The Other Mother

by Kate Hewitt

[Leah]

When Kate Hewitt emailed me and asked me if I’d like to review her novel This Fragile Life I jumped at the chance! I’d spotted it on Amazon a while ago and I thought it sounded brilliant; like something Jodi Picoult might write and I was looking forward to diving in. This book wasn’t what I expected at all, but it was utterly amazing! I wasn’t sure when I started it, I felt there were a few too many moments where the characters questioned their actions – protesting too much, you know? But the more into the novel I got, the more brilliant it became.

I will happily admit that as a young twenty something pregnancy and babies aren’t on my agenda – at all. So I was a bit worried that I might not get on with This Fragile Life as well as someone who is a mother. Surrogacy didn’t work for me when I read Dear Thing by Julie Cohen, but, This Fragile Life really worked. To the point where there were tears involved, for many pages. I said in my review for Another Way To Fall that I don’t cry often when reading but twice this month I have and for very good reason. It sort of got to the point where I wasn’t sure I would stop crying!

This Fragile Life is, as I said, about surrogacy. When Alex finds out she’s pregnant, she finds she can’t face another abortion. Her best friend Martha has just had her fifth round of IVF and it hasn’t worked and Martha comes up with the simplest of solutions, a solution that means Alex doesn’t have to have an abortion or be a mother, because Martha will adopt Alex’s baby. Alex isn’t sure she doesn’t want the baby, though, and suddenly the friends find themselves in a very fraught situation, made worse by some shocking news.

Now I’m afraid I can’t say more about the book because its precisely because I didn’t know what was coming that caused me to have such a reaction; it’s the best sort of book because books should surprise! It shouldn’t all be given away in the synopsis or a careless review. So if you’re wondering what turned me to mush, well you are going to have to read it, but it will be well worth your time!

Initially I did think both women protested too much – Alex consistently questioning if she could be a mother, Martha questioning if she’s cold, if she’s doing to right thing etc. Perhaps that panic is normal, I don’t know, I just felt it was all too often and it did bug me a bit. But once they got over their worries, the novel became so much better. I loved it. The second half of the book really comes into its own and it was so worth listening to both women complain a lot, because the novel more than came good. I was blown away, and emotional, and I finished the book feeling like I’d been on a particularly horrific – but worth it – rollercoaster. It was simply amazing, and no words I spout could do this novel justice! Just read it and you’ll see what I mean.