A review by nerfherder86
Unbecoming by Jenny Downham

5.0

I just loved this book! It helped that I listened to it on audio: the narrator is the author herself, and unlike other author-read efforts I've tried to listen to, she is fantastic! I loved the British accent, of course, but she does a great job of changing her voice for the three main characters so that you can tell the teenager apart from the middle-aged mom and again from the elderly grandmother. I really enjoyed this intergenerational story, how family secrets were gradually revealed through either flashbacks or by a character reluctantly telling the truth, and that it realistically depicted the condition of dementia/Alzheimer's disease for both the sufferer and those around them. I thought all of the characters were distinct and memorable and had me rooting for them: Mary, the grandmother with dementia, is funny and feisty and sad, not knowing why she has a "blue blank," her name for her memory gap, or why she feels compelled to leave the house every morning towards a destination she can't remember; Katie, the granddaughter, has realistic struggles with bullying and is trying to figure out her sexuality without any parental guidance while also having to be kind of a parent to her grandmother; her mom, Caroline, is the hardest to figure out--why does she hold such a grudge against her own mother that she's never allowed her to be part of Katie's life? Great book for readers who like Sarah Dessen, Sara Zarr and similar realistic stories.