Reviews with content warning for Toxic relationship - Saving Noah

I finished reading this book about a month ago. I wanted to really take time to think about it and let it sink in before writing a review. If I’m being honest it left me feeling numb, in a reading slump, and mad. None in a positive way toward the book or author. This is my third Lucinda Berry book, it was final decider if I would continue reading books by this author or not. Needless to say this author is just not for me.
To give my most honest review there will be spoilers throughout this. I will try to make it known but here’s your warning.
I will start with I have no problem with the authors writing style, if anything it’s what kept me wanting to try again. Something about it is effortless for the reader and while I don’t love the plot twists they do get you. Unfortunately, those are about the only positives I have.
Every book that I have read by this author is coming from the prospective of a mom who is just a bit too obsessed with their son. That’s it that’s the basis of every story. I am not a mom nor to I want to be so I can’t really speak on that aspect of things. Sometimes I can’t even imagine what these fictional women must be going through. But their thoughts and their actions are so unlikeable and bizarre when it comes to their sons. It’s honestly gross. They’ll go as far as breaking up their marriages, betraying friends, breaking laws, neglecting their other children just for their son. I don’t know it’s just very unnerving to me.
With this book specifically you go into it knowing the main part of the story. The main characters son admits to SA little girls and basically alluding to a story of a mother and son bond and I would say that’s very accurate. It’s very mixed feelings toward Noah because it’s disgusting what he did point blank period, but you start thinking like there are people like him in the world. And when it’s a child having these feelings it makes you look at it in a different tone. And while I do think that’s a good thing there were parts in this book that were just plain disgusting and honestly did not need to be in there at all.
• A very minor one that probably just affects me would be people throwing up. There is way too much throw up in this book.
• There are very random religious undertones in this book and I don’t know. It just rubbed me personally the wrong way.
Now the parts that I had major problems with.

• The random rape in this book is honestly disgusting and unnecessary. Nothing ever comes from these things happening and there’s a literal rape scene to start out the book. Like there is no point and no message to receive from it besides that Noah is going through things too which in my opinion could of just been conveyed in a different way.

• There is a specific scene in the book where the little sister is talking to the mom. They are trying to keep what happened from her in a way to protect her. I won’t give my opinion on that, what really bothered me is the statement she made. Something along the lines of “I know what Noah did to those girls but I’m not afraid of him. He touched them down there. He can touch me down there because I know he won’t hurt me and I love him” when Noah hears this he says how sweet she is….. am I the only one that found this disgusting, inappropriate, and unnecessary? It literally did nothing. It’s never talked about again, they didn’t tell her other wise like that was just it.

•The whole plot twist with the dad I don’t know. It made me angry but I’m sure that’s what it was meant to do but also at the end of the day it did nothing. Besides to show he’s not only a terrible dad he’s just a terrible person. It doesn’t explain anything or add anything to the story or give any closure. If anything it leaves you with a thousand more questions.

• and finally the ending was just weird to me very weird religious undertones. Just such an unsatisfying ending. I personally teared up when

Noah took his life. I feel like ending it there would of honestly been better.

Overall just thinking about this book makes me mad again and disgusted all over again. Do not recommend.

Content Warnings

cewhouser7405's review against another edition

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dark emotional sad tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

Content Warnings

mecmccann's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional sad tense fast-paced

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

3.5

I’m so torn about how I feel about this book. I’m going to write out all my rambling thoughts, please forgive the messiness that will be this review.

Saving Noah is about a young boy who molested two five year old girls at swim practice which he coached. He was arrested and sent to a juvenile correction facility where he would receive treatment to lower the chances that he would reoffend. We follow his relationship with his mother who loves him endlessly.

The mom comes across as if she thinks he’s a victim. He is indeed a perpetrator, but he is a victim of the justice system and social scrutiny, which I won’t comment on the morality of. I didn’t necessarily appreciate this aspect of the mom’s response to the situation. About 40% into the book, it does become more self aware, the dad calls her out on this and she addresses it. So I guess I can forgive that.

After it became aware of what it was doing, it was just so sad.

The portrayal of depression and the horrifying suicide attempts were a lot. It was haunting being in the head of someone witnessing such darkness in their child. I did cry in the last chapter from the mom’s perspective.

I called the twist right at the beginning. I knew the dad was a pedophile the whole time. I thought maybe he was the other POV when they talked about shock therapy, just because that’s supper outdated, but I wasn’t certain. And I’m willing to bet that, even though he didn’t admit it, he was molesting his daughter too, she showed signs of sexual abuse like wetting the bed.

Overall this book did elicit an emotional response, so I think it did its job.

Content Warnings

trashgobby's review against another edition

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dark emotional sad tense 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

3.25

Content Warnings

madds_libb's review against another edition

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

2.0

Content Warnings

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