Chasing Augustus
By: Kimberly Newton Fusco / Narrated By: Karissa Vacker
Length: 6 hrs
Though our young heroine Rosie is at times quite unlikable, I couldn’t help but fall for her and this lovely little book!
Okay, so at first I thought this was going to be another case of the Animals audiobook pick of the week not having animals in it (Kinda the way Ice Dogs turned out), as Rosie (Do NOT call her Rosalita!!!) is looooking for her dog Augustus. He’s gone, not in the picture, nowhere. But even so, it rather, as the story and great writing went along, turned out that an animal can very much feel present even when he isn’t there. You feel him by the very sorry lack of him.
That’s how it is for young Rosie, whose mom left the family when Rosie was a baby, whose dad has suffered a serious stroke and will probably not be coming out of it, whose grandfather Harry is a tough as nails ex-Marine who really didn’t think he’d have to quit his job, take over his son’s donut shop, and take over the raising of a little girl, and whose dog Gloaty Gus was either stolen or given away or something. All Rosie knows is that her world turned upside down when her Poppa had his stroke, her grades at school tanked, she’s lonely, and she’s missing her dog horribly.
But then she gets it into her head that the town weirdo Miss Swanson might have him, and she starts hatching plans to rescue Augustus, like, NOW. She basically bullies the foster kid from next door into helping her out, and that’s where her whining and mean-spirited remarks reeeeally started wearing on me. Cuz see, Rosie is hardheaded, short-tempered, and just all around not a pleasant girl to be around. She has little good to say about anyone or anything, and the only reason I didn’t turn the story off and throw my phone at the wall was the last time I was this impatient with a young protagonist was with the very, very good Wish, wherein the heroine has to start low to go high by the end. And I kept reminding myself that Rosie’s life is in turmoil, is filled with heartache and sadness, plus her dog is gone, so I should cut her some slack.
I’m glad I stuck with it, and it probably had to do with the fact that it’s quite simply written well, with lovely language, creatively-crafted characters, and Gloaty Gus sounds like he lived the best dog life ever. He was truly loved. And by the time we got to the end, yes, Rosie has learned to be a bit more self-aware, to start giving where she was once all about taking, and she definitely starts treating other people better, understanding that maaaaybe she doesn’t know quite as much about everything in the whole wide world that she thinks she does.
This is the first time I’ve come upon anything read by Karissa Vacker, and I credit her for making Rosie a bit more lovable than had I just read the print copy. She adds notes of longing and vulnerability to Rosie’s thoughts and feelings, and there were a couple of times she conveyed the girl so well I just wanted to send hugs. Yes, at first she made grandfather Harry inCREDibly harsh and unlikable, with no saving graces, but by the end, as the relationship between grandfather and granddaughter survives some hard knocks, it was Vacker who softened her tones to make him a warmer character.
This is ONLY 6 hours!!! Seriously, it’ll take ya no time at all to listen to it, and it ends with such sweetness you’ll be glad you did.
An Animals Picks without an animal… sort of? And I’m not kvetching? Well, no, cuz maybe there’s hope, maybe there’s love, and there’ll always be a Gloaty Gus…
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