No Child of Mine (The No Child of Mine Trilogy Book 1)

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I can see in the story the attempts to bring about supernatural tension. Creaks in the house, doors creaking open. That sort of element was used in the book, and used often. But the thing that was missing is the heightened psychological tension because of those things. Creaks and the like need strong reaction to be creepy and foreboding. Sadly that was missing in this book. The stuff that she goes through like the physical and sexual abuse from a majority of the adults around her to the zero…

I decided that I would like to have a go at playing Kerry,” Brooke Kinsella says. “One of the main reasons for my decision was that the film might help other children in situations like hers. If it helped just one, it would have been worthwhile.”Although a very easy read, I didn't feel any connection to the plot and it failed to keep me in any sort of suspense. The short chapters kept the pace but the plot felt sluggish.

But what of the content? Well it engaged me all the way through. Alex is a social worker, and a very good one. She cares about the children she works with. She puts in long hours and it is often heart breaking and difficult. She has to contend with situations where sometimes her life is at risk. She herself had a very distressing beginning to her young life and so knows first hand being left orphaned. The only "good" characters encountered so far are white, middle class and live in big houses.....yawn! I was not happy with the ending as I believed that Ottilie deserved professional help for all that she'd been through, and for Alex to take her away like that was not the answer, no matter how much she wanted to come to her aid. This was selected by one of the members of a book group I attend and I am both looking forward to and dreading the discussion. Genres: Misery-Depressing, Based on a True Story, Domestic Abuse, Incest, Family, Prostitution, Old-YoungNo Child of Mine" follows law student Essie Kaur. Essie has followed her husband Sanjay so that he could fulfill his dreams of being an architect. Now it's her turn. When they buy the house of their dreams though, things start to go wrong. Smells that only Essie can smell. Sounds and voices of people that can't be there. And when Essie finds herself pregnant, she realizes a family curse she has always made fun of, may not be fake after all. The book shifts from the present with Essie and then to the past following a young woman named Isabel who is devastated after her best friend marries and moves away. A very, very long time ago I did a two year stint of answering phones for the Samaritans. At that time all places were locally funded, staffed and run. The ethic of how to deal with people was set-in-stone. It made no difference if the person calling was 5 or 90 they were treated the same. Essie keeps a lot of her feelings to herself; well, most of them honestly. She's afraid people will judge her for not having the ecstatic, happy reaction society teaches us we are supposed to always have. Thank you Netgalley and Poisoned Pen Press for an advance review copy of this book in exchange for my honest review. Essie is hugely independent and stubborn when it comes to how she has planned out her days. She will become a lawyer and be successful in her career. She had to wait while her husband, Sanjay, took steps toward an architecture degree first. So when she learns of her unplanned pregnancy while finally able to step her feet into a classroom, it does not come lighthearted. She’s far behind and feels that she deserves to focus on herself. Her entire life will change and she isn’t sure if she wants that. But in the end, she loves the life she is creating. When she must endure a terrible pregnancy full of pain and isolation, she becomes cognizant of forces that can irrevocably transform her life into one without love. Without Sanjay.

The teleplay by Selma Thompson, based on a true story, includes cliched lines like `The lord doesn't give us more than we can handle' and `We did the best we could. I guess that wasn't good enough', but also an hilarious scene where Lucille and Tammy go on a tabloid television show. The Young's house being referred to as an `institution' seems odd since it is more like a hippie live-in play centre. Thompson's decision to demonise Lucille as a grandmother is an interesting choice, in lieu of painting Tammy as weak for not being able to provide for Jesse, and when Lucille is more considerate but Tammy is unable to forgive her.While this made for TV film is not gratuitous and with film that looks like it was taken on a potato, the performance from Brooke Kinsella in the lead role is compelling with a message that is delivered in a direct and painful way that leaves very little to the imagination. All while this struggle is happening, another narrative keeps popping in. It’s from centuries ago, and tells of the strife of women and family before our liberation. I had a hard time figuring out where this played into the main story, until they merged in a very creepy supernatural way. From that point the book goes in another direction and becomes a ghost story mashup. I was totally all in at this point.

No Child of Mine follows Essie Kaur, an ambitious young woman who has recently found out that she is pregnant for the first time. In fact, privately, she's pretty upset about it. Essie is currently in law school, almost through, ready to take the bar exam early the following year, how is she going to make that work now? The baby will be three months old when she is supposed to sit for the bar? For me, there were times, when it felt a little too disjointed. By this I mean, the transition between the two sometimes seemed jarring; like it wasn't as fluid as I would hope. An awful curse born of both love and selfishness has taken fathers from their daughters for generations in Essie's family. I had hoped there would be some spookiness in Essie's new house but other than some whispering and an object occasionally being displaced nothing much happened. I thought that when the curse began to take hold of the family, this is when the Horror/Creepy part of the story would reveal itself. Sadly, there wasn't any suspense. The ending seemed too easily wrapped up since so many generations had suffered this curse. It just felt rushed to me.To me, Alex is an unlikeable character (Not that this is a bad thing! Unlikeable characters can add quite a bit of interest and reader conflict). I found her to be a bit immature and selfish. She is jealous and hostile to her boyfriend’s children and she is overly critical of her co-workers and boss. I can’t make a final judgement of her character, because I did not finish the novel, but I do hope that there is substantial character development and she redeems herself at the end. This novel is marketed as horror. I don’t necessarily agree with that notion. There were creepy moments sure, but nothing that would keep me up at night. I want gore. I want jump scares. I wanted more! It was quite hard to choose how to rate this book because the subject matter was so awful and some of the content quite horrific. Starring: Brooke Kinsella (Kerry), Billy Geraghty (Dad), Sharon Small (Mum), Colin Salmon (Teacher), Geoffrey Church (Stepdad)