Title: A Mother's Betrayal
Author: Louise Guy
Publisher: Boldwood Books
Pages: 388
My GoodReads Rating: ⭐⭐1/2
Thirty-six-year-old
identical twins, lawyer Arabella ‘Ari’ and nurse Florence ‘Flo’ Hudson, have a
tight bond. Though far from close to their mother, neuroscientist Julia, she is
still a very influential figure in their lives.
After
her sixty-sixth birthday, Julia takes a flight to Canberra, and meets with a
horrible accident. At the same time, Kayden, Flo’s six-year-old son, falls ill
mysteriously, and the family has their hands full, stressing and caring for
both patients.
It
turns out that Kayden needs a rare type of blood, known as the Bombay
phenotype, which presumably he inherited from his father. A transfusion of his
father’s blood could save him. The trouble is that everyone thinks Kayden was
born out of a one-night-stand his mother had. Only Florence knows the truth
about his parentage, and she fears that revealing that truth will destroy her
closest relationship.
Meanwhile,
as Julia lies in a coma, a man in his sixties, Scott Cohen, shows up, claiming
to be her colleague and partner. The family is torn apart, fearing their mother
has been leading a double life for years. Ari and Flo read through her
journals, increasingly shocked at the truth they find in its pages. Had their
mother been manipulating them all these years?
The
Hudson family is left floundering as one after another, lies, betrayal and
deception surface, threatening to destroy them all.
The
book is set in Melbourne, Australia.
Initially,
the language felt a little stilted, the dialogue unnatural. At one point, the
father, Mike, told Flo that it was his wedding anniversary. Shouldn’t a
daughter have known that? The daughter wishes him in a lacklustre manner.
Florence’s
son, Kayden, spoke like no six-year-old ever does.
In the
first few chapters of the book, there was very little to move the action
forward. The action moved up a gear only at the 16 percent mark when Julia
meets with a horrific accident.
Julia
has spent upwards of thirty years, flitting between her home in Melbourne and
her workplace in Canberra, spending a week in each city. It is hard to imagine
any government permitting such an arrangement, let alone for 30 years.
I
found Julia as a character very annoying and unreal. It was a pain that
everyone had to jump through hoops to please or accommodate her. Julia’s
husband, Mike, going out of his way to mollify her every time, seemed like a
douche of a man. The entire family was constantly tiptoeing around her moods.
The family dynamic was weird.
While
the women’s professions are talked about frequently, it is unclear what the men
are doing. Mike plays golf, and is presumably retired, but what he spent his
lifetime doing is unclear.
Much
is made out of Julia’s work. It’s all top-secret and confidential, but the few
scraps of information we are given about it makes it appear banal and boring. I
got the sense that the author hadn’t thought this one through, cloaking it all
in hush-hush speak to give us the impression that there’s more there than we
understand.
The
author seems to have no idea how age works. The daughters are 36, and their
mother, at 66, is exactly 30 years older. We don’t know the age of Gigi,
Julia’s mother, but assuming she was at least 20 when Julia was born, that
makes her 86. But not a word is said about how she might be coping with living
alone, driving around by herself etc. The news of Julia’s accident, we are
told, makes her look 10 years older, but age doesn’t just manifest itself in
looks.
SPOILER
I
found both Ari and Ryan insufferable, both acting as though she has been
terribly wronged. Agreed that what Flo and Kayden’s father did was wrong, but
Ari is quick to forgive him, but treats her own sister as if she were the
greatest betrayer ever. Kayden's father doesn’t even have to ask Ari for her
forgiveness. Perhaps she remembers her own wrongdoing against him. But when it
comes to forgiving Flo, she forgets the big lie she once told and the act of
wrongdoing that she herself committed.
(I read this book on NetGalley. Thank you to the author, the publisher and NetGalley.)
