A Good Enough Mother by Bev Thomas #NetGalley #BookReview @FaberBooks

Author: Bev Thomas

Genre: General Fiction

Format: Hardcover 336 pages

Release Date: 4 April 2019

Publisher: Faber & Faber

My thanks to the publisher for the advance copy for review approved through NetGalley. Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own.

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Synopsis

The most dangerous lies are the ones we tell ourselves.

Dr Ruth Hartland rises to difficult tasks. She is the director of a highly respected trauma therapy unit. She is confident, capable and excellent at her job. Today she is preoccupied by her son Tom’s disappearance.

So when a new patient arrives at the unit – a young man who looks shockingly like Tom – she is floored.

As a therapist, Ruth knows exactly what she should do in the best interests of her client, but as a mother she makes a very different choice – a decision that will have profound consequences.

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My Thoughts

This is one of those books that I feel will generate a lot of discussion and would make a good book club read. The issues dealt with in this book, trauma, loss, grief, emotional attachment and much more are all topics which everyone will come to with very different experiences. 

I thought this book was going to be a psychological thriller, the synopsis and the cover all lean towards the plot going that way. The book did have certain parts that I felt had a sort of ‘thriller’ feel to it, however, upon finishing the book I don’t think I would class it in that genre at all. 

This is a hard book for me to review because I did enjoy it but by the time I got to the end I felt a bit disappointed because I had been waiting for some big reveal, or some big ‘moment’ to happen and for me personally that never really came. I think this is because I went into the book thinking it was a psychological thriller and therefore had hyped myself into thinking there would be some kind of twist or reveal like is usually the case with thriller books. 

This is an interesting book and the ending, although it came rather suddenly, did tie things off nicely and answer one of the biggest questions that had remained unanswered throughout. I would recommend this book but I would urge caution not to expect the same kind of things you would when reading a thriller. 

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About the Author

Bev was a clinical psychologist in the NHS for many years. She currently works as an organisational consultant in mental health and other services.  She lives in London with her family.Her upcoming novel A Good Enough Mother will be published by Faber & Faber in Spring 2019.

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