A Child's Goodbye - Ali Mercer - ★★★.¼

AUTHOR: Ali Mercer

NARRATOR: Stephanie Lane

GENRE: Women's Fiction

RATING: 3.25 stars.

In a Nutshell: This will be good for fans of emotional family stories. I thought I was one of those, but turns out, my tastes have changed! Mixed feelings about this one, but it is still recommendable.

Story Synopsis:

Callie has always kept the identity of her child’s father a secret from everyone, including her son and his birth father. She has been a happy single mom to her eleven-year-old Billy, despite their financial struggles. However, when she gets badly injured and hospitalised after an accident, Callie wonders if she should unite Billy and his dad, just so that Billy will have someone to care for him in case something happens to her.

The story comes to us in the third person perspective of the key characters.

Bookish Yays:

💐 Billy’s perspective was the best in the book. His voice was authentic to his age, and his thoughts were endearing. He was the only character I liked without reservations.

💐 I appreciate how the author highlighted the prevalence of anxiety issues in children, and how adults might be totally clueless of what their children are going through or doing.

💐 The difficulties of single parenthood come out well in the book.

💐 ‘Who will take care of my child after I am gone’ is a question every mother would have worried over at least once. The story highlights the importance of having reliable people around in case something happens. There’s no point in keeping old grudges just to keep your ego intact.

💐 There are some truly beautiful quotes in the book. The one about the starlight was my absolute favourite.

Confused about Yay or Nay:

🌹 Callie’s character left me with mixed feelings. On one hand, she was a strong woman who didn’t allow her unexpected pregnancy to bog her down. She knew her mind, and she did what was best for her and her child without anyone’s support. On the other hand, most of her problems stemmed from communication issues. She saw only what she wanted to see, and didn’t bother to set things right when there was an opportunity to do so. Therefore, despite the sadness in her arc, I didn’t find myself rooting for her.

Bookish Nays:

🌵 Other than Callie and Billy, the remaining characters didn’t create much of an impression. They had their stock roles to play, and rarely went beyond that requirement.

🌵 There was no direct foreshadowing in the writing, but the extended build-up made things very predictable, thereby not creating any surprise/shock moments. Even intensely emotional moments lost their charm because I could see them coming a mile away.

🌵 It was quite slow-paced. The backstory of the broken relationship went on for too long. The audiobook helped a lot!

🌵 Certain things stay unexplained even until the end.

🌵 I am not a fan of blurbs using the first person when the whole story is in third person. Also, the blurb creates a very different picture of the story. The title also doesn’t suit the book at all.

The Audiobook experience:

The audiobook, clocking at almost 13 hours, was narrated by Stephanie Lane. I didn’t much enjoy the voices she used for some characters, but on the whole, she narrated nicely and I wasn’t bored.

Basically, the parenting struggles are well-written but the rest of the story *mostly* sticks to the tried-and-tested. I think having the audiobook helped me a lot. I don’t know if I would have had as much patience with it if I were actually reading it. There was a time when I used to devour such family dramas, but in the last few years, reality itself has turned so depressing that such stories leave me feeling meh. I am sure it will be more emotionally impactful to the right reader.

Recommended to those who love emotional family-oriented stories, and love being ready with tissues to cry their hearts out.

My thanks to Bookouture Audio and NetGalley for the ALC of “A Child's Goodbye”. This review is voluntary and contains my honest opinion about the audiobook.

Content warnings: Death, sexual abuse, bullying, infidelity. (This last one was totally not needed for the plot – it felt forced.)