Book Review: Don’t Let Me Go by Catherine Ryan Hyde

Don’t Let Me Go by Catherine Ryan Hyde
My rating: 4.5 of 5 stars
Publisher: Audible Studios
Release Date: February 10, 2015

Publisher’s Description:

Former Broadway dancer and current agoraphobic Billy Shine has not set foot outside his apartment in almost a decade. He has glimpsed his neighbors—beautiful manicurist Rayleen, lonely old Ms. Hinman, bigoted and angry Mr. Lafferty, kind-hearted Felipe, and 9-year-old Grace and her former addict mother Eileen.

But most of them have never seen Billy. Not until Grace begins to sit outside on the building’s front stoop for hours every day, inches from Billy’s patio. Troubled by this change in the natural order, Billy makes it far enough out onto his porch to ask Grace why she doesn’t sit inside where it’s safe. Her answer: “If I sit inside, then nobody will know I’m in trouble. And then nobody will help me.”

Her answer changes everything.

Don’t Let Me Go is a wonderful story about how a group of strangers living in an apartment building come together to help Grace, a plucky nine-year old girl whose mother is a drug addict. I absolutely fell in love with most of the of the characters, especially Billy. Billy is an agoraphobic. He used to be a dancer but he hasn’t left his apartment in 10 years. He is so sweet and so adorable, I just wanted to hug him close like a teddy bear.

I liked that the cast of characters was diverse. Persons of color are sorely unrepresented in the literary world and it’s always nice when a book includes some.

I listened to the audio version. The book alternates between Billy and Grace’s point of view. Chris Chappell narrates Billy’s voice and Cassandra Morris is Grace’s. I found it interesting that Cassandra read Felipe’s dialogue with a Mexican accent but Chris did not. It didn’t bother me but I wondered why the director made that choice. Cassandra did an excellent job of sounding like a nine-year old girl.

Don’t Let Me Go is heartwarming without being trite, truly a feel good novel although there are certainly suspenseful and sometimes sad moments. Catherine Ryan Hyde is a new author to me. She wrote Pay It Forward, a very popular book that was made into a movie a few years ago. After reading this book, I will definitely be seeking out more of her books.

(I received this audio recording courtesy of the publisher.)