What Was Mine by Helen Klein Ross

What Was Mine

by Helen Klein Ross

"Simply told but deeply affecting, in the bestselling tradition of Alice McDermott and Tom Perrotta, this urgent novel unravels the heartrending yet unsentimental tale of a woman who kidnaps a baby in a superstore--and gets away with it for twenty-one years. Lucy Wakefield is a seemingly ordinary woman who does something extraordinary in a desperate moment: she takes a baby girl from a shopping cart and raises her as her own. It's a secret she manages to keep for over two decades--from her daughter, the babysitter who helped raise her, family, coworkers, and friends. When Lucy's now-grown daughter Mia discovers the devastating truth of her origins, she is overwhelmed by confusion and anger and determines not to speak again to the mother who raised her. She reaches out to her birth mother for a tearful reunion, and Lucy is forced to flee to China to avoid prosecution. What follows is a ripple effect that alters the lives of many and challenges our understanding of the very meaning of motherhood. Author Helen Klein Ross, whose work has appeared in The New Yorker, weaves a powerful story of upheaval and resilience told from the alternating perspectives of Lucy, Mia, Mia's birth mother, and others intimately involved in the kidnapping. What Was Mine is a compelling tale of motherhood and loss, of grief and hope, and the life-shattering effects of a single, irrevocable moment"--

"Simply told but deeply affecting, this urgent novel unravels the heartrending yet unsentimental tale of a woman who kidnaps a baby in a superstore--and gets away with it for twenty-one years"--

Reviewed by Whitney @ First Impressions Reviews on

4 of 5 stars

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Growing up reading the Janie Johnson series obviously left an impression on me as I gobble up any novel that has a kidnapped theme to it. Thus, the premise is what first attracted me to What Was Mine.

Clearly, this topic has been done before from The Face on the Milk Carton to made for tv movies or even real cases such as Carlina White, I am obviously not alone in this fascination. Therefore, what sets this novel apart from the others? It was a little formulaic, I think that is hard to get away from, but what I most enjoyed was the fact that it read like a confession and we learned the inner workings of why someone would kidnap a child.

I read with great ferocity straight through Helen Klein Ross' book, it was addicting and could not put it down despite knowing the conclusion. The character's emotions were raw and believable, to the disgust of Lucy's sister, the devastation felt by Marilyn the birth mother and the betrayal of Mia, the abducted child. This more than anything is what drove me to keep reading, to learn of the character's emotional state rather than the consequences of Lucy's rash action.

While I understood a Mother's clinginess after twenty-one years it was a little over the top for me and Marilyn's obsession for horoscopes did get a bit tiresome. Although it did show her personality despite being unable to see the relevance.

Lucy must be given credit as despite being pulled in two like a wishbone Mia showed that she had a strong head on her shoulders and I felt acted responsibly and very adult for a twenty-one-year-old. Not only did I enjoy reading of Mia's upbringing but also coming into her own and like anyone her age discovering who she truly is.

Even though a little voice in my head kept whispering "She's a kidnapper" I couldn't help but like Lucy. Despite this one really big fault, she seemed like an intelligent person who would make a good first impression and until the end looked forward to reading her passages in the story.

Some novels with multiple narrators can become messy and incoherent. That was not the case in What Was Mine, with each point of view enhancing the other's and flowed naturally. Although, I wish we had been able to read the story from Marilyn's children's perspective, I think it would have been interesting to learn how they were personally handling it. Even so, Helen Klein Ross did a good job incorporating that into the storyline.

As Mia is kidnaped in 1990, before Amber Alerts and the internet I found it very interesting how the lack of these resources improved the chances of Lucy's disappearing act. As the book progresses and technology becomes more prevalent I liked how it was incorporated into the story and how its advancement ie Facebook is what ultimately attributed to the reunion.

The one downside for me was when Lucy escaped to China and realized the jig was up. I felt like too much time was spent on her duration there and got a little repetitive, like guests overstaying, pages of Lucy eating noodles and texting "Let me explain" started to smell like stinky fish.

What Was Mine is much more than a "grown up Face on the Milk Carton". Helen Klein Ross' book is a good thriller that I would recommend to enthusiasts of this genre, not only for the subject matter but for the personality and heartbreak that jump off of the page.

I received an advance copy via Netgalley

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Reading updates

  • Started reading
  • 12 October, 2015: Finished reading
  • 12 October, 2015: Reviewed