Maternity Leave
Julie Halpern
This is the story of Annie’s life – from the moment right before she gives birth to her son, Sam, to the point where she returns to work. From feeling horribly out of shape to getting back into having sex, Annie isn’t anything like she used to be.
This is the novel of when parenting isn’t smooth sailing. Or perhaps, just parenting in general. It takes a look at how men and women somehow change in the months following their child’s birth, and yet hopefully stay the same.
I’m not sure why this has ‘a novel’ on the front cover. I’m not sure what else it would be? It’s in a sort of diary format, which worked for me. There wasn’t too much leftover stuff that wasn’t relevant. I also enjoyed the emails – you got more hints at how being a mother is not a one-size-fits-all.
It’s totally worth giving this novel to someone expecting a child. I’m not sure it’ll be any good for people who already have children – they have already suffered through this, or have baby brain enough that they can’t concentrate.
If you take nothing else away from this novel, it’s that it’s important to take advantage of the perks that are available to you as a mother. If people say they want to help, try to let them! And feeling absolutely like crap is normal. At any stage. Parenting is hard.
Chomp. Gone in a very short sitting. I’m giving this beauty 4 stars. I don’t read pregnancy or parenting books in general (the closest thing I last read was Aussie Midwives or Nanny Confidential), but this one was a ringer.
I couldn’t work out what the main part of this novel was. Finding someone? Yes, ok. Saving a magazine? Yes, ok. Exposing some sort of crime? Yes, ok. Character development? Nope. Boring stuff about jobs that I didn’t care about? Oh, yes. None of the action happened in the first half. I wanted to love it, I really did.
This book was such a disappointment. All the exciting things promised in the blurb turned out to be completely predictable. The grand secret? Meh. I wasn’t that convinced that her dad had done anything wrong. It’s hard to cope with children, of any kind!
This book was actually enjoyable. I was hesitant. As I say though, Reed is from the people angle. After his son’s accident, he’s one of the people who have pushed forward from the ground up to make a difference in politics to change ordinary people’s lives. As a geneticist, this gets into all sorts of ethical ideas and messes, some of which are discussed here.
I’m not sure what I was expecting from this novel. I wanted something fantasy because I was sick of teenage drama. No fear here – a scrap of ‘isn’t she pretty’, but otherwise fantasy running wild. Very satisfying and light to read.
Whiplash! The ending took me completely by surprise. Phew! My head may have literally flipped backwards. I couldn’t believe it. I just had to keep reading, but in fact, it was in a course of a couple of pages that the whole thing ended up on its head.
Em had to kill to get her new position in the court. I wonder whether some people are looking down on her as having ‘cheated’, and in fact, some of the dialogue is about revenge and trying to hold down sensible ideas after killing people. It’s something I’ve been contemplating lately, with all the fiction I have been reading. It does sound like sometimes the easiest solution is to kill the figurehead!
This should have been called The Slow News Sisters instead of Keep Me Posted. What’s wrong with using a catchy term, even if it is later used in the novel? Not to mention it would have been a heads up for the progress being glacial.
What I loved was that the blending of fact and fiction made me feel at home in the novel. I didn’t object that I never really understood everything behind Lord’s motives. I didn’t mind that there was no happy ending.