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One Child, Two Women, A Battle of Wills

Author: Jennifer Van Der Kleut

Savannah is 34. She thought she had everything sorted out: the perfect relationship, heading toward marriage and a family, with a rising career. But then her boyfriend suddenly left her, and now her job is taking a nosedive.

The dating game is just as difficult as she last remembers, and it’s hard to find hope again. She goes on a few dates, has a few flings. But nothing sticks. It seems that her hopes for the future – husband, house, baby – are all over.

Then she turns up pregnant from a casual relationship with a man named Max. They only went on a few dates. It was going well, but then it just fizzled. Realizing that maybe she can have at least a part of her dream, and determined to be a good parent and a fair person, she decides to keep the baby and tells Max. She won’t deprive her child of a father if he wants to be involved. But . . . perhaps she should.

Max has gotten back with his girlfriend, Madison, and surprisingly the couple is over-the-moon about the news. In fact, Madison is into everything baby and the oh-so-civilized relationship goes from polite to intense to creepy to dangerous.

Soon, Madison is dropping by at all hours, bringing food and unwanted advice. She seems to know everything Savannah has done, everywhere she’s been, everything she has eaten or not eaten, and her desire to help is taking on a sinister air. Max says he doesn’t see it, but perhaps he isn’t as innocent or as oblivious as he seems.

With the due date drawing near, strange things start to happen. Everything Savannah holds true starts to crumble. She must find hope and courage again to fight for this child and ultimately her very life.

Image by Luciana from Pixabay

The Better Mother is a breathless ride, skating between thriller and outright drama. We start when Savannah is happy and sure of herself. By the time we have watched her hopes dissolve, we are thoroughly engaged in her emotions and longings. She’s 34 and life hasn’t turned out the way she wanted. The clock is ticking on everything, and she is torn between the herculean effort of trying again and the temptation to just give up.

And so, by the time Savannah puts two and two together and realizes that the best laid plans have formed a little differently, we’re invested in her. We know that this baby is her hope realized, and we feel torn between her fears (being a single mother with a career is beyond hard) and her hopes (she has what she has always wanted, at last).  It’s natural, it’s bittersweet, it’s a complicated person in a complicated situation.

When Savannah takes the extra step to tell the father, whom she no longer sees, we’re once again impressed by her fairness, despite what has happened in her life.

Enter Madison, a delightful villain you will just love to hate. She’s carefully planned everything to make Savannah look insane, and while we see through her plots, it’s easy to see why others wouldn’t. Madison has the technology, the reach, the connections, and the bubbly yet oddly calculating personality that is just perfect for this role, and every scene with her is a battle of the will, of the mind, of the said and unsaid. It’s hard to put town, and the pages soon start to fly as the situation escalates.

While some of Madison’s ploys have us wondering how Savannah didn’t see through them herself (the CPS social worker), many of them are multifaceted and well thought out, eerily possible. I was at turns enraged and delighted, enjoying the book while at the same time hating what was happening to Savannah, hating the smugness of Madison with her baby-stealing plans, hating a world that believed Madison over the obviously innocent and beleaguered Savannah.

Finally, we get to the conclusion where we find out all the gory details. The book loses steam a little bit here, because ultimately, it’s not a horror book and so Savannah must be rescued, however unlikely that may be. Enter a side character, a gaping plot hole that leaves us wondering if Madison is losing it, and some convenient assumptions and “you can’t catch me anyway” admissions. The book deserved more thoughtfulness in the conclusion, but I was already so invested, so thoroughly intrigued, and enjoying myself so much, that I embraced the fickleness of fiction and let it all happen anyway, because I wanted Savannah to win as well.

I read this book in a few days, despite having a pile of other books I am reading simultaneously. It just captured me, and drew me into its dark, terrifyingly possible world. Highly recommended but be prepared to be nearly stifled by the sense of injustice and loathing you’ll have towards the detestable Madison.

– Frances Carden

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Frances Carden
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