Upon first opening this book, I could not put it down and dreaded the minutes at work because I could be reading. The mystery of Norah, the man with the fedora, and the missing Erica engrossed me, and as I read, it became a mystery not of people but of the guardian angels we never quite come to recognized.

Yet the ending feel short. The mysteries were left just that, but even more so. Who was Una? Who was Norah and where did she come from? What exactly was her purpose, because what I had come to believe was not how it seemed to end.

I guess I wished for a tidier ending, some sort of explanation. And perhaps it was there, and I did not have the faith to see.

This definitely wasn’t as good as the other novel I read by this author. There is a constant tension between Donohue’s very matter-of-fact writing style and the increasingly fantastical occurrences he’s relating. This seems like it might work to the book’s advantage, but instead the two tones fight against each other. Also, it’s fine that we the readers don’t get all the supernatural events explained to us, but I feel that the author didn’t have a handle on them either. It was like he was just throwing out one cool idea after another. Still, the realistic part of the book is a lovely snapshot of Pittsburgh circa 1985, if that’s something you want.

3.5 stars. I was intrigued and the book kept moving for me, but there were definitely some unanswered questions and things left unresolved for me.

I slogged through the whole thing, hoping it would get better, but it just got weirder. The premise was interesting, but the book was slow and the end was preachy. And the whole flying thing turned me off, as did the watcher that apparently was a figment of Margaret's imagination, but everyone else could see it too. Anyway, weird book. But Donohue's "The Stolen Child" was really good.

Well written and unusual, but really not my thing at all.

This book is wild -- it reminds me of Cynthia Ozick's Puttermesser Papers in the sense of the visiting magical being that replaces a child. What's real and what isn't? Donohue surrounds the women in this story with physical reminders, whether real or imagined, of their past decisions and the choices they face now.