THE SOMEDAY DAUGHTER, by Ellen O’Clover, HarperTeen, Feb. 20, 2024, Hardcover, $19.99 (young adult, ages 14 and up)
A teen must put her summer plans on hold to go on a book tour with her mom in The Someday Daughter, by Ellen O’Clover.
Audrey St. Vrain has grown up in the shadow of someone who doesn’t actually exist. Before she was born, her mother, Camilla St. Vrain, wrote the bestselling book Letters to My Someday Daughter, a guide to self-love that advises treating yourself like you would your own hypothetical future daughter. The book made Audrey’s mother a household name, and she built an empire around it.
While the world considers Audrey lucky to have Camilla for a mother, the truth is that Audrey knows a different side of being the someday daughter. Shipped off to boarding school when she was eleven, she feels more like a promotional tool than a member of Camilla’s family. Audrey is determined to create her own identity aside from being Camilla’s daughter, and she’s looking forward to a prestigious summer premed program with her boyfriend before heading to college and finally breaking free from her mother’s world.
But when Camilla asks Audrey to go on tour with her to promote the book’s anniversary, Audrey can’t help but think that this is the last, best chance to figure out how they fit into each other’s lives — not as the someday daughter and someday mother but as themselves, just as they are. What Audrey doesn’t know is that spending the summer with Camilla and her tour staff — including the disarmingly honest, distressingly cute video intern, Silas — will upset everything she’s so carefully planned for her life. —Synopsis provided by HarperTeen
Ellen O’Clover’s The Someday Daughter reads like a character study with a hint of romance.
Audrey can’t help but wonder what the world’s fascination with her mother is. Sure, Camilla says all the “right” stuff in her book, but that’s far from Audrey’s own experience with her. Everything about this summerlong book tour feels manufactured.
Audrey is so laser focused on her dream of becoming a doctor, of maintaining her perfect appearance, that when she falters, she doesn’t know what to do. It’s only when she lets down her walls and lets people help her that she realizes perfection isn’t what she thought.
O’Clover’s exploration of panic attacks, anxiety and depression against the backdrop of multiple relationships are thoughtful and heart wrenching. O’Clover makes you think beyond her novel, and in doing so, makes The Someday Novel stick with you.
The Someday Daughter is not a particularly fast-moving novel, but it’s one that holds interest. It’s complicated. It’s messy. It’s worth your time.
Copyright © 2024 Cracking the Cover. Unless otherwise noted, all books — digital and physical — have been provided by publishers in exchange for honest and unbiased reviews. All thoughts and opinions are those of the reviewer.
