Wednesday, August 10, 2016

Someone Else's Child by Helen Klein Ross (ARC)

I finished this book during the summer, before I got the motivation to study (and now I'm posting this review, after I finished my exams :p). Someone Else's Child started rather slowly for me, but soon, it gripped me and I finished the later half of the book in two sittings (mostly on the train, and luckily I did not miss any stops).

Someone Else's Child is a multi-POV novel about kidnapping. It's not a thriller though. Basically, Lucy (whose ethnicity I'm not too clear about?) wants a baby very badly. When she finds a baby seemingly abandoned in a supermarket, it seems like her dreams have come true. For Marilyn, it's her worst nightmare. All she did was leave baby Natalie alone for a little and then she's gone. Natalie grows up as Mia, until one day, Marilyn finds her, and everyone has to figure out what is going to happen.

I say 'figure out' because Mia is confused, Marilyn is confused and Lucy basically flew off to China to hide. The police don't play much of a presence either - in the latter half of the book, Mia is clearly the main character.

Unlike most books, I did read some of the reviews on Goodreads before reading (had to get a cover for Teaser Tuesday), and I must say, I don't feel as much hate towards Lucy as some of the other readers do.

True, she did a horrendous thing and she does have a lot of making up to do for it, but... I don't know. She didn't seem like an evil person in the sense that most villains are. She seemed like someone who gave in to human nature and made a huge mistake, then never got to courage to own up to it.

Maybe I saw too much of her perspective or something.

Don't get me wrong here, my favourite characters are Mia and Wendy (Wendy is the Chinese nanny). I don't like or condone what Lucy does, but I didn't find myself very angry either, which is weird because these things can get me hopping. In fact, I have the same amount of empathy for Lucy as I do for Marilyn.

Conclusion: I probably reacted to this book weirdly, but I won't deny that after a slow start, it grabbed hold of me and would not let go.

Disclaimer: I got a free copy of this book from the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for a free and honest review.

4 comments :

  1. My sister read this one and told me about it. I will definitely read it!

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  2. I am really curious about this one. I've heard quite a bit about it, although no one really talked much about Lucy. So, I was glad to see your thoughts on her. I imagine my impression of her would be similar to yours. What she does is pretty awful no matter how you look at it, but it sounds like the author does a good job of showing just how human Lucy is. And it shows real empathy on your part that you are able to see that, despite her actions.

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    1. Really? Lucy is such a central character it was hard for me not to mention her. But yeah, like, we start with Lucy's perspective (which I didn't really appreciate at first), but that got me to understand how much she wanted that baby, which in turn led her to steal Mia.

      Hope you get a chance to read it!

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