The Child by Fiona Barton
This is the second book by Fiona Barton that I have read!
A skeleton of a baby is found buried in an area where a construction crew is working on in London. Reporter, Kate Waters, starts investigating, trying to figure out who the baby is and what happened. There are two women in deep pain, Angela and Emma. Forty years ago, Angela’s infant daughter Alice was stolen from the hospital as Angela went to take a much needed shower. And so anytime a dead baby is discovered, Angela follows up with the police to see if it’s her Alice. Emma has a secret that she has never told anyone, not even her husband. Emma is sure that the dead baby is hers and she is waiting for the police to come and arrest her.
The themes I saw:
A mother’s love for her child –
Angela loved her daughter, Alice even though she was with her for a very short time after she was born. The contrast is Jude’s relationship with her daughter, Emma. Emma can’t tell that her mother loves her because her mom always picks her boyfriends over her daughter.
Victim blaming –
The police blame Angela for leaving her baby unattended while she went to take a shower. Angela is the victim and the jerk who stole Angela’s baby is the only one to blame.
Will blames Emma for “tempting him”. Disgusting! Emma was a child and Will was a grown man. As a grown man it was Will’s responsibility to not look at a child in a sexual way and to definitely not act on that impulse!
Emma blames herself for getting pregnant even though she never wanted to have sex that first time that led to her pregnancy. And so Emma hid her pregnancy then gave birth alone in her bathtub. That must have been so scary and painful for her!
Motherhood –
Being a good mother isn’t something that a woman is born with and the moment she has a child – BOOM – she becomes a good mother. It is a skill that a mother works on. Jude should never have been a mother, she wanted to focus on keeping her man happy; which would have been fine but there was a child in the picture.
I cried at the end of the book! It was sad but it left me feeling good and hopeful since the ending was a happy one! Let me know what you thought.
Olusala Sisters 