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De Dochter (2014)

by Jane Shemilt(Favorite Author)

3.65 of 5 Votes: 3

languge

English

genre

Mystery & Thriller

publisher

The House of Crime

review 1: This book had lots of hype and I was curious to read it. This was passed on to me by a friend. The story is of Jenny, a GP and the disappearance of her daughter Naomi. Jenny is married to Ted, a neurosurgeon and has two other children. The story flips back and forward in an ad hoc fashion detailing Jenny's thoughts/feelings/daily life inconsequential minutiae from a couple of weeks before her daughter disappeared to roughly a year on. Jenny comes across as an incredibly selfish person- it's all about how she feels, what she wants, her needs. She irritated the bejeezus out of me from the start. She was always "about to faint" "heart pounding". We are treated to endless details of her work life as a GP (I don't need to be reminded of work thanks) but more to the point it doe... moresn't add anything to the plot. I thank my lucky stars that she (Jenny) isn't my GP as she screws up royally with more than one patient. Is this just added material to make us realise what a crap mother she is? If so this works really well. If the idea of the book was to portray an incompetent, self obsessed mother, a dysfunctional family and how one plucky child flees the nest to make a new life then maybe I should have given it 5 stars but I get the feeling we were supposed to feel sorry for the mother? Well any sympathy is eroded by her character. One of the questions at the end of the book is "Is Naomi still a victim?" and the answer is yes. In the end her new family calling her Carys speaks volumes- she is finally loved
review 2: Having a teenage daughter myself, I found some of this very difficult to read but persevered. I enjoyed the twist, didn't see that coming. SPOILER ALERT!!! I get very frustrated when the ending doesn't give all the answers, I know as a reader we are supposed to think for ourselves and come to a conclusion but I would have liked to know the reasons. Were they really bad parents? I didn't think so, just busy parents trying to do the best they could. less

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