What Was Mine: A Book Club Recommendation! by Helen Klein Ross (Epub)

Description

“A suspenseful, moving look at twisted maternal love and the limits of forgiveness.” —People “Not only a terrific, spellbinding read but a fascinating meditation on the choices we make and the way we love.” —Elin Hilderbrand, New York Times bestselling author Simply told but deeply affecting, in the bestselling tradition of Alice McDermott and Tom Perrotta, this urgent novel unravels the heartrending yet unsentimental tale of a woman who kidnaps a baby in a superstore—and gets away with it for twenty-one years.Lucy Wakefield is a seemingly ordinary woman who does something extraordinary in a desperate moment: she takes a baby girl from a shopping cart and raises her as her own. It’s a secret she manages to keep for over two decades—from her daughter, the babysitter who helped raise her, family, coworkers, and friends. When Lucy’s now-grown daughter Mia discovers the devastating truth of her origins, she is overwhelmed by confusion and anger and determines not to speak again to the mother who raised her. She reaches out to her birth mother for a tearful reunion, and Lucy is forced to flee to China to avoid prosecution. What follows is a ripple effect that alters the lives of many and challenges our understanding of the very meaning of motherhood. Author Helen Klein Ross, whose work has appeared in The New Yorker, weaves a powerful story of upheaval and resilience told from the alternating perspectives of Lucy, Mia, Mia’s birth mother, and others intimately involved in the kidnapping. What Was Mine is a compelling tale of motherhood and loss, of grief and hope, and the life-shattering effects of a single, irrevocable moment.

User’s Reviews

Editorial Reviews: Review “What Was Mine is an emotionally-grounded read…By giving readers the chance to examine what may be unforgivable, Ross brings an entirely new twist to the usual abduction story. Fans of Gillian Flynn and Maria Semple will enjoy the intensely introspective What Was Mine.” (Booklist ) “A compelling and moving story that asks many questions about family, love, and justice… Moving at a hard-to-put-down, breathless pace, this is suspenseful fiction at its best.” (Library Journal (starred review) )“Helen Klein Ross has written a truly brilliant book. I’m obsessed by the change this book made in my thinking of what is, and what is not, forgivable.” (Abigail Thomas, New York Times bestselling author of A Three Dog Life ) “A suspenseful, moving look at twisted maternal love and the limits of forgiveness.” (People Magazine (Best New Books Pick) ) “Helen Klein Ross–like Amity Gaige with Schroder, or Emma Donoghue with Room–takes a shocking premise and uses it to illuminate our human condition. A writer of compelling lucidity and vivid precision, she has compassion for all her characters.” (Claire Messud, New York Times bestselling author of The Woman Upstairs )”Not only a terrific, spellbinding read but a fascinating meditation on the choices we make and the way we love.” (Elin Hilderbrand, New York Times bestselling author of The Rumor ) “In a tale ripe with opportunities for drama, Helen Klein Ross never puts a foot wrong. She lets the story tell itself, and in so doing heightens both suspense and emotional impact. Readers will be moved to understanding, but never to judgmentalism. A stellar performance, and highly recommended.” (Ann Arensberg, National Book Award winner )“Sometimes heartbreaking, sometimes joyous, and always riveting, What Was Mine masterfully makes you question where your sympathy should lie at every turn. I couldn’t put down this fast-paced, fascinating psychological study of motherhood.” (Lynn Cullen, bestselling author of Twain’s End and Mrs. Poe )”Ross crafts a surprisingly sensitive meditation on the definitions of family and motherhood around a ripped-from-the-tabloids story… Ross deftly creates genuinely sympathetic characters and emotionally resonant prose around what could have felt sensationalistic.” (Publishers Weekly )”Ross’s prose is both readable and enjoyable, and she touches on interesting ideas about identity, family, and the malleability of the human psyche.” (Kirkus ) “Helen Klein Ross pulled me into her intimate tale of loss, love, redemption, and forgiveness that had me turning pages long into the night. You’ll fall in love with What Was Mine.” (Marci Nault, author of The Lake House )”A powerful plot told with exactly the right approach, What Was Mine is capable of sparking plenty of discussion, whether it is over a water cooler, in a book club or simply in the reader’s mind.” (Shelf Awareness )”Helen Klein Ross writes with such emotion from all sides.” (Fresh Fiction ) About the Author Helen Klein Ross’s fiction and poetry has been published in The New Yorker, The New York Times, the Los Angeles Times, StoryQuarterly, and other journals and anthologies. She won the Iowa Review Award in poetry, Mid-American Review’s Fineline Competition, was a finalist for the Lexi Rudnitsky First Book Prize, and was nominated for a Pushcart Prize. Like DeLillo and Ferris, she is a veteran of advertising and spent many years at global ad agencies in San Francisco and New York City. Helen created the award-winning ad blog AdBroad in 2007. Her fictional Twitter handle @BettyDraper has earned press coverage in Time and The Wall Street Journal, a Shorty Award for innovation, and 35,000+ followers.

Reviews from Amazon users which were colected at the time this book was published on the website:

⭐I did not care for this book. Had I not committed to reading it for my Book Club, I would have chucked it after the first ten chapters.The whole point of reading fiction is for enjoyment, to connect with the characters, to feel their emotions and get lost in the story. This didn’t happen for me.The author’s style was devoid of emotion, just a recitation of events from a cast of characters, many of which were rendered in a mundane and uninteresting manner. The author tends to get lost in her own prose, which is when the reader (me) started skimming. Pretty? Yes. Interesting? Not so much. A large chunk of the first half of the book consisted of backstory, which should be used in small, digestible bites, and sparingly. It felt like I was reading three different stories, most of which in my opinion bogged down the storyline, not advancing the plot at all. {Did I say plot? What plot?}I was never able to connect with the characters. I mean, who kidnaps a baby on impulse … and raises said child for twenty-one years under a cloud of lies and without a lick of remorse, I might add – until she got caught. The only reason Lucy was sorry in the end was because she got found out.And the ending … wait, what ending? That had to be the most unsatisfying “The End” in history. Not my cup of tea.

⭐DEC 2021 : 4 STARS. Lucy Wakefield is a seemingly ordinary woman who does something extraordinary in a separate moment. She takes a baby girl from a shopping card and raises her as her own. It’s a secret she manages to keep for over two decades from her daughter, the babysitter who helped raise her, family, coworkers and friends. When Lucy’s now grown daughter Mia discovers the devastating truth of her origins, she is overwhelmed by confusion and anger and is determined not to speak to her “mother” again who raised her. She reaches out to her birth mother for a tearful reunion. What follows is a ripple effect that alters the lives of many and challenges our understanding of the very meaning of motherhood.This was the first book I read by this author and came highly recommended by two friends (@edie3 and @maryland). I like this author’s writing style. Loved all the different points of view; I felt for everyone. I coudln’t read fast enough to get to the end. This book was heading towards a 5-star rating until I got to the final sentence, which I didn’t know was even possible until I turned the page expecting more. I was so disappointed I almost dropped to 3 stars but settled for 4. I would be hoping for a sequel, but since this book was from 2016, I doubt that is happening.

⭐I wanted to like this one more. I appreciated the different points of view, and the idea that everyone believes themselves to be “right” over anyone else – I think it’s a great example of humanity. However, Mia seemed extremely stunted to me, and more like a 15 or 16 year old girl than the young woman we were given the last half of the book. Perhaps this was intentional. I do think she was intended to come off as a bit sheltered in some ways after having a devoted mother/nanny her whole life doing everything for her.My other issue was the ending. I always feel these fade to black styles are cop outs. Yes, we can draw conclusions based on everything else happening in the story but it still lacks closure.Bottom line: This was a quick read, and the multi person view point and story weaving was very well done. Though some characters didn’t mature as I expected, and the ending felt unfinished, I’d definitely give this author another chance. If you’re curious, pick this one up!

⭐I really can’t imagine how I would have reacted to any of the character’s situations, especially Marilyn.To have a child stolen, your life turned upside down and inside out, actually, I can’t imaging surviving it!The author spent the just enough time describing the emotional trauma of each character affected, without overloading the reader with the voluminous descriptions of pain they must have experienced.Having each character narate the different chapters ensured that the reader knew without a doubt who was doing the talking. That method worked very well in this situation.This is definitely a book for a book club. It presents enough fodder for many different discussions.

⭐Beautiful book but have also read this under another name

⭐Excellent book! Didn’t want to put this one down. The whole book was amazing… I can’t imagine ever having to go through this. One thing I was really disappointed in was the ending. I think for how amazingly well she wrote this book…..she could have done so much more with the ending… and that’s why I rate this book 4 stars.

⭐What was mine was well written. I had never read a book about kidnapping before and it was very interesting. The different relationships that are formed and how a kidnapper can justify waht she has done. You get to really know the main characters. A good read.Candice

⭐The ending was awful. Trigger warning for anyone who is/has struggled with infertility.

⭐It was a good read. It puts you in the mind of what is right and wrong from both sides.

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