Don't Let Me Go tugs on the heart strings with wonder; it creates smile after unexpected smile. Catherine Ryan Hyde brings the story of drug addiction and its impact on a girl child to our eyes in a warm pool of love, determination, trust, and commitment.
The story takes place in a small insignificant apartment building lost in the invisibility of marginal poverty. Hyde gives us the haunting yet exhilarating voice of a brave young girl and the voice of an insecure and once popular dancing stage performer who lost his nerve and freedom to wonder the world.
The "normalizing" of abandonment and isolation of persons in poverty is turned on its face by Hyde. She places the reader in the hallway of closed doors and bangs on them with vigor as she captures the mind of a young girl teetering between the lightheartedness of childhood and the maturity that buffers her as she faces harsh and possibly emotionally damaging circumstances.
Hyde creatively pours words into the cold compartmentalized environment and leaves in their wake a pulsing warmth that stays with the reader for the entire story.
The cast of characters in the apartment complex rise above and beyond expectations as they confront their own demons in order to save a young woman from what could be a dangerous future. They build trust, friendship, and love as they make commitments and bond over a promise to keep her "safe."
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