This Child of Mine by Sinead Moriarty

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A review copy was provided by the publisher in return for an honest review

Warning this review may contain spoilers!

This child of Mine started off really well. Anna was a content women, infants with colourful backgrounds in the suburbs of Dublin. I had to actually stop reading this on the train because I was laughing out loud at the "Dublin Jackeen" humour. The kids were true to life and extremely funny. The nativity play is priceless and the writing, brilliant.

However I found that once Anna left Ireland that the humour slowly faded away. I understand that this was due to circumstances but I felt the novel would have benefited from a further injections of the same humour throughout. 

For me the situation on the ferry was a little unrealistic and predicable. I really can't see how anyone could take a child from a boat and not be spotted on any camera either on the ship or afterwards as she left the both. She would have been caught within 24 hours. However this is fiction and so I didn't dwell on it too much.

The real problem is that the characters were, for me, unappealing. Anna never once sees any wrong in her actions. She ruined the lives of so many people. She judged a person based on one incident and decided to play God. Joan pretty much forces her daughter to go through with a pregnancy she clearly didn't want. I think adoption would have been the best option. As for Mandy, she is the typical clichéd teen. Dark and depressing.

Some real suspense would have been great. It would have been a lot more exciting if there was a risk of Anna getting caught at least once throughout the 17 years! 

If you are a long time fan of Sinead then you'll probably enjoy this novel. Others may find it a little flat after the initial humorous few chapters.

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