Title: The New Son
Author: Iain Maitland
Publisher: Inkubator Books
Pages: 268
My GoodReads Rating: ⭐⭐
Nina
lives with her partner, Gary, and his 16yo daughter Chloe from a previous
marriage with ex-wife Gemma. They are not married, but Nina hopes to settle
down next year. She is still dealing with the pain of a miscarriage, and with
the lack of support from Gary, who is controlling, and Chloe, who is
disrespectful and rude.
Nina
longs to be a mother. She receives her first glimmer of joy and hope in the
longest time the day 19yo Alex, the child she gave up for adoption, turns up on
her doorstep. Now named Liam Riley, he was born of a teenage pregnancy at 15
when she had sex with her boyfriend, and the love of her life, Ryan, also aged
15 then. Nina can’t wait to have a happy family.
A day
later, Liam says that he needs a place to stay and moves into Nina’s house. At
first, Gary welcomes Liam, assuming that his adoptive parents are rich and that
he can con him into parting with cash. But then he works out that Liam is not
Nina’s cousin, and he becomes furious. He confronts Liam and disaster ensues.
Nina
is now in the difficult position of having to support one beloved man against
another. How can she begin to do that? And what does she really know about the
son she has just met? Is he really as innocent as he portrays himself? Or does
he have a sinister agenda?
The
book, written in the first-person present tense PoV of Nina, is divided into
three parts: Part I: The Reckoning, Part II: Truths or Lies, and Part III The
Unravelling.
WHAT I
LIKED: The first plot point, at the end of Part I, marks a turning point for
Nina, a point of no return, and we find ourselves on the edge of our seats as
she becomes increasingly desperate and beside herself as a reaction to that
event. At this point, Nina was an interesting character, especially given her
overactive imagination and her naivete.
I
began to warm up to Nina only after she admitted to herself that she wanted
Gary gone. The pace improved markedly after a particular critical plot point
takes place. I won’t mention it since the book synopsis doesn’t, but the story
takes a bizarre turn, compounding Nina’s difficulties.
WHAT I
DIDN’T LIKE:
Not
one of the characters was likeable, but they were true to type. Gary was a
classic example of the kind of man that no woman should have anything to do
with. He has low self-esteem and he tries to compensate by trying to control
Nina.
She,
on her part, tries to “make him feel good about himself”. I detested both Gary
and Chloe, and Nina for putting up with it. She admitted that she was being
taken advantage of, but she accepted the situation mutely. Not once did she
ever speak up for herself.
I
couldn’t understand why Nina put up with Gary and Chloe. It is her house, and
she is the one who pays the bills. Plus, she cooks and cleans up, and puts up
with the tantrums of the father and daughter. It would have been nice if she
had a little more spirit.
There
were other ways in which she was naïve. Whenever someone wanted to share their
mobile number with her, she would hand over her phone to them, and share her
passcode, instead of entering the number herself.
Right
at the start, Nina proceeds to give us information about her life. And it’s all
Tell, no Show. Also, she’s not very quick on the uptake. It takes her very long
to question things; for the most part, she quietly accepts whatever is told to
her.
Long
after the 75 percent mark, there was a monotonous lack of action. The action
relating to the climax came out of the blue, without sufficient cause or
provocation. The twist that came up at this time was far from impactful. Also,
there was no real closure about what happened after the end of the last
chapter.
WHAT
DIDN’T QUITE WORK:
Nina
kept repeating over and over that Ryan was her one true love. It got annoying
the second time, but she kept doing it so many times, I lost count.
Nina’s
dream/nightmare sequences were totally unnecessary and detailed and all too
many. They served no purpose other than to assert the power of the author’s
imagination. The description of one nightmare would have been more than enough.
Chapter
3 carries a subhead, Tuesday, 18 July. It should have been Tuesday, 4 July.
The
book would have been better if it had focused on the sociopathic tendencies of
another character, instead of giving us only Nina’s PoV. It would have
made the antagonist a lot more menacing, instead of the tepid and dull
character we saw here.
There
were some inconsistencies. First Nina tells us that she has nothing to do with
the neighbours, then says that she occasionally has a brief chat with Tony, the
neighbour on her left.
One
minor character blackmails Nina about something really bad, and then doesn’t
follow up on the threat in any way. It’s as if the character just forgets that
they had ever made any threat.
In the
Epilogue, the 3rd person omniscient narrator tells us that a
particular woman is a widower. The right word is widow.
ALL
SAID AND DONE: I had chosen to read this, believing that it had potential. This
one didn’t work for me.
(I read this book on NetGalley. Thank you to the author, the publisher and NetGalley.)
