A Review of Sorboni Banerjee’s Hide with Me (Razorbill, 2018).

 

I didn’t reach much context for this novel before starting it, so I was perhaps more surprised than usual about what was going on. I also had just finished watching Bird Box, which was a thriller, so I suppose I was in the right mode for this kind of work. I had to make myself stop the novel because it was late, which tells that that this work, Sorboni Banerjee’s Hide with Me (Razorbill, 2018), is immensely readable. That being said, there will no doubt be critiques of the central romance plot, but before I get into the details, let’s let B&N complete some of the set up for us, as per routine: “In the dying cornfields of his family’s farm, seventeen-year-old Cade finds a girl broken and bleeding. She has one request: hide me. Tucked away in an abandoned barn on the edge of the farm, the mysterious Jane Doe starts to heal and details of her past begin to surface. A foster kid looking for a way out, Jane got caught up in the wrong crowd and barely escaped with her life. Cade has a difficult past of his own. He’s been trapped in the border town of Tanner, Texas, his whole life. His dad is a drunk. His mom is gone. Money is running out. Cade is focused on one thing, a football scholarship—his only chance. Cade and Jane spend their nights in the barn planning their escapes, and their days with Cade’s friends: sweet, artistic Mateo and his determined sister Jojo who vows to be president one day. But it’s not that easy to disappear. Just across the border in a city in Mexico lies the life Jane desperately wants to leave behind—a past filled with drugs and danger, information she never wanted, and a cartel boss who is watching her every move. Jane Doe’s past is far from over, and the secret she holds could kill them all.” The request “hide me” is accurate to the book, so readers will immediately notice that the title differs in that major respect. The title caters to the romance plot element that is the grounding point of the narrative. The other major plot point—related to the secret involving Jane Doe and you’re getting your requisite spoiler warning here, so look away while you can—makes this young adult fiction an intriguing addition to the narconarrative. You see: Jane’s on the run from drug dealers in Mexico; her boyfriend, Raff, had been caught up in drug turf wars, and now she is guilty by association. A notorious drug dealer nicknamed the Wolf Club is looking for Jane because she might have some information about a rival’s drug smuggling tunnel, one that allows drugs to flow freely into the United States. But, this context isn’t revealed until further on in the novel. The first half is really about Jane trying to figure out what to do once she begins to heal up from some pretty serious injuries. Without any money and with only Cade and Mateo as true allies, Jane thinks that it might be better to stick around the agricultural town of Tanner until she can safe enough money to head off to Maine. At the same time, she realizes that her presence there might endanger others, so she’s constantly stressed out when a news reports suggests that there are drug-related crimes going on in the area. The part of the narrative that I think will divide readers is the connection that Cade and Jane have for each other. Cade, for instance, obviously idealizes what he has with Jane to the point where he holds onto Jane in a way that arguably exacerbates the dangers that both characters and their friends will face. The “love at all costs” teen romance will necessarily test those readers who are a bit more logically minded and who would have obviously recommended that Jane ditch Cade and get the hell out of Tanner, as soon as she felt well enough to, but Banerjee’s work will unite all audiences in terms of its momentum. That is, despite how you might feel about the romance and the ramifications of their connection for all in the Tanner community, you will not turn away. The other element to note is that Banerjee is able to generate such narrative propulsion through the use of clipped alternating perspectives. Chapters are short, with one usually given to us from Cade’s perspective, then the next from Jane’s. Occasionally, the narrative will break to the Wolf Cub, aka the drug cartel leader, which reminds us that someone is coming for Jane and that we’re in for an explosive conclusion!

 

Buy the Book Here:

 

https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/hide-with-me-sorboni-banerjee/1127949730