Reviews tagging 'Infertility'

The Perfect Child by Lucinda Berry

99 reviews

secretlybatman4's review

adventurous challenging dark emotional informative mysterious sad tense fast-paced

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

4.0

Knocked a star off because Christopher really annoyed me and the ending was just…. Abrupt. I was hoping for more just to tie up the end of the Baurs story. The beginning was boring af too so I almost stopped reading but then I pushed through and I consumed to book very quickly. Definitely will read more books by Dr Berry.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Death, Domestic abuse, Eating disorder, Emotional abuse, Infertility, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Physical abuse, Terminal illness, Torture, Toxic relationship, Grief, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Gaslighting, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Bullying, and Abandonment

Minor: Alcohol

uchihas's review against another edition

challenging dark sad tense slow-paced

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

3.0

A fairly predictable story but the writing style, while a little flat in the beginning, was easy to read and flowed well. The story kept me interested regardless! Most of the characters were likable but Christopher was INFURIATING most of the time, and I wasn’t a fan of the ending even though it was the logical turn of events - just felt like things could’ve been tied up a bit more neatly. 

Please be aware there’s a somewhat graphic depiction of animal cruelty at one point! 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse and Pregnancy

Moderate: Animal death, Infertility, Mental illness, Miscarriage, Violence, Excrement, Vomit, Medical content, Grief, Murder, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Bullying, Cursing, Drug abuse, Drug use, and Panic attacks/disorders

laurapaige's review against another edition

challenging dark fast-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Infertility, Mental illness, Physical abuse, Violence, Excrement, Vomit, Gaslighting, Abandonment, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Forced institutionalization, and Murder

Minor: Death, Domestic abuse, and Miscarriage

allielippe's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional sad tense medium-paced

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

4.0

The authors epilogue was cut on the editing floor, but she reads it on YouTube, it makes a much more satisfying ending than the book. Wish it had stayed in! 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Child abuse, Child death, Death, Emotional abuse, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Physical abuse, Excrement, Grief, Death of parent, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , and Gaslighting

Moderate: Infertility, Miscarriage, Violence, Vomit, and Pregnancy

chronicallyplotting's review against another edition

dark mysterious reflective tense fast-paced

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

5.0

What did I just read?! I could hardly get myself to put this book down! It was so creepy,  disturbing, scary and yet I had to keep reading. I had to know what happened next. The character dynamics and shifts were amazing, I love how the author changes characters personalities in ways we don’t expect at times. Not only do we feel their POVs of the storylines change but also their thought processes of telling us what is going on and their emotions. We can feel each persons connection with each character to the point we start to love Janie through Christopher but forget we hate her through Hannah’s eyes. 
This is a book I will be gladly recommending to others to read but also adding the words… “don’t judge me” after it. 
Wow. I am impressed with the suspense and creep factor. 
And I am thrilled to have found another author who is using their career to write their novels.  Lucinda Berry’s novels being blurred lines between fiction and nonfiction based on patients she has potentially studied or had, this makes reading this book even more thrilling. The fact that characters like Janie exist is scary. 

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Child abuse, Confinement, Eating disorder, Infertility, Mental illness, Miscarriage, Excrement, Medical trauma, Murder, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Abandonment, and Injury/Injury detail

emmasbookishself's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional mysterious tense medium-paced

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

5.0

WOW, what a ride!

If you enjoy creepy, dark, psychological thrillers this one is for you. I don’t want to give much away, but this is a quick one that will keep you on the edge of your seat. (This was amazing on audio) 

There’s an obvious level of insight and knowledge within this book as the author is also a trauma psychologist, and she was able to use that to really set the emotion and scenes. 

I went into this one blind, but would recommend  he king TWs before reading as it deals with seriously heavy subject matter. 

Hannah and Christopher were ready to start a family of their own, without much luck. They exhausted many resources and are now looking at adoption as an option. 

A child severely abused and mistreated has been taken to the hospital that both Hannah and Christopher work at. Christopher is involved with Janie right away as he would be the one performing many of her surgeries to correct and heal prior injuries. 

Christopher develops a sense of obligation to protect and look after Janie, and she too is completely smitten with Christopher. With Janie’s stay at the hospital nearing its end, Christopher knows Janie will need to be placed in a foster home temporarily. No foster family that has been interviewed seems to be the right fit, so Christopher suggests to Hannah that they temporarily foster her. After all, they‘d be one of the most equipped couples to help Janie, both medically and financially. 

Fostering Janie has been no easy feat there’s endless battles, from screaming for no reason, reverting back to old habits, and plain cruelty. Despite the challenges they decide to adopt Janie officially. Everything goes as well as expected (meaning every day is still a challenge), until it all takes a very sharp downturn when Hannah gets pregnant and brings baby Cole home… 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Child abuse, Infertility, Mental illness, Physical abuse, Violence, Blood, Excrement, Medical trauma, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Pregnancy, and Injury/Injury detail

carissa230's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious tense medium-paced

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

3.75

Christopher and Hannah are happily married co-workers. The only thing their life is missing is a child. As they have struggled with fertility issues for awhile they have decided they may want to adopt. When Janie shows up in the ER terribly abused and starved, Christopher is convinced they're supposed to be her parents. 

Christopher is convinced she is perfect. Hannah is not so sure. Hannah sees a completely different side of Janie. Janie is manipulative and acts out in terrible ways. She is mean to other children, refuses to potty train, and can scream for hours on end. 

The family goes to intense counseling to help Janie, but when Hannah gets pregnant things quickly escalate. The family is forced to make unimaginable choices to help the child they've adopted and the child that they've always wanted. 

This book had a slow spot in the middle that kind of slowed the story down. When things escalate it goes quick and I couldn't stop turning the pages. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Death, Infertility, Forced institutionalization, Medical content, Medical trauma, and Murder

kenziehutch5's review against another edition

dark emotional sad tense fast-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Child abuse, Infertility, Panic attacks/disorders, Violence, Murder, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Pregnancy, and Injury/Injury detail

wends_nblw's review against another edition

dark tense medium-paced

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

2.0

i guess i was just expecting something.. more? i was waiting for the other foot to drop, but it never did. Chistopher was obnoxious, Hannah's character twisted into something I found quite bizarre

(really, she was suddenly crazed? i wished they just let her be paranoid without the sudden scribbled writings about the devil and angels; WHICH WAS NEVER ELABORATED ON!!)

, Janie was just.. awful and the "twist" (?) was obvious from the start. I think Piper was perhaps the only likeable character

despite her unprofessionalism within her work

. 

No ending, I'm curious as to her experience as a clinical psychologist, it makes a good amount of sense since the medical scenes with Dr. Chandler were good, but Chistopher??? Everything he did with Janie was completely inappropriate, no matter what. He came off as creepy instead of loving. 

Overall, despite what other reviews say, I think Berry should've amped up the disturbing content. Maybe not with Janie, but with Christopher. He makes excuses for Janie, but it was so annoying that she should have just said "fuck it" and made him completely under her spell instead of him pretending to care for his wife. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Child abuse, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Forced institutionalization, Excrement, Medical content, Murder, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , and Pregnancy

Moderate: Confinement, Death, Infertility, and Death of parent

Minor: Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, and Vomit

queerbookworm's review against another edition

dark mysterious sad tense medium-paced

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

3.25

I enjoyed it overall but there were some specific parts that were really hard to listen to. A good story if you want to listen to (or read but i listened) something incredibly distracting.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Mental illness, Violence, Medical trauma, and Murder

Moderate: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Death, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Infertility, Forced institutionalization, Excrement, Grief, Death of parent, and Pregnancy

Minor: Miscarriage