Book Review: The Hiding Girl by Dorian Box
The Hiding Girl
Series: Emily Calby Book 1
Author: Dorian Box
Published: June 15, 2020
334 Pages
Reviewed By: Jessica
Dates Read: August 6-18, 2021
Jessica’s Rating: 5 stars
Book Description:
Twelve-year-old Emily Calby was a good girl from a religious family in rural Georgia. She loved softball, her little sister and looking up words to get her allowance. Then two men came and murdered her family. Only the killers know she survived.
On the run, surviving by wits and animal instinct, she makes an unlikely ally in an ex-gang member who lost his own family to violence. He takes her in and trains her in “self-defense” before more tragedy launches her on a terrifying journey for justice. Nothing will stop her—not cops or creeps, not even her own splintering mind. Through it all, Emily fights to hold onto hope and the girl she once knew, kept buried deep inside.
Dark and gritty, but filled with heart and hope, The Hiding Girl is a twisty, fast-paced thriller and a testament to the boundless limits of human love, sacrifice and the will to survive.
Jessica’s Review:
What else can I say about The Hiding Girl by Dorian Box other than wow! It is a fast-paced novel that packs all the punches: Literally and figuratively! The Hiding Girl is dark and gritty with very graphic violence that also gives us characters to root for and become very attached to.
Twelve-year-old Emily Calby survives the graphic attack on her family and is on the run. Emily is definitely not the typical twelve-year-old. Experiencing what she did already ages her and over the course of the novel you have to keep reminding yourself of her young age! She meets Lucas who is a former gang member who helps her and these two definitely make quite the unique pair that form a special relationship. We also have Kiona, who is Lucas’ significant other who isn’t quite sure what to make of Emily. They teach her self defense and more as Emily is determined to find the men who killed her mother and sister.
Emily is one you cannot help but be on her side and get attached to. She is in for a long ‘adventure’ with many obstacles that keep coming up. At one point I found myself thinking “What else is Box going to have Emily go through!?!?” It is one thing after another, but our brave little fireball of a main character Emily can pull through!
And let me say this: I love Lucas! He is not what you expected and you really grow to care for him. As I was reading, I pictured Michael Clarke Duncan (RIP) as Lucas, but then I saw the premiere of The Walking Dead’s final season where we meet Mercer played by Michael James Shaw and despite the age difference, he would be a perfect Lucas!
This novel will not be for everyone with the graphic violence, but it also has a lot of heart and emotion to it. What made me read The Hiding Girl was that I was granted an arc copy of the second in the series The Girl in Cell 49B. I realized when I read the description for book two that I should read The Hiding Girl first. Though not needed as the second book touches on Emily’s back story, if you don’t read The Hiding Girl you will be missing so much! I am currently reading the second and still rooting for Emily!
The Hiding Girl actually fits for the prompt for #Diverseathon for this month, which is a main character in an interracial relationship. The relationship between Emily and Lucas starts as a mentor/mentee relationship that grows into so much more. August’s host is Mary @booksbymary1 and she will host at Instagram.
For full details on this year long read-a-thon, please click here.
And don’t forget about the awesome GRAND PRIZE at the end of the year. Click the link here for that information.
I really enjoyed The Hiding Girl and recommend it and cannot wait to see where Box goes next with the series. He is working on book three and I will be highly anticipating it!