A Good Enough Mother by Bev Thomas

This is very much a story of two halves, one of which is very effective and the other that just felt tedious.  The sections set with Ruth at the Trauma Unit are very, very good.  Whether she is in conference with a patient, in a supervisory capacity over Stephanie, in a group meeting with the rest of the unit team or in supervision herself the scenes glow on the page and are very involving.  Lots of little nuances and dialogue that reads in a realistic way.  Then we come to Ruth's life away from the unit and all the good work is undone.  Stilted, trite and stretches credulity.

I can see what the author was trying to achieve - the dichotomy between the professional and intelligent woman and the mother in the grip of grief and uncertainty over the disappearance of her son; the power of transference.  Unfortunately it just didn't work for me, the split between the two sides of Ruth was too great to be believable initially and then as she begins to unravel at work I just wondered why other professionals in the field could not see it.  Ruth's obsession with Daniel is explained well and I could understand her warped rationale.  However, it was clear from the outset that Daniel was fixated on her from before they even met and yet this is never explained.  The relationship between Daniel and Hayley(?) is touched upon briefly and then never mentioned again, not even towards the end of the book when it could prove to be pivotal - it seemed to be raised and then forgotten all about.

For me this book just tried to cover too much ground and became confused about the message it was trying to send.  If it had focused on the themes of love and loss or the themes of fracturing mental states it would have been better for it; by trying to merge the three together it just lost it's way.  There are some really good talking points raised here about mental health care but they get swamped by cloying sentimentality because we had to keep returning to Ruth's navel gazing.  It tries just that little bit too hard.

Whilst I didn't hate it, I would struggle to recommend it as a good read.

THIS IS AN HONEST AND UNBIASED REVIEW OF A FREE COPY OF THE BOOK RECEIVED VIA THE PIGEONHOLE.