Member Reviews
I have mixed feelings about this one! The blurb grabbed me right from the start and it was an interesting storyline, but it took me a while to get into and I found the story to be quite repetitive at times! I was waiting for a huge twist, but felt the ending fell a bit flat!
Well I found this a reasonable book, but the content made me very uncomfortable. I would not recommend anyone who is pregnant or who has recently given birth to read this as it will make them worry. Having had one of my daughters born with a severe blood incompatability that caused jaundice and required a complete blood exchange I found it a rather upsetting book to read.
Obsession in anyone is hard to deal with and I felt very sorry for the husband and family involved.
I have to say that it has not been a great experience reading it. Sorry it as well written, it was just the subject matter.
Sash had a very mixed feelings about motherhood. Her own mother left her when she was a child. A tragedy when she was working in paediatrics and her own difficulties in conceiving. Now her baby is nearly here she is getting used to the idea. However a car accident meant she needed an emergency C section. From the start Sash is convinced the baby she is eventually shown is not her baby. Nobody believes her and she faces the nightmare of being diagnosed as psychotic.
This is a difficult subject and the reader is thrown into Sash's nightmare.I don't know why I didn't enjoy it more. Perhaps it was because I really didn't connect with any of the characters. I know many readers rated this highly but I'm afraid for me it was just three stars.
Thanks to Netgalley for giving me the chance to read and review this book.
I have just finished reading Mine by Susi Fox, I was given the chance to read the book in exchange for an honest review. The story is told by Sasha, who has just given birth to a baby boy. When she first sees him she believes he is not her baby, she then goes about trying to prove that he is not here and also find out where her baby has gone. The other part of the story is told by Mark who goes back on time, telly the story of how they met and his past.
I found it an enjoyable book to read although I did feel it was a bit drawn out.
If you enjoy psychological thriller and like trying to work out who did what then you would enjoy this book.
I liked this book a lot , although i really didn't warm to Sasha at all . When she wakes up after an emergency caesarian she is convinced that the baby they take her too is not hers , everyone including her husband and father believe she is suffering from post natal depression , she becomes obsessed with finding her baby and is admitted to the mother and baby psychiatric ward . It's here that it became a little far fetched for me , she trusted people that she had only just met with this idea that her baby had been switched with another . We get to hear that he Mother had serious mental health issues also , so this does make you doubt Sasha .
All in all even with the negative points i still enjoyed it , i had imagined a massive twist that didn't come . But the ending was a satisfactory conclusion . Will look forward to Susi Fox's next book .
A really gripping story. I mistrusted everyone but could never have guessed the ending. I loved this book
I’m in two minds about this book. I did find it moving and definitely a good read but also extremely frustrating. I felt such utter lack of control, as if I were Sasha, that I couldn’t actually enjoy the book itself. What a terrible situation to find yourself in, having no one believe you and everyone believe you to be crazy.
The Australian author Susi Fox Whitelands is herself a doctor tackles many difficult issues within this story. Infertility, premature birth, post natal problems , post natal depression and baby swapping. Being a medical professional the main character Sasha is also in a hospital that she knows has had issues in the past regarding its treatment of patients. Sasha’s pregnancy has been longed for and she awakens from an emergency Caesarian in the hospital she does not trust to be told she has a son having believed she was expecting a girl. Born prematurely he is in intensive care. On seeing him she is convinced that he is not her baby and so begins the traumatic process of trying to convince everyone including her husband, her father and the medical staff that she is right. She is classified as having mental health problems and put into a unit where she and a friend call themselves “the mad mums”.
For me the book did not go along at the tense breakneck speed others have described. The main characters surrounding Sasha all came across as having very troubled backgrounds and secrets of their own so making it difficult to know who to believe and trust in friends, relatives and medical staff. The author integrated the storylines well. My thanks to NetGalley and publisher Penguin Michael Joseph forcan ARC copy of this book to review
I wanted to enjoy this book, sadly I didn't. Thought the plot had mileage but somehow it just didn't come off. Found it very dull and depressing, an uncomfortable read. The husband's story being interwoven with Sasha's lightened it slightly. A shame, could have been betterc
I received a digital ARC of #mine from #netgalley for an honest review.
The book is written in the present day, with glimpses of the past told from Mark's perspective. It is here we see Sasha's history and that of her family.
This is a really sad story about a mothers instinct who believes her baby has been swapped, but no one believes her and thinks she is suffering from postpartum psychosis. as a result she has to be treated and sent to a mother and baby unit. She refuses to give up on her quest to find out the truth though. Can she prove that a mother knows best and that she is right? Will she discover the truth before it's too late.
I couldn't put this down and it had me hooked from the suicide note on the first page! A great emotional read that is well worth adding to your "to read" list for this year!
3.5 stars. I quite enjoyed this book and liked the whole idea behind the storyline. Unfortunately it just felt a bit unrealistic and not very believable.
Thank you so much to the publishers and Netgalley for letting me read this proof in return for an honest review.
This was a tour de force in honest, wrenching detail ,of what it is like to not be believed. The main character, Sasha, wakes up, in hospital, a caesarean scar on her abdomen and no idea where her baby is.
When she is finally taken to special care to meet the girl she was sure she was expecting, she is greeted by a tiny, fragile baby boy she is certain is not hers.
No one believes her, from the medical staff to her own husband. The books goes back and forth to the battle they had to even conceive, and the battle to find out the truth of what has happened to Sasha.
It is incredibly hard reading this first person narrative. Susi Fox writes with conviction about how society expects mothers to behave in a certain way and when they don't , it can be blamed on the mother having postnatal depression.
As a mother myself I can frankly say that the overwhelming love you are supposed to feel when you see your baby for the first time is not always a given. And that is a truth rarely acknowledged between mothers, that it is not always natural and you need to be kind to yourself when learning how to be a parent.
The first person narrative of Sasha is interspersed with that of her husband, and it is not just a gripping mystery as to what, if anything , ahs happened to Sasha's baby, but also what happened to make her change from paeds to pathology as her medical speciality, what really happened to her brother in law and how the secrets we carry can consume us.
Absolutely loved it, thank you so much Netgalley and the publishers for letting me read it in return for an honest review.
3.5 stars.
I am so torn on a rating for this book, it was well written with a brave look at some tough subjects, which at times I thought wow yes this is so right and others, when I felt it was not plausible.
Sasha is a complicated character that made me feel about 101 different emotions. My heart hurt for her when I read parts about her struggles with pregnancy and then went cold when she describes her feelings towards her baby.
The plot starts with Sasha believing after waking from her C_section that her baby has been swapped. She struggles to get anyone to trust what she is saying, even her husband. The reader followers her through the present and back to the past which set a brilliant background into her world.
I am pleased I read this book and feel that it was hard going at times due to the very emotive subject.
I couldn't really get into this book at all. The description had sounded great and it had huge potential. But the writers way of writing the book put me off. I found it hugely annoying. I found it quite repetitive also which is never good.
This was a very difficult but absorbing book to read. I was on Sashas'' side from the beginning and could feel the frustrations that she experienced. I am always amaze\d by human resilience and the ability to make the best of a bad job. This was a brave story to write and I was hooked from beginning to end.
I found this quite an odd book to review as I didn't enjoy the first three quarters of the book but did enjoy the ending.
I struggle with books when I don't identify with the protagonist and in this case I didn't particularly like any of the characters. Sasha just seems too petulant, Mark too send absorbed and the medical staff to vague and hopeless. Perhaps this is a plot device I'm not sophisticated enough to understand?
Anyway three stars and a decent tertiary endingending.
Sasha had a baby through caesarean. When she finally meets her baby, she immediately realizes that something is wrong and that can’t be the baby that she gave birth to. There is absolutely no connection between her and the baby. No warm feelings, no notable resemblance, nothing that she was expecting to feel when she first meets her child. This marks the beginning of her fight to have someone listen to her and finally admit that Toby is not her son.
The story is narrated through two main perspectives and timelines. Sasha’s narrations are focused on her fight to get her ‘real’ baby back. There were heart wrenching moments as readers get to experience her struggles and longing for understanding and assistance. However, there were circumstances that made it hard to completely trust Sasha. I couldn’t immediately decide who to believe. The second narration is by Mark, Sasha’s husband. Through this narration, readers are taken back to the past when the couple met. Through the chapters, readers also get to learn more about this family’s dynamics.
Although there was an ongoing mystery about Sasha’s baby, the story focused on a number of other themes. One that really stood out for me was infertility and other pregnancy related issues. I can’t begin to imagine just how painful these struggle usually are. In this story, Sasha experiences miscarriages and has to try for years before conceiving. Hers is not the only story though as there are other characters facing other motherhood related issues. Another theme that came up was mental health and in particular postpartum depression. These themes were well portrayed in the story. You could tell that they had been well researched by how realistically they were presented. I found myself sympathizing with different female characters due to their struggles with motherhood.
This ended up being an emotional read. That doesn’t mean that the mystery wasn’t well developed. It was and I couldn’t really tell what the truth was about Sasha’s baby until the reveal. There were sections that were slow and the book was a bit long (464 pages) especially given the fact that events take place within seven days. However, I was captivated enough to keep turning pages to the end. This was an interesting, thought-provoking read with very well crafted characters.
Childbirth often doesn't go the way we want it to. But what happens when you're just sure the baby isn't yours, and no one believes you? This was more than a typical psychological thriller, although at the start that was what it seemed to be. It delivered a page turning, but ultimately also a very moving read.
Thanks Netgalley and the Publisher. This book is full of twists and turns and keeps you guessing right to the end. I would highly recommend this book to other readers
I loved this book,I thought I knew how it would end,but just on the last chapter I couldn’t put it down I wanted to know what was happening, the end of the story was a twist ,I would recommend this book