Reviews with content warning for Rape - Baby Love

I was a massive fan of Jacqueline Wilson as a child and when I saw this book available on Netgalley I snapped it up immediately.

The book follows Laura- a 14 year old girl in the 1960s, who, after going to the lido with her friend and meeting a French boy, ends up pregnant. Laura seems a lot younger for her age and you realise that during this interaction with said boy, she has no idea what is happening to her, doesn’t understand, so had no way of knowing whether to say no or not.

It goes to show how little young girls knew about sex education back then. I’m not familiar with that time period as I was born in the 90s but things have definitely changed.

The way everything happens is quite gut wrenching as poor Laura is shunned by her parents, called all sorts of names, and sent away without her say so to a mother and baby unit miles away from home. I felt really sorry for her.

However, the ending was not what I expected. It felt overly happy for a book about such a sad topic. However, Jacqueline Wilson cannot write a bad book and I really enjoyed it.

4/5 stars.
Thank you Netgalley for letting me read this book in exchange for an honest review

Content Warnings

drinkthefloor's review against another edition

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dark emotional reflective sad tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

when i got a new brum library card and stepped foot into my local library for the first time in years, it seemed like a new world to me despite feeling so comforting and familiar; it was almost a second home when i was a child. this is a similar way i felt about this book. i remember loving wilson for her rather traumatising children’s books and this one (aimed at older readers) really hit the spot. i think that her writing has aged like fine wine; her newer books are just better and better. it is highly likely that i am extremely biased because of my already being a die hard wilson fan but that’s not the point. this was superb and i read it all in one sitting because i’ve been without sleeping meds for about a month now. could barely move in the afternoon when i eventually woke up. it was such a wild ride. i felt my heart going pitter patter pitter patter and me holding my breath when i anticipated conflicts but still reading on at breakneck speed because i just wanted to know what came next. the protagonist was so endearing and this historical novel set in a world familiar to wilson felt so real too. the themes of gendered violence, gendered labour, class, motherhood, adoption, family, friendship, and education were divine. i especially enjoyed comparisons of social class between the protagonist and her friend which felt extremely relatable. also, the topic of consent which is also a massive theme is so important and good for young people who are still overwhelmingly failed by the state of sex education today.
overall this book was a fantastic read and i would recommend it to anyone who liked wilson in their childhood and to anyone else who wants a fast paced easy to read (due to it being ‘middle grade/young adult’. idk how classifications work) but still compelling and gripping story that will leave you breathless.

Content Warnings

aishamcp's review against another edition

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emotional informative sad medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.0

Content Warnings

lilysaddler's review against another edition

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dark emotional sad medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.0

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lucys_library's review

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challenging emotional lighthearted sad medium-paced

5.0

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ccassidy98's review against another edition

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challenging emotional informative sad tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? N/A

5.0

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panikos's review against another edition

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hopeful informative sad medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

3.5

Jacqueline Wilson was a mainstay of my childhood. I haven't read many of her new releases in recent years - not necessarily because I'm outside the age range, because I'm still a huge fan of children's fiction, but because I've found a lot of her newer books a bit underwhelming. This one caught my eye, however, and I'm really glad I picked it up.

Wilson's writing is always compellingly readable. She sucks you in from the first page and is unfailingly brilliant at inhabiting a child's perspective. Anyone who reads a lot of her books will notice that she's not the most versatile writer, but you can't deny that she's brilliant at what she does. This book treads familiar tropes and beats from her other works. Like Kiss, Bad Girls, and Midnight, we follow a shy girl who is mostly a loner, whose life starts to change when a cooler, more intimidating girl befriends her. It's not original, but it's still enjoyable, and the 1960s setting and darker subject matter distinguishes the story enough for it to be interesting.

For the first 80-ish percent of this book, I was leaning towards giving it four stars. I felt that the setting and the characters were really well drawn, and I loved how Wilson portrayed the class differences between Nina and Laura. The theme of class weighs heavily on the whole book, and while I don't think it's drawn together as cohesively as it could be, I still enjoyed it. It was also grimly fascinating to read about the dreadful treatment of young mothers in the 1960s, with how little support and autonomy they had. I sympathised with Laura a great deal and felt she was completely justified in her anger.

But, as with a lot of Wilson's recent books, the ending felt rather rushed. Everything wrapped up so quickly, and I wasn't a fan of the afterword - it just felt tacked on to tie up the loose ends that hadn't been dealt with properly in the rest of the story.

While I think it's good that the story had an uplifting end, as it would've been crushing if Laura hadn't been allowed to keep her baby, I don't think the execution was that convincing. Her Aunt Susannah barely appears in the rest of the story, so her appearance at the end had a ring of deus ex machina to it. On top of that, the story doesn't really grapple with the difficulties Laura would face growing up as a young mother. It felt a bit rose-tinted to just have it be that Laura keeps her baby and lives happily ever after. Even if she loved her daughter and would never have given her up for anything, it's unlikely that things would've been easy afterwards, so I wish I'd seen a bit more nuance on that front.

With all that said, I do think this is one of Jacqueline Wilson's stronger entries in the last fifteen years, and I'm glad I read it. I think it's a valuable insight into how attitudes have changed, and a worthwhile read for teenagers who want to learn about consent and victim blaming.

Content Warnings

megan_j's review against another edition

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emotional sad medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

Aww, I liked this. When I ordered it I thought it was for older readers and then realised that meant 13-17 so I was a bit out of the range, but I still enjoyed it. Jacqueline is timeless, and I loved her so much when I was younger it made me feel so nostalgic to read her again. All of her books are quite the same, but they still give you a warm feeling inside. But at the same time, this book was incredibly sad, for everyone involved

I’m glad Laura got her happy ending eventually though.

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