Start reading The Child Inside on your Kindle in under a minute. Don't have a Kindle? Get your Kindle here.

Deliver to your Kindle or other device

 
 
 

Try it free

Sample the beginning of this book for free

Deliver to your Kindle or other device

Read books on your computer or other mobile devices with our FREE Kindle Reading Apps.
The Child Inside
 
 

The Child Inside [Kindle Edition]

Suzanne Bugler
4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (20 customer reviews)

Digital List Price: £5.37 What's this?
Print List Price: £7.99
Kindle Price: £4.09 includes VAT* & free wireless delivery via Amazon Whispernet
You Save: £3.90 (49%)
Unlike print books, digital books are subject to VAT.

Formats

Amazon Price New from Used from
Kindle Edition £4.09  
Paperback £4.31  
Audio, CD, Audiobook, Unabridged £17.35  

Customers Who Bought This Item Also Bought


Product Description

Review

A dark but deftly written novel about modern family life --Marie Claire

This novel had me so engrossed I read it in three days --Essentials

Dark and unsettling, but compulsive --Choice

Product Description

When Rachel’s unborn baby dies, she and her husband Andrew focus upon their precious only son. Their dormant, silently-felt grief is slowly destroying their marriage and as Jono grows up and pulls away from them, Rachel finds herself to be resentful, lonely and without purpose. A chance encounter brings her into contact with an old woman whom she believes to be the mother of a friend who died as a teenager. But the woman denies that she ever even had a daughter, and wants nothing to do with Rachel. This friend - Vanessa - was adored, vibrant and exciting. Rachel is convinced the woman is Vanessa’s mother, but how can she be sure? How could anyone deny the existence if their own child? There are frightening parallels with Rachel’s own loss, and she cannot let it go. In desperation, Rachel tracks down Vanessa’s brother, Simon, and slowly the two of them get drawn into a dangerous and destructive relationship…

Product details

  • Format: Kindle Edition
  • File Size: 666 KB
  • Print Length: 350 pages
  • Publisher: Pan (5 Jan 2012)
  • Sold by: Amazon Media EU S.à r.l.
  • Language English
  • ASIN: B005I3P90A
  • Text-to-Speech: Enabled
  • Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (20 customer reviews)
  • Amazon Bestsellers Rank: #14,399 Paid in Kindle Store (See Top 100 Paid in Kindle Store)
  •  Would you like to give feedback on images?


More About the Author

Suzanne Bugler
Discover books, learn about writers, and more.

Visit Amazon's Suzanne Bugler Page

What Other Items Do Customers Buy After Viewing This Item?


Suggested Tags from Similar Products

 (What's this?)
Be the first one to add a relevant tag (keyword that's strongly related to this product)
 

Your tags: Add your first tag
 

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews
8 of 8 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
This book is a salutary lesson in realising that the grass is not always greener on the other side and that life should be about wanting what you've got, not getting what you (think you) want.

Rachel always feels that she's a peripheral character in her own life, always on the outside looking in and never part of the "in crowd". She embarks on a doomed affair with the brother of her dead "friend" Vanessa. All they have in common is that they both knew his deceased sister. She quickly puts all her engergy into the affair and severely neglects her own family to her great cost.

Suzanne Bugler writes with precision, clarity and insight. I've never read an account of a pointless, destructive affair as well written as this. We can feel Rachel's desperation and paranoia, sense her lover's growing distance and the fall out experienced by all parties. I highly recommend this book.
Was this review helpful to you?
27 of 29 people found the following review helpful
By L. H. Healy TOP 500 REVIEWER VINE™ VOICE
Format:Paperback
The previous novel by this author, 'This Perfect World', was a gripping emotional read, and deservedly went on to become a Richard and Judy Book Club selection, thereby also garnering a much wider readership. With this novel, the author has again chosen a very emotional storyline. Rachel is devastated to have lost her baby daughter seven months into her pregnancy. Unsurprisingly she is haunted and tormented by the loss of her baby girl, `hers is the ghost that will not let me go' she says. Her relationship with her teenage son, Jono, is strained at best, and she feels distanced from her husband Andrew. They have put their son in a private school, and Rachel feels she has no real friends amongst the mothers there, further alienating her. Her isolation is mirrored by Jono, himself isolated amongst his richer school friends, and this becomes another thing that eats away at Rachel; `We shoved him among them, and now I can only watch as I see him measuring himself against them, and falling short.'

Rachel begins to think back to a friend, Vanessa, `a friend by association' really, who she had and lost during her teenage years. A chance encounter one day brings the events from that time back to the forefront of her thoughts, and she knowingly becomes obsessed. She actively seeks out the Vanessa's brother, and a clandestine affair begins. What results will cause her further torment.

This is a dark, compulsive, well-written tale, with a chilling portrait of this desperate, lonely, obsessed mother who feels trapped in domestic life. She feels invisible, like she doesn't matter. `I am just a middle-aged woman out of nowhere. I am what you become when you disappear.' I felt sympathy for Rachel, but also a bit of irritation. She can only change her life herself, but she chooses something negative in having an affair. She knows it can't lead anywhere. She doesn't, or can't, appreciate what she's got. But, it's easy to judge her when standing on the outside looking in. She is incredibly hard on herself, `sunk in the grip of self-loathing.' She is full of sadness, it tragic to read how disconnected from the world she feels. `I feel myself to be outside life, looking in' and has always felt `the outsider, the one on the edge of other people's lives.'

If you enjoyed 'This Perfect World' I think you'll get a lot out of this novel, too.
Was this review helpful to you?
12 of 13 people found the following review helpful
By C. Bannister TOP 500 REVIEWER VINE™ VOICE
Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase
Unlike Laura in This Perfect World Rachel, the protagonist of The Child Inside, isn't one of the yummy mummy's. Rachel has spent her life on the periphery of everyone else's life wanting to be part of the group but instead had the role of the observer in life.

Giving birth to a still-born daughter ten years previously caused Rachel to draw her husband Andrew and son Jono close to her. Poor Jono has been Rachel and Andrew's sheild against the world and the centre of theirs. Suzanne Bugler's descriptions of the cloying and suffocating result are so realistic it is almost painful and as a reader we observe Jono struggling with growing up and fighting against his parents. Rachel is then drawn back to the past and the death of a friend of a friend who died aged sixteen, following her mother and trying to involve herself in her life. As Rachel's interest in the past increases her marriage disintegrates further. Rachel can't let go of the past but thinks she has found a way to live her life....

As in This Perfect World the author's words bring the scene's to life. Her observations on how cruel, selfish and unkind the human race can be are captured perfectly creating dark and compelling stories. I can't wait for the next one!
Comment | 
Was this review helpful to you?
Most Recent Customer Reviews
Interesting content but I didn't like the writing style
I chose this book as it was a book club choice. The fact the author was a richard and judy choice was not inviting. Read more
Published 4 days ago by leftfork
Astoundingly good read
I've read the other reviews of this book, and I agree that Rachel is quite a depressing character, but all the same I loved this book. Read more
Published 12 days ago by Ms. R. M. Keys
The Child Inside
This is one of the best books I have read and the second one by this author. I stayed up until the early hours to finish the book as I could not wait to see how it ended. Read more
Published 28 days ago by Lainey
well written but ..........
I haven't actually finished this book, even though I bought it ages ago, as I found it was making me sad. Read more
Published 1 month ago by cressy
a page turner
This book gripped me from the first page. The central character has never recovered from the loss of a child. She looks back to a time when life seemed better. Read more
Published 2 months ago by susan jarvis
Good enough for a quick read
A fairly enjoyable read, easily got through in a couple of evenings, that tells the story of heroine, Rachel's mid-life crisis. Read more
Published 2 months ago by Reddy
Loved it!
Really enjoyed this book, a good storyline that kept me hooked from the start. The characters are very realistic and I could sympathise with all of them. Read more
Published 2 months ago by L. Trevor
Rather bleak
After enjoying This Perfect World I fell on this with great expectations, only to be disappointed. The first novel was dark but also funny and satirical, several of the characters... Read more
Published 2 months ago by KAW
Well written but depressing
This is the first time I've read any of Bugler's titles, but I don't think I will be reading any more based on the fact that this book, though very well written and eloquently... Read more
Published 3 months ago by Aliyah
Brilliant Read
I have never reviewed a book before so this must have been a good read for me to take the time to do this. Read more
Published 3 months ago by NicWig
Search Customer Reviews
Only search this product's reviews

Customer Discussions

This product's forum
Discussion Replies Latest Post
'Look inside' feature very helpful 0 16 Feb 2012
See all discussions...  
Start a new discussion
Topic:
First post:
Prompts for sign-in
 


Active discussions in related forums
Search Customer Discussions
   
Related forums


Look for similar items by category


Look for similar items by subject







i.e., each title must be in subject 1 AND subject 2 AND ...

Amazon Media EU S.à r.l. GB Privacy Statement Amazon Media EU S.à r.l. GB Delivery Information Amazon Media EU S.à r.l. GB Returns & Exchanges