A review by graceham22
Gerbil Mother by Dawn Bryan

tense slow-paced

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

2.0

A book told from the perspective of an unborn child is probably expected to be kinda bad (that’s frankly just a bad premise in my opinion) but somehow this book makes the narration worse by having the fetus be a dark humoured, sarcastic, and harsh voice who feels the need to express her deep rooted, although never justified, hatred for her own mother. The author also struggles with the consistency of the intelligence of the fetal narrator. Gerbil goes from spewing off long words and explaining events she could not have possibly experienced to not understanding basic everyday things. All this made it difficult to begin reading but I found that by the end of the book I became used to the narration style and was at least a little bit intrigued by the characters (hence the 2 stars). Overall, I’d say don’t read it unless you can easily suspend your disbelief or if you enjoy this more experimental style of writing.