one thing keeping Dessa moving on her way home all the way across the city.
Beegie is a young teenager who has seen her share of horrors already in her short life growing up in foster care. Beegie’s current foster situation has her not wanting to return so she finds herself out on a city bus away from home when the earthquake hits. As Beegie and Dessa both find themselves fighting for survival they find their paths crossing and may just need each other to survive.
One would hope that if any true disaster happened in the real world that it would be far far away from most author’s imaginations, including this one, and the people of the world could pull together. However, living in a city where the news is not pretty every day I wouldn’t at all be surprised if things did take a quick, dark turn as they do in this book giving it a realistic but scary and often cringeworthy feeling as reading. I got off to a bit of a slow start with this one so in the end I landed on 3 1/2 stars.
I received an advance copy from the publisher via NetGalley.
For more reviews please visit https://carriesbookreviews.com/
April 7, 2021
Check out all of my reviews at: https://www.avonnalovesgenres.com
JUST GET HOME by Bridget Foley is a completely engrossing and unique suspense/thriller by a new-to-me author that I could not put down! Starting with “The Big One”, this story brings together two disparate characters who are trying to survive the lawlessness, chaos and devastation to just get home.
Dessa is enjoying a rare night out with her best friend and fellow bridesmaids. When her babysitter calls to let her know her three-year-old daughter is sick, she immediately leaves for home. Before she can get to her car, the earthquake hits. With all communication down, Dessa races to get home not knowing if her daughter is dead or alive.
Fifteen-year-old Beegie is riding a city bus to escape an unhappy foster home until morning when the earthquake hits. She has had terrible experiences in foster care and awakens to being pulled from the bus by two men. All she wants is to get to her foster home and hide.
Dessa and Beegie are thrown together on the desperate city streets and form a fragile partnership to help each other to just get home.
You will need to put time aside to read this book because once you start, you are not going to be able to stop. Ms. Foley has written two protagonists that come to life on the page. Completely realistic, and at times disturbing characters, situations and an emotional rollercoaster takes you from page one to the end. Ms. Foley does not shy away from the dark issue of rape during this lawlessness, an uncaring foster system and racial issues. None of this is handled salaciously, but with a realistic outrage against the perpetrators and empathy for the victims.
I highly recommend these unforgettable protagonists and this emotionally well written story!
JUST GET HOME by Bridget Foley is a completely engrossing and unique suspense/thriller by a new-to-me author that I could not put down! Starting with “The Big One”, this story brings together two disparate characters who are trying to survive the lawlessness, chaos and devastation to just get home.
Dessa is enjoying a rare night out with her best friend and fellow bridesmaids. When her babysitter calls to let her know her three-year-old daughter is sick, she immediately leaves for home. Before she can get to her car, the earthquake hits. With all communication down, Dessa races to get home not knowing if her daughter is dead or alive.
Fifteen-year-old Beegie is riding a city bus to escape an unhappy foster home until morning when the earthquake hits. She has had terrible experiences in foster care and awakens to being pulled from the bus by two men. All she wants is to get to her foster home and hide.
Dessa and Beegie are thrown together on the desperate city streets and form a fragile partnership to help each other to just get home.
You will need to put time aside to read this book because once you start, you are not going to be able to stop. Ms. Foley has written two protagonists that come to life on the page. Completely realistic, and at times disturbing characters, situations and an emotional rollercoaster takes you from page one to the end. Ms. Foley does not shy away from the dark issue of rape during this lawlessness, an uncaring foster system and racial issues. None of this is handled salaciously, but with a realistic outrage against the perpetrators and empathy for the victims.
I highly recommend these unforgettable protagonists and this emotionally well written story!
April 22, 2021
Favorite Quotes:
Sometimes there is a recognition between two people that hastens their transition from strangers to friends. Like falling in love, but without the hormones.
It will be chaos for days. Weeks. There will be looting. Riots. The earthquake isn’t the real disaster, Dessa. The disaster is what happens after.
What must it be like to have that power? To not be afraid, but to have others be afraid of you? Not just right now on this dark street, but on all the dark streets.
Beegie’d never thought of it before, but she realized most people sounded like animals when they laughed; Barb sounded like a donkey, brays with big deep breaths in between. And Eric sounded like a chimpanzee, kinda screaming and baring his teeth.
You know only white people camp, right? … Camping, hiking… all that is a white thing. Black people, Mexicans, Latinos, whatever, we don’t do shit like that… It’s rich people pretending to be poor. Sleeping outside. Eating on the ground and shit. Only white people are crazy enough to play homeless for fun. All ‘getting in touch with nature.’ Brown people, uh-uh. We don’t pretend. We don’t get in touch with nothing.
My Review:
Wow, this was a tense, insightfully observant, and all too realistic and disturbing revelation of the unchecked inhumanity and brutality once terror and lawlessness are unleashed following a natural disaster.
Dessa was socializing with friends on one side of LA while her toddler was at home with a new babysitter when an earthquake rips the town apart. The challenges from the lack of resources, destruction, and environmental hazards were a lesser impediment to her attempts to return to her child than the dangerous, surreal, malicious, and uninhibited cruelty and barbarism of the citizens she encountered along the way.
Bridget Foley ever so aptly captured the fractured underbelly of all levels of society while exposing their anxious inner musings, memories, biased observations, regrets, poor choices, and base natures. The storylines were fraught with distress and taut with angst and impending peril with each encounter. It was riveting, exhausting, compelling, and disheartening, and oh so shrewdly and cunningly paced. Ms. Foley is quite the storyteller, but her evocative words are not ones I’d want to peruse before heading off to the land of nod least I thrash in my sleep.
Sometimes there is a recognition between two people that hastens their transition from strangers to friends. Like falling in love, but without the hormones.
It will be chaos for days. Weeks. There will be looting. Riots. The earthquake isn’t the real disaster, Dessa. The disaster is what happens after.
What must it be like to have that power? To not be afraid, but to have others be afraid of you? Not just right now on this dark street, but on all the dark streets.
Beegie’d never thought of it before, but she realized most people sounded like animals when they laughed; Barb sounded like a donkey, brays with big deep breaths in between. And Eric sounded like a chimpanzee, kinda screaming and baring his teeth.
You know only white people camp, right? … Camping, hiking… all that is a white thing. Black people, Mexicans, Latinos, whatever, we don’t do shit like that… It’s rich people pretending to be poor. Sleeping outside. Eating on the ground and shit. Only white people are crazy enough to play homeless for fun. All ‘getting in touch with nature.’ Brown people, uh-uh. We don’t pretend. We don’t get in touch with nothing.
My Review:
Wow, this was a tense, insightfully observant, and all too realistic and disturbing revelation of the unchecked inhumanity and brutality once terror and lawlessness are unleashed following a natural disaster.
Dessa was socializing with friends on one side of LA while her toddler was at home with a new babysitter when an earthquake rips the town apart. The challenges from the lack of resources, destruction, and environmental hazards were a lesser impediment to her attempts to return to her child than the dangerous, surreal, malicious, and uninhibited cruelty and barbarism of the citizens she encountered along the way.
Bridget Foley ever so aptly captured the fractured underbelly of all levels of society while exposing their anxious inner musings, memories, biased observations, regrets, poor choices, and base natures. The storylines were fraught with distress and taut with angst and impending peril with each encounter. It was riveting, exhausting, compelling, and disheartening, and oh so shrewdly and cunningly paced. Ms. Foley is quite the storyteller, but her evocative words are not ones I’d want to peruse before heading off to the land of nod least I thrash in my sleep.
April 11, 2021
When an earthquake hits Los Angeles, Dessa finds that she is too far from her two-year-old daughter Ollie. Dessa left Ollie with a new babysitter for an unusual night out. The earthquake had immediate devastating effects that traumatize Dessa, but she remains laser focused on getting to Ollie.
Another person dealing with the earthquake in this story is Beggie, a teen foster child who was riding around on public transportation in order to avoid the foster home that she lives in. She is badly treated and thus finds herself away from safety now that she is out on the streets.
Both Dessa and Beggie experience unspeakable horror as they are dealing with the after effects of the earthquake. Dessa is using any means she can to get home to Ollie, and at some point she runs into Beggie. The two reach an unspeakable pact and begin traveling together. Dessa just wants to get home, and tries many times to contact Ollie and the babysitter by cell phone. However, with cell towers being down, Dessa is left in the dark as to the safety of her toddler.
Beggie's journey is of a different nature, and what ensues is a sad look at her tragic past. Her connection to Dessa during this tumultuous journey is wrought with danger, but they unite in a way that reaches the deepest levels, both of sadness and trust.
Just Get Home is a tension-filled, dramatic and emotional read that was utterly compelling. I was very drawn to both Dessa and Beggie and their individual plights, as well as what ultimately brought them together. As a mother, I could only imagine being separated from my young child due to distance and tragedy, all the while finding unbelievable strength to get to my child.
I don't read many disaster books, but this one was truly exceptional. The writing was remarkable, the character development was fabulous and the pacing was precise. The emotional edge in this story never once let up, thus giving me all the feels in this amazing book that I simply could not put down.
Many thanks to MIRA and to NetGalley for this ARC for review. This is my honest opinion.
Another person dealing with the earthquake in this story is Beggie, a teen foster child who was riding around on public transportation in order to avoid the foster home that she lives in. She is badly treated and thus finds herself away from safety now that she is out on the streets.
Both Dessa and Beggie experience unspeakable horror as they are dealing with the after effects of the earthquake. Dessa is using any means she can to get home to Ollie, and at some point she runs into Beggie. The two reach an unspeakable pact and begin traveling together. Dessa just wants to get home, and tries many times to contact Ollie and the babysitter by cell phone. However, with cell towers being down, Dessa is left in the dark as to the safety of her toddler.
Beggie's journey is of a different nature, and what ensues is a sad look at her tragic past. Her connection to Dessa during this tumultuous journey is wrought with danger, but they unite in a way that reaches the deepest levels, both of sadness and trust.
Just Get Home is a tension-filled, dramatic and emotional read that was utterly compelling. I was very drawn to both Dessa and Beggie and their individual plights, as well as what ultimately brought them together. As a mother, I could only imagine being separated from my young child due to distance and tragedy, all the while finding unbelievable strength to get to my child.
I don't read many disaster books, but this one was truly exceptional. The writing was remarkable, the character development was fabulous and the pacing was precise. The emotional edge in this story never once let up, thus giving me all the feels in this amazing book that I simply could not put down.
Many thanks to MIRA and to NetGalley for this ARC for review. This is my honest opinion.
May 6, 2021
❐ Overall Rating 4¼⭐ | Narration 😁 = Very Good
❐ Narrated by Abby Marks & LaQuita James
❐ Listening Length: 9H 6M
❐ Natural Disaster Survival Story
❐ Los Angeles Earthquake --The big one??
❐ Dual Point of Views
Fraught with danger and life or death decisions...a look at what might happen when the big one hits from the point of view of one woman and one teenage girl.
The descriptions especially when the earthquake first hit were daunting and easy for me to picture in my mind. At least from the POV of Dessa. I was cringing right along with her. The other POV, Beegee’s, was always five steps behind Dessa’s POV, which confused me. Thankfully though it doesn’t take long for their paths to cross and then they’re on the same timeline.
Dessa is determined to just get home to her daughter and those three words become her mantra...Beegee just wants a place to belong...together they brave the streets of LA and along the way they forge a bond that gives them each the wherewithal they need to attain what they both need most.
🅒🅐🅦🅟🅘🅛🅔 8.43/❿
🅒haracters ￫ 8.5
🅐tmosphere ￫ 8
🅦riting ￫ 9
🅟lot ￫ 7.5
🅘ntrigue ￫ 9
🅛ogic ￫ 9
🅔njoyment ￫ 8
❐ Narrated by Abby Marks & LaQuita James
❐ Listening Length: 9H 6M
❐ Natural Disaster Survival Story
❐ Los Angeles Earthquake --The big one??
❐ Dual Point of Views
Fraught with danger and life or death decisions...a look at what might happen when the big one hits from the point of view of one woman and one teenage girl.
The descriptions especially when the earthquake first hit were daunting and easy for me to picture in my mind. At least from the POV of Dessa. I was cringing right along with her. The other POV, Beegee’s, was always five steps behind Dessa’s POV, which confused me. Thankfully though it doesn’t take long for their paths to cross and then they’re on the same timeline.
Dessa is determined to just get home to her daughter and those three words become her mantra...Beegee just wants a place to belong...together they brave the streets of LA and along the way they forge a bond that gives them each the wherewithal they need to attain what they both need most.
🅒🅐🅦🅟🅘🅛🅔 8.43/❿
🅒haracters ￫ 8.5
🅐tmosphere ￫ 8
🅦riting ￫ 9
🅟lot ￫ 7.5
🅘ntrigue ￫ 9
🅛ogic ￫ 9
🅔njoyment ￫ 8
March 27, 2021
Just Get Home by Bridget Foley is a highly recommended heart-pounding thriller of a disaster novel.
“All that stuff about making sure you have enough bottled water and a bugout bag? It’s horse pucky. Propaganda to make it seem like the people in charge can do anything about it. Just wait patiently, Good Citizen. Help will arrive.” She saluted, the cherry tip of her cigarette making an arc through the air. “When it happens... It will be chaos for days. Weeks. There will be looting. Riots. The earthquake isn’t the real disaster, Dessa. The disaster is what happens after.”
Dessa is a single mom living in Van Nuys, California, who is having a rare girl's night out. She has her three-year-old daughter, Olivia, all ready for bedtime when the new babysitter arrives and she heads to downtown Los Angeles to meet her friends. She is leaving the restaurant/bar where she met her friends when the ground first begins to shake. Beegie is a young teenage girl who is escaping her current foster mother by riding the bus. She returns to her previous foster home to collect her things that the sexually abusive older son took from her and then gets back on the bus, planning to ride it all night. Beegie is on the bus when the earthquake hits.
These two women end up helping each other survive after the Big One hits Los Angeles. Dessa has one goal - to get home to her daughter and make sure she is okay. While trying to get home, Dessa witnessed Beegie being raped. She hid, uncertain how to help the girl and then didn't see her afterward. Beegie, however, finds a way to stop the man she saw attacking Dessa. Dessa recognizes her purse and knows she is the girl she saw, although she does not say anything to Beegie. The two travel together, trying to get home, as the streets become increasingly dangerous.
Both Dessa and Beegie compartmentalization their lives. Sure, they are compartmentalizing very different things, and live very different lives but they share this approach to life and the challenges they face. This probably helps them as they work together to get home, although if home is an answer or safe or there is a question always present. Foley does a great job developing these two characters, making them individuals but also showing their inner thoughts and a basis for their friendship through the trauma and ordeals they both experience.
The pace of the plot moves quickly through all the different challenges and encounters the women face in this natural disaster novel of the predicted Big One finally hitting California. This is a survival novel featuring two females overcoming the disaster and fighting their way through insurmountable odds to find their way to safety, or, for Dessa, back home to her daughter. Obviously, Dessa displays a strong example of the maternal bond and how mothers will try to overcome all odds to make sure their children are safe.
Disclosure: My review copy was courtesy of MIRA Books in exchange for my honest opinion.
http://www.shetreadssoftly.com/2021/0...
“All that stuff about making sure you have enough bottled water and a bugout bag? It’s horse pucky. Propaganda to make it seem like the people in charge can do anything about it. Just wait patiently, Good Citizen. Help will arrive.” She saluted, the cherry tip of her cigarette making an arc through the air. “When it happens... It will be chaos for days. Weeks. There will be looting. Riots. The earthquake isn’t the real disaster, Dessa. The disaster is what happens after.”
Dessa is a single mom living in Van Nuys, California, who is having a rare girl's night out. She has her three-year-old daughter, Olivia, all ready for bedtime when the new babysitter arrives and she heads to downtown Los Angeles to meet her friends. She is leaving the restaurant/bar where she met her friends when the ground first begins to shake. Beegie is a young teenage girl who is escaping her current foster mother by riding the bus. She returns to her previous foster home to collect her things that the sexually abusive older son took from her and then gets back on the bus, planning to ride it all night. Beegie is on the bus when the earthquake hits.
These two women end up helping each other survive after the Big One hits Los Angeles. Dessa has one goal - to get home to her daughter and make sure she is okay. While trying to get home, Dessa witnessed Beegie being raped. She hid, uncertain how to help the girl and then didn't see her afterward. Beegie, however, finds a way to stop the man she saw attacking Dessa. Dessa recognizes her purse and knows she is the girl she saw, although she does not say anything to Beegie. The two travel together, trying to get home, as the streets become increasingly dangerous.
Both Dessa and Beegie compartmentalization their lives. Sure, they are compartmentalizing very different things, and live very different lives but they share this approach to life and the challenges they face. This probably helps them as they work together to get home, although if home is an answer or safe or there is a question always present. Foley does a great job developing these two characters, making them individuals but also showing their inner thoughts and a basis for their friendship through the trauma and ordeals they both experience.
The pace of the plot moves quickly through all the different challenges and encounters the women face in this natural disaster novel of the predicted Big One finally hitting California. This is a survival novel featuring two females overcoming the disaster and fighting their way through insurmountable odds to find their way to safety, or, for Dessa, back home to her daughter. Obviously, Dessa displays a strong example of the maternal bond and how mothers will try to overcome all odds to make sure their children are safe.
Disclosure: My review copy was courtesy of MIRA Books in exchange for my honest opinion.
http://www.shetreadssoftly.com/2021/0...
January 10, 2023
This story was somehow both exactly what I expected and not what I expected at the same time. A lot of what I expected to happen did, but there were a couple parts that caught me by surprise. I had to suspend disbelief at times, but I was ok with that. Other parts were very real and could be a bit difficult to read.
I really enjoyed Bridget Foley's writing and will be interested to read more of her writing.
I listened to the audio that was very well narrated by Abby Marks and LaQuita James. I thought both narrators did a great job with their respective characters.
3.5★
I really enjoyed Bridget Foley's writing and will be interested to read more of her writing.
I listened to the audio that was very well narrated by Abby Marks and LaQuita James. I thought both narrators did a great job with their respective characters.
3.5★
April 22, 2021
Dnf, didn’t care for it with sex and violence, quit quickly....
May 13, 2021
It was riveting...exhausting...compelling...and disheartening... and oh so shrewdly and cunningly paced. I have to say that Bridget Foley is quite the storyteller. Dessa is enjoying a rare night out when an earthquake strikes. Anxious to get home to her daughter...Dessa learns that sometimes we have no control over our lives no matter what we try to do. Fate throws Dessa a curve when the victim of one of the crimes that the chaos has unleashed ...a smart-talking 15-year-old foster kid named Beegie... shows up in the role of savior, linking the pair together. Beegie is an obviously very troubled young girl with a relentless sense of humor and a resilient spirit that enables them both to survive. Both learn to rely on each other in ways they never imagined possible, to permit vulnerability, and embrace the truth of their own lives. A bit longer than it really needed to be but a very enjoyable story.
February 8, 2021
There are a litany of trigger warnings for this book. TW: rape, sexual assault, earthquake/natural disaster, suicide, abuse, rats, dementia, general violence?, child abuse, guns, physical assault, death
This story is incredibly done. It was visceral. My anxiety spiked, my breathing was rapid, I was right there with them, experiencing this with them. This is a difficult read for many of the topics in the trigger warnings. There’s probably more that I didn’t even pick up on. I think if you can handle them, this is absolutely worth the read.
This story is incredibly done. It was visceral. My anxiety spiked, my breathing was rapid, I was right there with them, experiencing this with them. This is a difficult read for many of the topics in the trigger warnings. There’s probably more that I didn’t even pick up on. I think if you can handle them, this is absolutely worth the read.
March 23, 2021
Book: Just Get Home
Author: Bridget Foley
Rating: 4 Out of 5 Stars
I would like to thank the publisher, Mira Books, for sending me an ARC.
I’m just going to be honest. I had no idea what to really expect when I picked this one up. I was actually surprised at how much I enjoyed this one. It was super fast paced and action packed. It gave me more movie vibes than it did book vibes. It’s not a bad thing though. I loved how fast paced this was.
The plot was pretty simple. As the title implies, it is about a woman and her quest to get home. An earthquake as struck and the main quest of the woman is to get home to her daughter. Throughout the whole book, the quest remains clear. Not only do we have the journey of a mother to get back to her daughter, we also get to see what a disaster can do to a person. We see her hide when something terrible happens to another woman. We see the best of people come out as well as the worse. We get to see people just doing anything that have to survive. Some of the things in this book are going to leave you with a sick feeling in your stomach. Yet, at the same time, it will really make you question yourself and make you wonder what you would have done had you been put into the same situation as these characters.
We have a very small cast of characters. I was fine with this. In a disaster story, you really don’t need a huge cast of characters, at least that’s what I think. By having a small cast of characters, you are given the chance to really form deep bonds with them. You get a chance to truly experience the events with them. You will find yourself cheer for them and will feel all of their pains. I like getting all of these feelings from my books. It shows me that I am fully invested in what is going on.
The reason I gave this a four star instead of a five star was because, even though I enjoyed it, I just felt that this storyline has been done before. While it is a pretty strong novel, it just felt like we’ve seen both this plot and characters before. I would have liked to see something a little bit different or the ending go a different direction than it did.
Anyway, I had a fun time with this one. It comes out on April 13, 2021.
Youtube: https://youtu.be/QPeuWpl0grc
Author: Bridget Foley
Rating: 4 Out of 5 Stars
I would like to thank the publisher, Mira Books, for sending me an ARC.
I’m just going to be honest. I had no idea what to really expect when I picked this one up. I was actually surprised at how much I enjoyed this one. It was super fast paced and action packed. It gave me more movie vibes than it did book vibes. It’s not a bad thing though. I loved how fast paced this was.
The plot was pretty simple. As the title implies, it is about a woman and her quest to get home. An earthquake as struck and the main quest of the woman is to get home to her daughter. Throughout the whole book, the quest remains clear. Not only do we have the journey of a mother to get back to her daughter, we also get to see what a disaster can do to a person. We see her hide when something terrible happens to another woman. We see the best of people come out as well as the worse. We get to see people just doing anything that have to survive. Some of the things in this book are going to leave you with a sick feeling in your stomach. Yet, at the same time, it will really make you question yourself and make you wonder what you would have done had you been put into the same situation as these characters.
We have a very small cast of characters. I was fine with this. In a disaster story, you really don’t need a huge cast of characters, at least that’s what I think. By having a small cast of characters, you are given the chance to really form deep bonds with them. You get a chance to truly experience the events with them. You will find yourself cheer for them and will feel all of their pains. I like getting all of these feelings from my books. It shows me that I am fully invested in what is going on.
The reason I gave this a four star instead of a five star was because, even though I enjoyed it, I just felt that this storyline has been done before. While it is a pretty strong novel, it just felt like we’ve seen both this plot and characters before. I would have liked to see something a little bit different or the ending go a different direction than it did.
Anyway, I had a fun time with this one. It comes out on April 13, 2021.
Youtube: https://youtu.be/QPeuWpl0grc
January 2, 2022
Just Get Home is a tension-filled, dramatic and emotional read.The writing was remarkable, the character development was great and the pace was perfect The emotional parts in this story never once let up and because of this I simply could not put down.
August 9, 2022
Dessa attends a bachelorette party, leaving her toddler with a new babysitter. Beegie leaves her foster home, waiting for the argument with her uncaring foster mother to die down. While these two strangers are away from home an earthquake hits Los Angelos. The big one. And what follows should be crazy gripping. I expected not to be able to put this one down but it didn’t have quite that much momentum for me. I liked the book but it turns out that while the earthquake was traumatizing, the bigger problem for these characters was humanity.
The author offers up a subtle look at privilege which was pretty interesting but I struggled with her portrayal of men. There wasn’t a single good man in this book. And while it’s very real the way women need to be cautious around strange men, there was a ton of violence against Dessa and Beegie in this story. Even the father of Dessa’s toddler was a low-level man and I do not believe all men are this awful.
However, this was a good story that picked up momentum and my interest in the final third of the book. And even though the ending was a bit predictable, I was happy with it.
The author offers up a subtle look at privilege which was pretty interesting but I struggled with her portrayal of men. There wasn’t a single good man in this book. And while it’s very real the way women need to be cautious around strange men, there was a ton of violence against Dessa and Beegie in this story. Even the father of Dessa’s toddler was a low-level man and I do not believe all men are this awful.
However, this was a good story that picked up momentum and my interest in the final third of the book. And even though the ending was a bit predictable, I was happy with it.
February 21, 2021
What a thrilling and action packed read! I really loved Dessa and Beegie! There were many tense moments throughout where I was unsure what would happen next. I always love books where characters from different walks of live meet up and go trough a difficult journey together. This book was very well done.
February 7, 2021
Thank you to NetGalley, Bridget Foley and Harlequin for the free e-book in exchange for an honest review.
I struggled with the beginning of this book for some reason, there is plenty of action and it is interesting, but I just didn't connect with either character on their own and I almost gave up. But I am glad that I didn't. I pushed through and once you get a little further in, it gets much more interesting and I really enjoyed the characters together and how they pushed, but yet supported one another. There were so many pulse pounding moments in the last half and I rushed right through it to see if they would get a happy ending. Definitely recommend to those who like a slower paced thriller with lots of action.
I struggled with the beginning of this book for some reason, there is plenty of action and it is interesting, but I just didn't connect with either character on their own and I almost gave up. But I am glad that I didn't. I pushed through and once you get a little further in, it gets much more interesting and I really enjoyed the characters together and how they pushed, but yet supported one another. There were so many pulse pounding moments in the last half and I rushed right through it to see if they would get a happy ending. Definitely recommend to those who like a slower paced thriller with lots of action.
April 5, 2021
Just Get Home by Bridget Foley is a thriller that held me in its grip even when I desperately wanted to run and hide.
What I Liked
The intensity of the story is absolutely incredible. Human predators and animal predators abound in this epic survival tale of the aftermath of a natural disaster. The horror of the LA earthquake is described so well that I felt like I was there experiencing it with Dessa and Beegie. At various points, I didn’t know if I could take it anymore. The story wouldn’t let me turn away, though. I sped through the pages hoping that there was a light at the end of the tunnel that I was in – a rat-infested, quickly filling with water tunnel.
I loved how well the characters of Dessa and Beegie are developed. No aspect of their persona was left unexplored. It resulted in two characters who inspired empathy and a determination to survive. The many layers of bother characters are raw and tragic, and I want to say their plights were unbelievable. Still, I know they are both genuine for people in our society. My heart bled for both of them as their stories unfolded. They found each other during such a tragic time.
This story has all the violent triggers – including sexual - so readers need to know they are picking up a graphically intense tale. If they have any problems with triggers, they need to proceed with caution. I felt like I almost developed triggers where none existed from the power of this tale. I don’t often include trigger warnings, but I think they are needed before entering this novel’s world.
I’m leaving this review relatively short, as there are so many spoilers that I do not want to give away, but that is in no way reflective of how much this story holds between the covers. I could write pages upon pages about it if I did include spoilers.
To Read or Not to Read
If you can handle the power of a survival story that feels disturbingly real and offers so much to take away, this is a novel that you won’t want to miss!
What I Liked
The intensity of the story is absolutely incredible. Human predators and animal predators abound in this epic survival tale of the aftermath of a natural disaster. The horror of the LA earthquake is described so well that I felt like I was there experiencing it with Dessa and Beegie. At various points, I didn’t know if I could take it anymore. The story wouldn’t let me turn away, though. I sped through the pages hoping that there was a light at the end of the tunnel that I was in – a rat-infested, quickly filling with water tunnel.
I loved how well the characters of Dessa and Beegie are developed. No aspect of their persona was left unexplored. It resulted in two characters who inspired empathy and a determination to survive. The many layers of bother characters are raw and tragic, and I want to say their plights were unbelievable. Still, I know they are both genuine for people in our society. My heart bled for both of them as their stories unfolded. They found each other during such a tragic time.
This story has all the violent triggers – including sexual - so readers need to know they are picking up a graphically intense tale. If they have any problems with triggers, they need to proceed with caution. I felt like I almost developed triggers where none existed from the power of this tale. I don’t often include trigger warnings, but I think they are needed before entering this novel’s world.
I’m leaving this review relatively short, as there are so many spoilers that I do not want to give away, but that is in no way reflective of how much this story holds between the covers. I could write pages upon pages about it if I did include spoilers.
To Read or Not to Read
If you can handle the power of a survival story that feels disturbingly real and offers so much to take away, this is a novel that you won’t want to miss!
June 15, 2021
I really enjoyed this, but I think marketing it as a thriller is an odd choice. There wasn't a huge amount of suspense for me, and I wasn't anxious for the characters, though I did care about what happened to them. I would consider this literary fiction.
July 22, 2021
Dessa goes out with her friends, only to get caught in an earthquake. Desperate to get home to her daughter, she meets up with Beegie, and they make the journey against all odds.
Trigger warning for rape.
Trigger warning for rape.
June 20, 2021
An intense and complicated story!
The two main characters already have a complicated life in different ways. Add an earthquake and then lawlessness and sheer desperation to the mix and all kinds of different issues come up. The will to survive is so strong and these two connect and help each other to get to safety. There are some things that are said and are obvious in this story and there are other things, painful and sad, that are known, but best not projected outward as the family tries to get back to rebuilding and trying to live a new life. Some people are gone. Pieces are missing. The city is destroyed. One can only move forward and be grateful with what they’ve got, what they’ve saved.
The two main characters already have a complicated life in different ways. Add an earthquake and then lawlessness and sheer desperation to the mix and all kinds of different issues come up. The will to survive is so strong and these two connect and help each other to get to safety. There are some things that are said and are obvious in this story and there are other things, painful and sad, that are known, but best not projected outward as the family tries to get back to rebuilding and trying to live a new life. Some people are gone. Pieces are missing. The city is destroyed. One can only move forward and be grateful with what they’ve got, what they’ve saved.
March 30, 2021
This book was emotionally charged. As a mother, I was in a state hoping Dessa finds her way home to her daughter and my heart broke for Beegie.
Set in California after the big one hits these two women on a chance encounter team up to get home. Though danger lurks around every corner the women learn to focus and move forward.
I was on the edge of my seat throughout this book. The author did not leave one emotion untouched from fear stemming from assault and natural disaster to the love of a mother for her daughter. I was an emotional wreck reading this book.
The author did a brilliant job capturing the emotions and relaying them through Beegie and Dessa. As a mother, I could not imagine having to go through what Dessa did to find her way home. Nor could I even have dreamed a child could suffer as Beegie did.
This book is worth a read but be prepared to take a huge rollercoaster ride through your emtions.
Set in California after the big one hits these two women on a chance encounter team up to get home. Though danger lurks around every corner the women learn to focus and move forward.
I was on the edge of my seat throughout this book. The author did not leave one emotion untouched from fear stemming from assault and natural disaster to the love of a mother for her daughter. I was an emotional wreck reading this book.
The author did a brilliant job capturing the emotions and relaying them through Beegie and Dessa. As a mother, I could not imagine having to go through what Dessa did to find her way home. Nor could I even have dreamed a child could suffer as Beegie did.
This book is worth a read but be prepared to take a huge rollercoaster ride through your emtions.
August 7, 2021
Books based around a natural disaster are always fun to read. This one featured the characters of Dessa and Beegie, the former a white single mother of a toddler, and the other a 15-year-old unwanted black girl who’s a ward of the state. A catastrophic earthquake in Los Angeles causes the two of them to cross paths and join forces to get back to their neighborhoods. There are many barriers, both physical and otherwise, in their path. Along the way they form a bond which goes beyond survival.
February 7, 2021
4.5 stars. This was such a page-turner that I read it in 2 days even with my kids demanding attention! A taut, engaging thriller but also layered with deeper themes of patriarchal dynamics and racial inequities. And though the main characters are a white woman and a Black teenager who is in foster care, it does not fall into the despicable “white savior” trope (even mocking this at one point in the narrative). Definitely recommend!
September 17, 2021
I liked the premise of the book, so I took a chance. It sounded sort of post-apocalyptic without the apocalypse (just a big earthquake) or the pseudo-science. It's your basic disaster movie/earthquake thriller. I only got a third of the way through before giving up. The entire storyline was nothing but nastiness- child abuse, rape, looters, bullying, sadism. I can only give it two stars because it was readable if you can stand the content.
April 10, 2021
Finished reading: April 8th 2021
"It could be her mantra. Something she could say with every step. A walking prayer. Just. Get. Home. Each word a footfall."
*** A copy of this book was kindly provided to me by Netgalley and MIRA in exchange for an honest review. Thank you! ***
P.S. Find more of my reviews here.
April 16, 2021
Dessa, mum to three-year-old Olivia, hasn't had a night out for ages. She receives an invitation to go for dinner from her friends Heidi, Gretchen and Laurel. The women met in Venice Beach, California, while they were students at University. The evening is a hen night for Heidi who is soon to be married and after their meal, they head off to a club for dancing. Sipping her drink and realising she is drinking her cocktail more quickly than she should be she heads outside and takes a call from her babysitter, who relays the news that Olivia is sick. Dessa rings Joe, Olivia's father and starts to walk home when a devastating earthquake strikes. The earthquake had immediate calamitous effects that threaten to overwhelm Dessa, but she remains focused on getting to Olivia. Meanwhile, streetwise Beegie, fifteen, wakes up in a world where everything has turned white and someone is calling her Queen Elizabeth. She had been travelling on a bus to avoid the foster home she lives in but is badly treated in the hours immediately following the earthquake. Both Dessa and Beegie continue to experience gross abomination as they deal with the earthquake's after-effects.
Set In LA, main protagonist Dessa, a single mother working full time, has a complicated relationship with Olivia's dad. The other main character is spirited teenager Beegie who is wise beyond her years and has been in many foster homes. A lot of hurt has arrived at her door from her various foster caregivers, and she is a traumatised young woman. The reader meets her as she is deciding to take the night off from her domineering foster mother, Barb. Beegie has been through some dreadful experiences in her young life and endured other life-changing events such as the death of those dear to her.
Dessa and Beegie meet and support each other throughout the days after the earthquake. A novel about relationships, some weighty topics are mixed into the melting pot and I couldn’t put this book down. There was always something going on, along with some truly terrifying episodes and Bridget Foley's portrayal of Beegie and Dessa's gamut of emotions were so well portrayed that I felt as though I could envision what these characters were living through. A super, compelling, engrossing and highly affecting novel that, in my opinion, is a must-read.
A special thank you to MIRA Books and the author for a complimentary copy of this novel at my request, received via NetGalley. This review is my unbiased opinion.
Set In LA, main protagonist Dessa, a single mother working full time, has a complicated relationship with Olivia's dad. The other main character is spirited teenager Beegie who is wise beyond her years and has been in many foster homes. A lot of hurt has arrived at her door from her various foster caregivers, and she is a traumatised young woman. The reader meets her as she is deciding to take the night off from her domineering foster mother, Barb. Beegie has been through some dreadful experiences in her young life and endured other life-changing events such as the death of those dear to her.
Dessa and Beegie meet and support each other throughout the days after the earthquake. A novel about relationships, some weighty topics are mixed into the melting pot and I couldn’t put this book down. There was always something going on, along with some truly terrifying episodes and Bridget Foley's portrayal of Beegie and Dessa's gamut of emotions were so well portrayed that I felt as though I could envision what these characters were living through. A super, compelling, engrossing and highly affecting novel that, in my opinion, is a must-read.
A special thank you to MIRA Books and the author for a complimentary copy of this novel at my request, received via NetGalley. This review is my unbiased opinion.
October 1, 2022
Marvelous storytelling.
An earthquake strikes a popular city and we follow the stories of Beegie and Dessa as they navigate the aftermath.
It wasn't a convenient time for anyone as natural disasters happen sometimes without warning. What happens next is finding out your limits on what you'll do to survive. I think it's interesting the complexities of human nature explored in this novel. The duality of the main characters from contrasting backgrounds is also a nuanced discussion they have in the book which I found to be realistic and noteworthy.
The obstacles the girls face are terrifying and often not daily occurrences, like the zoo scenes for example. We witness tragedy, trauma, togetherness, confusion, disgust, and formulate questions while accompanying Beegie and Dessa on their journey home, where they discover is not in the literal sense.
I feel like I related to Beegie in the respect where I want to find belonging but for her it's been a lifelong struggle moving from foster home to foster home after once living with her mom and then losing her. With Dessa, you constantly see references to her childhood and soured relationship with her mother. I love how the author includes these backstories because they give the characters more depth than simply attributing them as victims.
Another inclusion by the author I found beautiful was that before any major event in the story, the author will go back in time to a similary faced incident to show how the character reacted and then snaps back to current reality. It adds more to the scene then simply describing what is going on at the moment. A person can change, and these characters do fundamentally change as a result of this disaster. Overall, a good read.
An earthquake strikes a popular city and we follow the stories of Beegie and Dessa as they navigate the aftermath.
It wasn't a convenient time for anyone as natural disasters happen sometimes without warning. What happens next is finding out your limits on what you'll do to survive. I think it's interesting the complexities of human nature explored in this novel. The duality of the main characters from contrasting backgrounds is also a nuanced discussion they have in the book which I found to be realistic and noteworthy.
The obstacles the girls face are terrifying and often not daily occurrences, like the zoo scenes for example. We witness tragedy, trauma, togetherness, confusion, disgust, and formulate questions while accompanying Beegie and Dessa on their journey home, where they discover is not in the literal sense.
I feel like I related to Beegie in the respect where I want to find belonging but for her it's been a lifelong struggle moving from foster home to foster home after once living with her mom and then losing her. With Dessa, you constantly see references to her childhood and soured relationship with her mother. I love how the author includes these backstories because they give the characters more depth than simply attributing them as victims.
Another inclusion by the author I found beautiful was that before any major event in the story, the author will go back in time to a similary faced incident to show how the character reacted and then snaps back to current reality. It adds more to the scene then simply describing what is going on at the moment. A person can change, and these characters do fundamentally change as a result of this disaster. Overall, a good read.
May 10, 2021
Thrown together amidst chaos, two strangers from completely different walks of life must come to each other's aid.
Dessa had gone to a party, and Beegie had been riding a city bus, when the “Big One” struck Los Angeles, a massive earthquake that wiped out the downtown district and destroyed countless houses and businesses.
Dessa’s car has been crushed, and she has no choice but to walk back to her apartment, a distance of about 20 miles. Beegie’s bus is totaled, and she, too, must continue her journey on foot. Dessa needs to find her way back home to get to her little girl, who she left with a babysitter, while Beegie must return to her foster home. It’s a perilous trek, not only because of the fallen debris and the chances of aftershocks causing more damage, but because it seems the whole city has gone crazy.
When Dessa and Beegie come together unexpectedly, they must help each other survive and achieve some semblance of order.
Author Bridget Foley tackles many subjects in JUST GET HOME: disaster preparedness (or the lack thereof), cultural and economic differences, racism and racial prejudices, violence, infidelity, friendship and foster care. These issues are seamlessly woven into the narrative, but they are addressed in such a way as to force readers to confront them on some level.
The story is told from the alternate points of view of Dessa and Beegie, which provides a fuller glimpse into their minds. Short chapters and fast-paced writing, well-developed characters and a compelling storyline make it a memorable read that book clubs will want to discuss.
Reviewed by Christine M. Irvin
Dessa had gone to a party, and Beegie had been riding a city bus, when the “Big One” struck Los Angeles, a massive earthquake that wiped out the downtown district and destroyed countless houses and businesses.
Dessa’s car has been crushed, and she has no choice but to walk back to her apartment, a distance of about 20 miles. Beegie’s bus is totaled, and she, too, must continue her journey on foot. Dessa needs to find her way back home to get to her little girl, who she left with a babysitter, while Beegie must return to her foster home. It’s a perilous trek, not only because of the fallen debris and the chances of aftershocks causing more damage, but because it seems the whole city has gone crazy.
When Dessa and Beegie come together unexpectedly, they must help each other survive and achieve some semblance of order.
Author Bridget Foley tackles many subjects in JUST GET HOME: disaster preparedness (or the lack thereof), cultural and economic differences, racism and racial prejudices, violence, infidelity, friendship and foster care. These issues are seamlessly woven into the narrative, but they are addressed in such a way as to force readers to confront them on some level.
The story is told from the alternate points of view of Dessa and Beegie, which provides a fuller glimpse into their minds. Short chapters and fast-paced writing, well-developed characters and a compelling storyline make it a memorable read that book clubs will want to discuss.
Reviewed by Christine M. Irvin
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