Over Her Head

Over Her Head is a book that haunted me as I read it. Something about the conflict and the characters grabbed a hold of me and wouldn’t let me stop thinking about them in between reading it.

Laurie Hale as the perfect life – and the perfect family. Her husband has a great job, she’s active in leadership at her church, and her children seem happy. Then a girl dies in a freak episode that soon has the town buzzing with gossip and animosity. Rumors fly that Laurie’s daughter was somehow involved in the death. What if Anna really was involved in Randi’s murder?

Laurie reminded me of a dozen people I know – including me. Everything seems fine, but what would happen if a crisis hit? How deep is our faith when the world we know is rocked to its core?

I think this story disturbed me because it made me think about how I would react. I like to think I have rock solid faith in God, my family, my friends. But how often has that faith been tested? I could also imagine all too well what it would be like to have a child go through an experience like Anna’s. As parents all we want to do is protect our children from harm, and yet there are times there is nothing we can do.

The town really could be any town in the United States. The characters were a cross-section of your typical church stratas. And that is why this book was so gripping. This isn’t one that I sat down and read in one quick sitting. But I kept getting pulled back to it. I had to know how the conflict resolved. And how Laurie reacted when she found herself Over Her Head.