Another Woman's Child by Kerry Fisher
Genre: Women's fiction, Contemporary fiction, Family drama
Read: 9th January 2022
Published: 5th August 2020
★★★ 3 stars
DESCRIPTION:
Could you take in your best friend’s child, even if it risked destroying your own family?
Jo had thought that her life – and her heart – was full. With a busy job, a husband and a teenage daughter who is going off the rails, keeping her life running smoothly had already felt hard enough.
But now Jo sits at the funeral of her best friend Ginny, crushed by the loss of a friendship that had endured for thirty years: from college and their first days at work through to settling down and raising their own children.
Against her husband’s wishes, Jo has made a life-changing decision: to take in Ginny’s teenage son Victor and raise him as her own. Despite her misgivings, Jo feels she had no choice: Ginny was a single parent and Victor had no other family who could take care of him.
But Victor’s arrival is about to break open the fragile cracks that were already forming on the surface of Jo’s family life and in her small rural community… and expose a secret that has remained hidden for many years, with devastating consequences.
From the bestselling author of The Silent Wife and The Woman I Was Before, Another Woman’s Child is an unputdownable and heartbreaking read about the secrets we keep from our families, and the sacrifices we are willing to make for those we love. Perfect for fans of Jodi Picoult, Liane Moriarty and Diane Chamberlain.
MY REVIEW:
I had a whole barrage of thoughts to on this book as I ploughed through it but now that I have come to review it they all seem to escape me. On the whole, I am in two minds about the book as I am not a slow paced type of reader and as the story played out for pretty much the entire first half, it pretty much read more like the joys of parenting obnoxious moody teenagers...not to mention the gossip mongering and narrow-mindedness of so-called friends who were quick to judge another parent's child whilst defending the honour and accomplishments of their own.
The story begins with Ginny ruminating over the choice she has made, the secret she must keep whilst leaving readers wondering what is so massive that she, who processes everything by telling everyone, kept schtum on this...whatever "this" was. It is clear that Ginny is faced with coming clean in the face of death...and yet she chose not to. Why? We had yet to find out.
Jo and Ginny had been best friends for nearly thirty years so when Ginny lay on her deathbed succumbing to the cancer that was flooding her body, she pleaded with Jo to take in her seventeen year old son Victor. Jo never gave the option much thought but had thought it best to run it by hubby Patrick before making the decision. But dealing with the throes of teenage angst in the form of their own sixteen year old daughter Phoebe, they were both reluctant to take on another woman's child and therefore adding to their troubles.
However, as Ginny neared the end and she upped the ante in begging, Jo felt she couldn't say no to her best friend. After all, Victor had no one else but his ailing grandfather who was in no fit state to care for him. And so, she said yes. Patrick was far from pleased and begrudgingly travelled the three hours or so to Cardiff from their little village Sussex to bring Victor home with them. Relations were strained from the beginning as each tiptoed around the other in trying to accommodate the grieving young man. Phoebe was far from impressed with having to share her attention which manifested itself in even worse behaviour that had played out before this.
And so there were parties, drunken nights out, a car accident fuelled by smoking weed, shoplifting and generally acting out. As if that wasn't enough, now that drugs appeared to be in the picture, the finger was firmly pointed in Victor's direction. After all, nothing like this had ever happened in sleepy Snedhurst until a black teenage boy came to live in their midst. Now it's all drug-fuelled orgies and whispers in dark alleys with the sleight of hand exchange for weed and goodness knows what else. I mean, who'd have thought these innocent girls would be snorting coke on the best silver until "he" turned up corrupt them?
So Jo not only had to grieve for her best friend in private, for fear of upsetting Victor in his own grief, but she had to contend with the obnoxious teenage angst and outbursts from a somewhat out of control Phoebe who obviously thought the world revolved around her as well as the neighbourhood gossips who believed that Victor had come to their village with the express intention of corrupting their virtuous teenage community. People who she had thought were her friends turned on her as quick as the whispers that flowed through the village.
And just when she thought things could get any worse, she is hit with a bombshell secret she never saw coming which thus sent her spiralling into an abyss of guilt and blame. How could she not have known? How could she not have seen this coming? And how could the people she loved the most in this world betray her in the worst possible way?
While thoughtful and compelling, ANOTHER WOMAN'S CHILD is very slow to start. However, I wanted to know what the big secret was and how everything was going to pan out. Of course, I couldn't wait to see hypocritical Faye get her comeuppance when the tables are turned and she sees her own daughter for who she really is instead of keeping the blinkers in place preventing her from doing so whilst systematically shifting the blame solely onto Phoebe and then Victor. The other parents play little part in comparison to Faye who was meant to be Jo's best friend in the village.
To be honest, I struggled with the first half, I really did. I found everyone thoroughly annoying except for Jasmine, the mother who didn't get quite so much spotlight as evil Faye, and who always had a crocodile of colourful children following in her wake, and of course the strong silent resilience of Victor who had lost his mother so young and was trying to navigate a new life, a new school and a new family all at the same time in the midst of the quagmire. And yet, he was far wiser beyond his years.
I didn't really warm to Jo and was aghast at the way she allowed Phoebe to talk to her. If I'd have spoken to my parents like that I would have been grounded till I was 70! The complete and utter disrespect she shows her mother is mind-boggling. I know we've all been teenagers and have had to navigate hormones and adolescence, but I don't remember ever being so disrespectful as she is. And Jo just let her walk all over her, citing that pushing her will only escalate the issue. Had Phoebe been taught to respect boundaries when she was younger then she would have been less likely to be so disrespectful now. But hey, what do I know? I did , however, find Faye a little too quick to lay all the blame at Phoebe's feet and criticise Jo for her parenting skills in that passive aggressive way that sounds like she's joking but she's really not.
And yet despite all the angst, disrespect and prejudice in the slowish start, ANOTHER WOMAN'S CHILD picked up its pace in the second half as secrets and truths were were slowly revealed. I had worked out the "big secret" as I pieced the little clues together that had been peppered throughout and was left in tears by the end. Not in a sad way but a happy way. I was actually laughing through my tears, particularly at Jo's mum's impromptu speech in her oh-so-diplomatic way...lol
A reasonably good read, ANOTHER WOMAN'S CHILD will delight fans of contemporary women's fiction who enjoy the slow pace through an emotional journey that is thoughtful and compelling.
I would like to thank #KerryFisher, #Netgalley and #Bookouture for an ARC of #AnotherWomansChild in exchange for an honest review.
MEET THE AUTHOR:
Other than reading and writing, Kerry loves cooking, entertaining, wine and friends. Though she admits to be being not very groomed and a bit messy.
She now lives in Surrey with her very tolerant husband, with an intermittent empty nest as her two young adult children come and go.
Social Media links:
No comments:
Post a Comment