Journey of Mem: A coming of age fairytale about a girl and her monster.

For all the travellers, searching for a place they cannot name. And for all the aching souls, trying to escape their own monsters.

5/5 Journey of Mem is a fantastic debut novel by author Paulina Vallin. The story is a layered fairytale through compelling environments along with intriguing characters.
Look at you lying so still in the grass.
It’s time for that childhood believing to pass.
You hoped you were special, meant for big things?
That there was meaning to your oddness: magical signs and girls with wings?…
With loneliness as her closest companion, Mem feels as if there’s a Beyondness calling for her . . .
in the flickering of a candle, in the swift caress of the wind, in the swaying of the elm tree in the schoolyard. A year after her mother’s mysterious disappearance, Mem finds her mother’s hidden journal that repeatedly mentions a mystical place called the Kingdom of Jag.
She then suspects Beyondness is in fact her mother calling for her to come find her. Mem’s suspicions are confirmed when the rusted-shut gate in the backyard strangely opens and the broken light above it flickers to life. As soon as Mem sets foot through the gate, a rhyming, petulant little monster named Baby appears, claiming to be Mem’s protector and friend.
Together they embark on a magical journey of whimsical wonders and dark tragedy. In this unpredictable world, Sanity and Insanity are twin sisters at war, perception can be bought in an eyewear store, and a simple glance of your own reflection can kill you. But the thing with journeys is that you risk getting lost.
To survive the treacherous path to find her mother, Mem must turn to dark forces to endure. With the risk of forever closing the doors back to home, Mem must learn who to trust and unravel the most enigmatic mystery of them all—herself.
Journey of Mem is a coming-of-age fairytale about the adventures of a preteen girl, traveling beyond reality to reunite her family, but in essence, this book is a self-discovery family saga between a mother and daughter, and a family being pulled apart by mental illness.