Book Description:
THIS MOTHER’S DAY YOU WILL CALL HER MUMMY
Glamorous, beautiful Mummy has everything a woman could want. Except for a daughter of her very own. So when she sees Kim – heavily pregnant, glued to her phone and ignoring her eldest child in a busy shop – she does what anyone would do. She takes her. But foul-mouthed little Tonya is not the daughter that Mummy was hoping for.
As Tonya fiercely resists Mummy’s attempts to make her into the perfect child, Kim is demonised by the media as a ‘scummy mummy’, who deserves to have her other children taken too. Haunted by memories of her own childhood and refusing to play by the media’s rules, Kim begins to spiral, turning on those who love her.
Though they are worlds apart, Mummy and Kim have more in common than they could possibly imagine. But it is five-year-old Tonya who is caught in the middle…
CALL ME MUMMY. IT’LL BE BETTER IF YOU DO.
My Thoughts:
Kim is one of those mother’s where it’s hard not to be quick to judge. She is far from being a perfect mum but then again who is. Admittedly I didn’t really warm to her character although I did feel empathy towards her and what she was going through. Being a parent I know only to well how you only need to turn your back on your little darlings for a second and they can disappear from sight. Those few seconds until you clamp eyes on them again feels an age and it literally is the worst feeling.
The story flicks mainly between Kim and Mummy, the woman who has taken Tonya. There are also some very short chapters from Tonya’s point of view. In fact the majority of the chapters are probably one to two pages long and it is definitely a case of just one more and before you know it, I had flown through this novel. I loved Tonya. For a five year old she really is a gutsy little girl and I couldn’t help raise a smile at her little outbursts.
Obviously to take someone else’s child you have to be quite mentally unstable. As the story goes along, we get to see just how unstable this particular character is. We get to see glimpses of their own upbringing as well as their adult life and it is far from a happy one. You certainly can’t condone what she has done but then in a way she gets more than what she bargains for when it comes to Tonya.
Call Me Mummy is the authors debut novel and what an engrossing read it was. Due to the short chapters, it didn’t take long to read but a lot of that also has to do with how well written it is. It is dark and disturbing yet I couldn’t turn those pages quick enough as things start to unravel. A cracker of a debut and can’t wait to see what the author brings us next.
My thanks to Viper books for a readers copy of this book. All opinions are my own and not biased in anyway.
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