My rating: 5 of 5 stars
I’ve been waiting for this book to come out in paperback ( I don’t hold with buying hardbacks). I love Julie Cohen’s books and this one sounded particularly intriguing.
Dear Thing is about parents – single parents, reluctant parents, wannabe parents, the lot. Claire and Ben want a baby. Romily, their friend, agrees to be a surrogate parent to Claire and Ben. Of course, it’s not that simple, because Romily has been in love with Ben for years.
This is an interesting love triangle (quadrangle, if you include the baby). The subject of parental love – that bond that connects adults to the children they look after, which goes beyond the mere connection by genetic material – is seen from all kinds of angles. This is a well written, sensitive book.
I particularly liked the character of Claire, who is kind and sensitive and hurting so much from baby-envy that she comes across as prickly. I was totally absorbed in the individual distress of Claire and Romily. I liked Jarvis, but I thought Ben was an insensitive, self centred git.
I read this book until well after midnight and picked it up again first thing the next morning. It’s that sort of book. It made me smile. It made me cry. As you’ve probably guessed by now – I loved it.
Rhoda Baxter 