When We Believed in Mermaids by Barbara O’Neal
Years ago, a terrorist attack on a train resulted in the death of Josie Bianci. permanently lost. It’s what her sister Kit, an ER physician in Santa Cruz, has consistently held to be true. And Kit’s entire world can be turned upside down in a matter of heartbreaking seconds. The image of a woman struggling through smoke and debris during live coverage of a club fire in Auckland was taken. It’s incredible how much she looks like Josie. Also distinct. It brings with it a wave of feelings, including grief, loss, and rage, which Kit can finally lay to rest by locating the sister who has been lying.
When We Believed in Mermaids by Barbara O'Neal
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When Kit first sets off on her adventure after landing in New Zealand, she is still thinking about the days she spent with Josie at the beach. of a teenage lad who had lost his way and joined their family. And of a traumatic event that has followed Kit and Josie around their whole lives.
The only way for the two sisters to get back together now is by uncovering long-buried secrets and confronting a heartbreaking truth that has kept them apart for far too long. They might have to give up everything in order to repair their relationship.
Seeing her sister Josie on the television news from Auckland, New Zealand, where a club has caught fire, Kit, an ER physician in California, recognizes Josie. So? Her sister passed away fifteen years ago. Kit believes she must travel to New Zealand in order to locate and confront her sister after becoming emotionally torn by feelings of sadness, loss, and rage. Upon arriving in New Zealand, Kit starts to relive her past (through flashbacks): beach days with her sister, surfing, a young boy who was unofficially adopted by the family due to his lost condition, a father and mother who had such a tumultuous marriage that they neglected their children, and a “trauma that has haunted Kit and Josie their entire lives.”
As Josie leads a new life as Mari, fifteen years after she was allegedly killed in a terrorist blast in Europe, you get to learn the same narrative from her as well. There is a lot to work with. The story’s most obvious unanswered question is not whether Kit will locate Josie, but rather what will happen when she does. We are all following the same road to get to this pivotal point in the narrative, but the route there is somewhat akin to driving down Lombard Street in San Francisco, with many curves to navigate.
