17 July 2015

Review #274: Pretty Baby by Mary Kubica



My rating: 5 of 5 stars


“There is no exercise better for the heart than reaching down and lifting people up.” 


----John Holmes



Mary Kubica, the national best-selling American author, pens her new psychological thriller, Pretty Baby, that unfolds a gripping and mystifying story about a woman who helps a homeless teenager and baby by providing them shelter and food in her own home, thus resulting in a unbreakable marital distance between herself and her husband, but when this teenager's story started surfacing up, things take a wrong turn thus making the woman question her decision about providing shelter to that teenager on the first place. After all it has been rightly said, "Do not judge a book by it's covers!"




Synopsis:

She sees the teenage girl on the train platform, standing in the pouring rain, clutching an infant in her arms. She boards a train and is whisked away. But she can't get the girl out of her head...

Heidi Wood has always been a charitable woman: she works for a nonprofit, takes in stray cats. Still, her husband and daughter are horrified when Heidi returns home one day with a young woman named Willow and her four-month-old baby in tow. Disheveled and apparently homeless, this girl could be a criminal—or worse. But despite her family's objections, Heidi invites Willow and the baby to take refuge in their home.

Heidi spends the next few days helping Willow get back on her feet, but as clues into Willow's past begin to surface, Heidi is forced to decide how far she's willing to go to help a stranger. What starts as an act of kindness quickly spirals into a story far more twisted than anyone could have anticipated.



Heidi Wood is a mid-aged wife with a husband named Chris, who is more interested in the new office girl, and a jealous 12 year old daughter, Zoe. Heidi has a quality, she can't stop herself from helping others, be it homeless cats to homeless strangers. When Heidi sees a young teenager with a baby on a packed platform, her heart melts away. But when she sees her again after a few days, she takes up the opportunity to help that teenager and her baby by inviting them to her condo for an indefinite period of time. Now Heidi here is haunted by the consequences of her life as she once had a bad pregnancy, which is still kept her broken from all those pain. There is one slight problem about Willow's real identity, or whether even Willow is telling the truth about herself on the first place.


The novel centers around some social issues like homelessness of an orphan, being selfless towards people, humanity, foster care along with other family issues like marriage and relationships. These themes have been incorporated into the storyline very strongly and effectively because at the end of the book, the readers are forced to look through the fractures of a foster care.

The writing is absolutely fantastic though it takes a few chapters for the readers to adjust with the author's writing style which is very descriptive and contains visual imagery. The prose is evocative as it brings up the past and the pain related to it with the articulate narrative style that flows with ease and makes the readers perceive the depth of the storyline perfectly.

From the story, it feels the author have a strong grip over her psychologically challenged characters which are either depicted as flawed or broken up by their past. The story is told from Heidi, Chris as well as Willow's POV. In the begining the author gives the readers a brief sketch and outline of her main characters and leaving them with breadcrumbs with their mysteries. Slowly, along with Willow's mysterious identity, the rest of the main characters started to unfold vividly thus making the readers contemplate and understand the wounds of each character.

Heidi might annoy with her suspicious as well as curious demeanor although she behaved like a selfless woman most of the time. Whereas Willow is one of the most brilliant characters that I've ever come across in a psychological thriller, she fits the bill perfectly and she is the one who shows the readers with the defects in the highly-polished society.

There are many layers to the mystery which peels it's each layer teasingly, thus will keep the readers hooked on till the very end. The mystery has also been mixed with lots of emotions and compassion. The climax is so unexpected that will sure to throw the readers off their edges.

Verdict: A must-read psycho-thriller.

Courtesy: Thanks to the publisher for the ARC of this book. 
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Author Info:
Mary Kubica holds a Bachelor of Arts degree from Miami University in Oxford, Ohio, in History and American Literature. She lives outside of Chicago with her husband and two children and enjoys photography, gardening and caring for the animals at a local shelter. THE GOOD GIRL is her first novel.
Visit her here 


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