Just Like Other Daughters
by
Colleen Faulkner
Title: Just Like Other Daughters
Author: Colleen Faulkner
Publisher: Kensington Books
Release Date: 2nd December 2013 (Paperback)
Formats Available: Paperback, Ebook
Buy This Book: Amazon
Alicia is a fifty year
old woman who has spent the last twenty five years of her life caring
for and loving her daughter Chloe, who was born with Down syndrome.
Alicia has made her life about making Chloe happy and making sure she
always does what is best for her. But when Chloe meets Thomas, a
young mentally challenged man, at her daycare centre and insists she
is in love, Alicia is unsure what to do. She had never envisioned
Chloe growing up and having a romantic relationship with somebody,
had never even considered it. How can her daughter, who can not be
left home alone or who can't deal with simple tasks like sorting dark
and light clothes, really understand the complexities of romantic
love. Alicia must struggle with what she believes is right for her
daughter and what Chloe feels and wants for herself.
I'm not even sure where
I can begin with this book. I just want to grab someone, anyone and tell them to read it, to explain to them why I loved it so much. But it's half
eleven at night so I will have to write about it here instead. I
LOVED IT! I was unsure at first, struggled at times but ultimately
this book won my heart completely and I need to explain why.
I'm going to start by
explaining some of the reasons why I loved it so much. Alicia is a
big part of that. She could definitely frustrate me, I wanted to
reach into my kindle and strangle her at times; I found myself
disagreeing with her occasionally; the things she was saying, doing,
thinking. But that was part of the reason I loved her so much; she
was real. She felt like a real person, talking to me, sharing with
me; like you were having a conversation with someone not just reading
a narrative. Her thoughts and feelings felt so genuine, I could
relate to them and felt that if I were in her situation I would feel
the same. She made mistakes and she could be stubborn but I've never met anyone who isn't. She felt so real to me that I
wanted to meet her, to hug her, to comfort her and tell her not to
worry so much, she's doing an amazing job and she's an amazing
mother. I loved her internal struggles with Chloe's relationship with
Thomas and all the reasons she had for being uncomfortable with it.
The secondary
characters in this book didn't fade into the background which I felt
was really important. There's nothing I hate more in a book then it
being full of one dimensional secondary characters that I struggle to
connect with or feel any emotion towards, good or bad. So another
reason that I rate this book so highly is because I cared for,
laughed with and cried for the other characters in this book, not
just Alicia. Jin, the caring, funny, smart next door neighbour who is
always there for Alicia when she needs someone to talk to. Randall,
the literature professor and and ex-husband who has struggled with
accepting Chloe for who she is since she was born. Chloe, who the
author provided with a few parts of the story from her perspective so
that you could better understand her thought process, what she was
thinking and feeling at times when it really mattered. She loves
Disney movies for one; how could I not love her when she is a girl
after my own heart? I even enjoyed secondary characters like Minnie
Wellson who ran the daycare centre and Thomas' mother Margaret
because of how often I wanted to slap her for being so cheerful and
positive even though she never seemed to really think about a situation.
It's hard for me to
pick out my favourite part of this book as I grew to love it more and
more as it went one. I think the end may just win it though because
of how emotional it made me feel for good reasons and bad reasons. I
can't even describe the sensation I got reaching the end of this
book; I was sad because it was over, that my time with Alicia was
over and I really didn't want her story to end. I wanted to be able
to sit down and drink a good few bottles of wine with her and talk
things through like she does with Jin (which is a feeling I don't
often feel with most books)
The more emotional and
sadder scenes were written so well. I felt the emotion in every
sentence and it would really choke me up at times. This book made me
care; it had me laughing one minute and crying the next and at times
even both at once. When Alicia goes in to detail about the way she had thought of killing Randall and burying him in the garden had me laughing so loudly at my kindle I'm sure I looked crazy.That's what I look for in a book; I need it to
make me care. If I'm not emotionally invested in the characters then
I don't feel the book was worth my time. I can't remember the last
time I read a book that had me as emotional as this one did, that had
me caring so deeply for the characters.
I thoroughly enjoyed
how much this book had to teach me; you could tell that Colleen
Faulkner had put a lot of time and energy into research. I must admit
to knowing very little about Down syndrome and this book taught me a
lot. I was not aware that women with Down syndrome have a lower rate
of conception. Nor did I know that fifty percent of all Down syndrome
people are born with a heart defect.
As I have listed all
the reasons I loved this book, I feel it is only fair I right about
the ways I didn't like it. The story started off really slowly and
events that unfold nearer to the end of the book I felt should have
been introduced around the halfway point or just after as it would
have been more interesting to read about Alicia's thoughts and
feelings on the matter in depth. But this book did keep me guessing
and definitely surprised me at times.
The story seemed to
almost stall at times and didn't grab my attention and make me want
to keep reading but thank goodness that Alicia did. She was such a
strong character and voice that I needed to see where life was going
to take her and how she was going to deal with it.. So that got me
through the parts that didn't grab me as much as I would have liked.
It also jumped from one scene or setting to another so fast that I
almost couldn't keep up at times with who Alicia was talking to from
one sentence to the other.
The end; not that I
didn't care for the ending but that I would have loved an epilogue
set a few years in the future. I really wanted to see how Alicia was
coping with everything that life had thrown at her, I needed to see
how she was doing.
I believe I may have
found a new author to watch out for. I love authors like Jodi Picoult
and Diane Chamberlain and I must admit this had the same kind of feel
to it. I would definitely recommend to anyone who liked any of the
following:
The Memory KeepersDaughter – Kim Edwards
House Rules – Jodi
Picoult
Before the Storm –
Diane Chamberlain
Three books I
thoroughly enjoyed that also show the relationships between mentally
challenged children and their parents.
4/5 Stars
Prepare to laugh and
prepare to cry, whether it be tears of joy or tears of
sadness. This is a book that will make you care, that will pull you
in and make you fall in love with Alicia and feel all her emotions
right along with her. It has been quite some time since a book has
made me care quite so much and I hope you can find the same enjoyment
I did from this book and if you don't I would love to hear why.
*I received a copy of this novel from the author/publisher/publicist via
Netgalley in exchange for a free and honest review and received no
monetary compensation for this review.
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