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Siv
I didn't think it was either anti-abortion or a rant. Abortion played a significant role in the story, and the different characters handled it differently. To me it seemed like a pretty honest account of the complexities of the event and its emotional toll.
A. H. Reaume
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Ann
I too was conflicted by this piece of the book, but this line struck me: "She wanted this baby and that was the difference: magic you wanted was a miracle, magic you didn't want was a haunting."
Mandie
I had hoped the abortion would just be an undercurrent, but it completely defines their lives in a way that felt too heavy-handed and maybe not realistic? She never regrets it, explores the world, and then does a total 180 and lets herself be shamed by people that never treated her well. I don't get it. Luke failed her completely and then we're supposed to care more about his pro-life daddy feelings than what Nadia's accomplishing at law school? When he wasn't even her boyfriend? What? I really, really could have done without the calls to the "crisis pregnancy center."
It felt like Nadia's character was being drawn as this deeply independent person trying to expand her world and then her arc just stopped and went backward.
Still enjoyed the book, but the last several chapters left a weird taste in my mouth.
It felt like Nadia's character was being drawn as this deeply independent person trying to expand her world and then her arc just stopped and went backward.
Still enjoyed the book, but the last several chapters left a weird taste in my mouth.
Dana
I do not feel the books core focus was the abortion issue but moreso about a vast array of female characters and their life choices. The abortion issue only being one.
I found this book encaptured the love, emotion and depth of being a female. Well done.
I found this book encaptured the love, emotion and depth of being a female. Well done.
Lois
I didn't think it was anti-abortion. I think it was an attempt to explore the effects of an abortion amidst lots of other stuff the novel was exploring. I never got the feeling that Nadia regretted her choice. It was the right choic e for her.
Michelle
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Claudine
Totally disturbed by the language she chooses throughout, plus the fact that the procedure was described as surgery done under general anesthesia. So many women thanked in the acknowledgements -- why didn't any of them tell her that's not how this procedure is even performed? I mean, if you don't write what you know, you owe it to readers to do this basic research in order for a book to feel authentic. Wanted to throw the book across the room when I read the phrase "post-abortive father."
Laura Kendall
As a person who is pro-choice, I think this was a pretty nuanced depiction. Even though I am pro-choice myself, I have some complicated feelings about whether or not I could personally have an abortion without feelings of guilt or wondering what if--and so Nadia's depiction felt very real to me. It makes sense that most of the members of the church find the whole thing scandalous, but we get mixed feelings from all those more directly involved. It's not black and white; it's incredibly grey--which I think reflects the debate within our society.
Jim
I think it's an accidental anti-abortion book. Not a rant. I think it's accidental due to the novel's anemic character development and evolution over time. We watch these characters age from 17 to 27. The thoughts/emotions surrounding the abortion and each other never change. Static in time. The same anxiety and daydreams the day after the abortion are the same anxieties and daydreams ten years later. The abortion becomes dreadfully haunting then.
Giedra
I didn't find it to be particularly pro or con. I think the tone reflected a lot of the conflicts that many people have on the topic. As a result, I think that people who felt it was advocating one point of view or another might be people whose views are less ambivalent...and since the book straddled the middle line in many ways, someone with stronger views could see it as being pro or con.
Inbal
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Pamala
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Lisa Magee
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Megan
Same. Just finished the book and was shocked to realize that I think this book is some kind of pro-life screed - that abortion did not need to ruin everyone's lives, at all. Very unrealistic if you ask me. I was actually really angry at what I read.
Ronja St
I must say I liked the book, but I think the author approaches the abortion issue from the anti-choice angle (the language, the "Baby", the fact that the entire community is affected AFTER TEN YEARS). As I see it, all the main characters experienced something that changed their lives forever, but the narrative focuses on the abortion as the pivotal point and it doesn't seem credible.
Ben Worsley
I think the book did a great job presenting the emotional after effects of an abortion and many of the nuances of the decision while still giving some balance to the freedom of choice. However, I would have to agree that overall the book was anti-abortion. I would posit that the inevitable question of "What if?" would be answered with a variety of scenarios by each character. However, the book only presented the idea that the abortion was a loss in the minds of the characters. I didn't see any passages that imagined the baby being born - but then Nadia feeling trapped and not going to college/law school, Luke being unable to accept the stigma of being a preacher's son with an out-of-wedlock child, etc. I think that these ideas would be a normal part of the thought process of "What If?" but the author's choice not to include these imaginings does indeed make the book anti-abortion in some sense.
Dana Busby
Interesting. I thought that the feelings on the abortion were fairly ambiguous. -The tone I picked up on is that this (the rightness or wrongness) of abortion is something the author has struggled with, and might still be struggling with.
J Verne
This book is in no way anti-abortion. The author is pro-choice personally and the character who gets the abortion never once regrets it. Just because the experience is more complicated to the other people in her conservative church doesn't mean the book is in any way judgmental or a screed.
Melanie Weekes
In some ways, yes, but in others no. I think the author tried to explain the abortion's effect on Nadia. She just didn't do a credible job here. It was very simple in character development, but maybe some people are like that in real life too. People do move on, some don't though. I never thought about it being a pro-choice/pro life novel until I read the comments, but I can see why you all think that now. I thought it was a novel about terrible mothers, including Nadia. Her mom killed herself, she killed her embryo or baby, the pastor and his wife were horrible people living a duality of Church and the world. Her dad was not an open communicator, her friend's mother was horrible. I was hyper focused on all these horrible ways to be a mom. Ya that's it, it's a novel about horrible moms and how people cope, heal and find a mother somewhere else.
Michelle Ottoboni
In no way is it anti-abortion. This is a book about choice and how people deal with whatever choices they make as they grow into adulthood.
Christine
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Marcia
Totally agree that this was just an old-fashioned anti-abortion rant.
Amanda Munday
Have to agree it felt very pro life, and not the writing in a pro-choice woman would approach the experience.
Erin *Proud Book Hoarder*
I think the author mainly kept it neutral and showed natural regret, but it seemed more pro than anti to me if I had to pick a side. Was a wonderful book with a lot of complexity.
Kate Dargan
part of me wondered if Luke had never broken his leg, went off to college and was a football success, would he still have wanted that baby?
Rachel Feldman
I liked this book very much, but yes, the attitude and position about abortion bothered me. We need to evolve to a society where women are not made to drown in a vat of shame and punishment for having what is still a legal procedure. Pregnancy takes two. Nadia’s story could have taken a less punishing guilt route. She could have been accepting of her choice to live her life. But the book didn’t go that way.
Karen
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Leslie
What's wrong with being anti-abortion?
(Note: I haven't read the book, yet.)
(Note: I haven't read the book, yet.)
Dna
Why does it have to be a "rant"? Jesus...
Jennifer Terry
Very confused by this question. The main characters are judged by their conservative community and having been raised in that community, it's not surprising that they would have their own internal conflicts. If book characters always said and did the "right" thing how boring would that be?
nicole
I was really disappointed by how pro-life this story felt. I have had two abortions, once when I was very young and once not a young, and personally I did not relate to the way abortion was treated in this novel at all. The endless anguish over the choice especially reads like what someone who was raised pro-life and doesn't have first-hand experience would imagine life after abortion would be like. I didn't think this was a rant but for me it was definitely emotionally hollow.
Natasha Rappazzo
AGREE......so much time is dedicated to how sad Luke feels after the abortion.. and how horrified her father is at the end.... and at the end when Aubrey feels better than Nadia because she is pregnant and going to stay pregnant.. give me a break!!!!!!
Rosemary Heller
I did noth think it was an anti abortion rant, rather a treatment of motherhood in all its permutations, even those who choose to abort a pregnancy.
Elizabeth Green
Agree. I think it blamed the abortion for the main character's issues.
Meri McCoy-Thompson
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Renata
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