Her mother's daughter.

I have just finished this book in audio and I have to confess, I'm disappointed that such a potentially fascinating subject didn't come across better. So now I have to justify that comment as I don't feel it's fair to the author to criticise their work without justification.



The premise of the book is that both birth control and abortions are illegal - nothing new there, that was Ireland in the last century, and I'm sure many other countries too. What the author adds is that

Her mother's daughter.

I have just finished this book in audio and I have to confess, I'm disappointed that such a potentially fascinating subject didn't come across better. So now I have to justify that comment as I don't feel it's fair to the author to criticise their work without justification.



The premise of the book is that both birth control and abortions are illegal - nothing new there, that was Ireland in the last century, and I'm sure many other countries too. What the author adds is that miscarriages are also illegal, hopefully with the intention of preventing home abortions. Unfortunately she doesn't follow this with a relatable story that affects us emotionally, instead she litters the world with abandoned children, babies, toddlers, teenagers, suddenly being dropped everywhere. The police are out, trying to catch these neglectful parents, so it becomes a game of hide and seek. I was listening to this while nursing my two newly-born grandchildren, so it should have been easy to involve me emotionally, but I was very much on the outside, looking in. I needed more background, more involvement; I needed to feel I was there, sharing the fear and despair of the children.



Maybe a prologue that took me from the present time to this Dystopian future would have helped, so I felt connected, rather than dumped in an era that makes no sense, like a new born child who doesn’t understand their surroundings.



In the first part, the main characters are two couples, one woman who desperately wants a child and one who most definitely doesn't. Time passes and by part two, the laws have changed to a system where every pregnancy must be registered and receive prior permission. The next generation (Millie and Lene) must struggle to build their families around this additional restriction.



The young Millie is very unpopular amongst her classmates and this is supposedly because she was unwanted, but one would assume that a high proportion of the class was also unwanted. She is desperate to impress her parents and writing short stories seems to make them happy, so she looks everywhere for material by eavesdropping on her classmates. Most of the stories are about children ‘disappearing’. There were too many of these stories, in my opinion, which Millie's mother comments on by correcting Millie’s spelling: as a reader this became boring, one or two would have been enough.

Then there is her one 'friend', her ‘puppy’? Is it some sort of a computer? Is it just a screen or a robot?



I enjoyed the philanthropic work of Lene and Floyd, but their relationship was, well, weird. If this was the norm then it required explanation too.

I have just listened to the ending twice and I'm not clear what we are supposed to surmise. Won't say more, for fear of spoilers.



Finally, the narrator; when she was on form, all was well, but she seemed to get tired and started making mistakes and wrong word emphases.



My conclusion is that this could be a great book but it needs some serious editing, as it stands it just didn't work for me.