What Was Mine

Title: What Was Mine
Author: Helen Klein Ross
Published: January 5, 2016 by Gallery Books
Pages: 336
Source: Publisher (via She Reads blog network)
Rating: 3/5
Goodreads

Lucy Wakefield is a seemingly ordinary woman who does something extraordinary in a desperate moment: she takes a baby girl from a shopping cart and raises her as her own. It’s a secret she manages to keep for over two decades—from her daughter, the babysitter who helped raise her, family, coworkers, and friends.

When Lucy’s now-grown daughter Mia discovers the devastating truth of her origins, she is overwhelmed by confusion and anger and determines not to speak again to the mother who raised her. She reaches out to her birth mother for a tearful reunion, and Lucy is forced to flee to China to avoid prosecution. What follows is a ripple effect that alters the lives of many and challenges our understanding of the very meaning of motherhood.

Author Helen Klein Ross, whose work has appeared in The New Yorker, weaves a powerful story of upheaval and resilience told from the alternating perspectives of Lucy, Mia, Mia’s birth mother, and others intimately involved in the kidnapping. What Was Mine is a compelling tale of motherhood and loss, of grief and hope, and the life-shattering effects of a single, irrevocable moment.

My review:

This is a tough one for me to review because while this book had some very positive things going for it, it never really grabbed me. I should disclose that I am an adoptive mother (the legal way), so I'm not sure if that has bearing on my take or not. First the positives.....I loved the idea behind this book. Who cannot imagine the horror of discovering your child was missing, while at the same time starting to understand the motive of the abductor? This reminded me of a Jodi Picoult novel in that it was told in different perspectives, and you grew to understand the various character's motivations. I also enjoyed the teenage character of Mia, I thought she was well portrayed, and her reactions were spot on. It's a very quick read, and one that you definitely want to get to the end to find out what happens. What I didn't enjoy was the two mothers. I didn't like either of them! I felt that they both tended to let their work get in the way of parenting. The biological mother becomes kind of a kook in the end (which may, but probably wasn't just because of her trauma), and the adoptive mom freaks out when the truth comes out (well, duh). Also, while I liked the differing perspectives, it felt a bit too much like a police record of the account. A lot was a retelling of the past, which may have had something to do with it. In other words, I liked this book, but I didn't love it.

Bottom line, this book is getting rave reviews from many sources, so I think it may have just been me that couldn't entirely warm up to the story. It's definitely worth a look, don't take my word for it.

This book is one of the She Reads blog network books of winter selections. Click the link to find out more.