Review: June Bug, by Chris Fabry

In this character-titled story, June Bug and her father live a bohemian life, travelling the country in an RV. Though they have no set address, and no friends or family, JB has always felt secure in her life with her father - until she sees her own photo on the wall of Missing Children at the Walmart where their RV is parked, awaiting repair parts. While surprisingly composed about her discovery, it does spur her desire to learn about her own mother, or at least to find a suitable substitute, and when a lonely Walmart employee offers to let JB and her father stay with her while their RV is repaired, she jumps what she feels is her chance to somehow cobble together a family for herself. Her father, a lonely, haunted man, realizes what she is trying to do, and is forced to make a decision about what their future will be. Meanwhile, across the country, June Bug / Natalie's grandmother has never given up hope of finding her, and clues to the eight year-old crime are literally surfacing in the town she's from.

June Bug has been fairly extensively compared to Les Miserables, the massively popular classic-turned-musical story of a young girl saved and then raised by a pseudo criminal on the run. This is a fair comparison, although whether Fabry intended the parallel or not I'm not sure. I was actually more intrigued with the novel because of this; the entire time I was reading, I was not only interested in the story, but also in matching up the two plots and characters. For their part, the characters were very well crafted, and I was almost equally drawn to all of them as they told their own stories in alternating chapters: the hurt and hopeful grandmother; the town sheriff; June Bug's father; Sheila, the woman who takes them to her home; and of course June Bug herself. The only character who remains silent is June Bug's mother - her story, which is the lynchpin of the entire plot, the reader has to piece together in tantalizing tidbits until the very end of the novel.

Like many works, JB slows somewhat in the third quarter of the story, but Fabry does an excellent job in keeping the reader guessing on the many questions he poses - what happened the night June Bug disappeared? Is her mother telling the truth? Was June Bug's father - if he even is her father - somehow criminally involved? If he wasn't, how did he wind up with the little girl? Why have they been on the run for so long? The suspense builds in many ways; on the one hand, June Bug's father is very likable and seems honorable, so you want them to be able to stay together, but on the other, her grandmother has been pining for her for years, and it's pretty obvious that this is a one-or-the-other situation. Which will it be? I will be honest: I cried when all the questions were finally answered. I am not a big crier, and worse, I was in public when I finished the novel. The ending is both beautiful and heartbreaking.

The small parts of the plot that are far-fetched are far outweighed by the endearing realism of the characters. The plot's similarities to Les Miserable were in the end, I think, somewhat minor, but it was definitely interesting and fun to compare as I read along. It should be noted that the author is fairly well-known for YA religous fiction, and while this is not a religous novel, several of the characters are. It wasn't too obtrusive or preachy, more just an aspect of their lives, particularly due to the part of the country the characters are from, and it could easily be skimmed or even skipped if the reader is really horrified by that kind of thing because it's not a part of the plot. (In addition, this book is perfectly appropriate for YA as well, and my daughter read it before I did, thinking because of the girl on the cover that I had gotten it for her.) I wouldn't be at all surprised to see this novel pop up on TV at some point as a movie, probably unfortunately on Lifetime since they're the ones who seem to do that kind of thing. If that happens, hopefully whatever network produces the film would manage to convey the heartfelt depth that Fabry has given each of the characters and respect the story for itself, and not attempt to shoehorn the LM connection too much.

Rating: four out of five stars - lovely characters, suspenseful mystery, satisfying ending