Not My Daughter by Barbara Delinsky

Disappointing, June 11, 2010

This review is from: Not My Daughter (Hardcover)

I had high hopes when starting this book. The topic was timely, right out of the headlines -- the plot mimicking the Gloucester, MA pregnancy pact. Four high school girls decide that they are going to get pregnant together and thus support each other through the ordeal. The girls are but 17, high school seniors, and all seemed extremely immature despite the author telling us constantly that these were honor students and exemplar leaders of their class.

I was disappointed in this novel because of the ultimately rosy picture painted of this whole pregnancy situation. Despite the fact that the parents suffer because of the girls' decisions, the result is that the girls end up having it quite nice at the end -- just the way they planned. The parents capitulate and support them financially and physically. There really seems to be no bad repercussions to their stupid decision to get pregnant, and the "happy happy" ending really irritated me. it all just tied up nicely -- nobody lost their jobs or their reputation or anything substantial despite all that happened. I thought the parents of the pregnant teens were rather "too supportive and helpful" and that the girls were never made to accept total responsibility for their poor decision. Deciding to get pregnant, and not involving the father, is selfish and very immature. This was not really emphasized.

That said, the novel purports to examine what it means to be a "good mother" or good parent. I think this was the only redeeming concept -- however, most of us who are parents realize that we can't control what our children end up doing and the decisions they make regardless of how vigilant or how strict we are. All we can hope is that our kids don't make decisions that are unfix-able should they be the wrong choices!

All in all, I won't be recommending this book. Skip it.