Tell Me What I Am
A Novel

I’ve grown accustomed to the frivolity of domestic violence storylines. They often anger me. To be clear, they do not trigger me. I cannot be triggered by a fiction that does not remotely resemble truth. As a survivor, I’ve despised seeing the suffering of domestic violence victims morphed into some......more

My Rating: 4⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ heartbreaking and well written EXCELLENT READ!!! It’s 2004 and Deena Garvey disappears leaving behind a daughter and her sister. Deena’s daughter Ruby grows up in an isolated country town in Vermont with her dad who only allows her to call him by his first name. The way she li......more

When Ruby's mother, Deena, disappears unexpectedly over a decadè ago, her estranged partner leaves with their daughter, Ruby, to Vermont. There seems to be no sense of urgency or drama, just the slow progression of years as Ruby grows from a 4 year old to a teenager preparing to go to college. This b......more

Deena Garvey is missing. I find books like Tell Me What I Am almost impossible to review because I fear I’ll sully their very existence simply trying to articulate how wonderful they are. And Tell Me What I Am is magnificent. It hits the reader hard in the solar plexus. It’s intense, beautifully writ......more

I really enjoyed this second novel from author Una Mannion. Set in her native Philadelphia, it’s a gripping psychological family drama about the disappearance of young mother & NICU nurse Deena Garvey. ⁣ ⁣ Deena comes from a close knit Irish American family. Her life changes after she meets the contro......more