Idgie Says:It's hard for me to describe my feelings for this book as I desperately don't want to give away any plot points in the review. So I will skirt around the story itself and explain my thoughts on the parents, particularly the mother.
As you see from the description, the baby is missing and no one knows what happened to it. Dead, abducted, left behind in a store... no one knows, not even mom.
But as you read the story and it pops back in time, you see that Mom's pretty crappy with her mothering techniques. There is a surrounding swirl of Postpartum Depression, but this woman probably shouldn't be left alone with any child. Her husband is as much to blame for seeing her actions and continuing to leave Mom alone with baby. I decided early on that if it did turn out to be an abduction, it might not be such a bad thing.
By the time the book gets rolling and Mom begins her desperate search to find out what happened to her baby, I found it hard to relate to her as someone who dearly loved her child. Her intense longing to love, smell and hold the baby didn't really ring true to me.
Regardless, it is a fast paced book with a lot of twists and turns and I did read it in just two sittings - easy to get sucked into the story itself and whiz through the pages.
__________________________________
Berkley Trade Paperback
July 7, 2015
Estelle Paradise wakes up in a hospital after being found near dead at the bottom of a ravine with a fragmented memory and a vague sense of loss. Then a terrifying reality sets in: her daughter is missing.
Days earlier, Estelle discovered her baby’s crib empty in their Brooklyn apartment. There was no sign of a break-in, but all traces of seven-month-old Mia had disappeared. Her diapers, her clothes, her bottles—all gone.
Frustrated and unable to explain her daughter’s disappearance, Estelle begins a desperate search. But when the lack of evidence casts doubt on her story, Estelle becomes the number one suspect in the eyes of the police and the media.
As hope of reuniting with Mia becomes all she has left, Estelle will do anything to find answers: What has she done to her baby? And what has someone done to her?