Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Fantastic!, 30 Nov 2002
I was bowled over by Louise Voss's debut novel, To Be Someone, when I read it last year, and this, her second book, is even better. It tells the story of a young woman, Stella, whose adoptive parents died when she was a teenager, leaving her to bring up her little sister, Emma. Now Emma (a great teen creation, with her tongue stud and dodgy choice in boyfriends) is grown up, Stella decides to seek out her birth mother.It's a great premise, and Voss is one of those wonderful writers, like Nick Hornby, whose books are an effortless joy to read. Books that are easy to read are hard to write, and while this is an easy read, it deals with difficult issues (identity, responsibility, finding our place in the world) sensitively and wittily. Are You My Mother is very funny and has a great cast of likeable and loathsome characters. It's also more gritty than you might expect from the cover, and has a great massage-table sex scene! The ending is satisfying and rings true, and . . . well, I can't think of anything negative to say about it at all. Can't wait to see what Louise Voss writes next.
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5 of 7 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Newspaper review comes up trumps!, 8 Jul 2003
If you’ve ever read a review praising a book, bought it and then been horribly disappointed fear not, Are you my Mother? will not let you down!
I bought it after reading a review, it sat around on a shelf for a few weeks and then I took it on holiday with the vague intention of reading it if I had nothing better to do. And boy am I glad I did! Once started I couldn’t put it down, desperate to know what happened to the characters and find out if the ‘heroine’ Emma Victor did indeed find her place in the world.
Adopted by two loving parents who were then killed in a car accident when she is 19, Emma is left to bring up her 10-year-old sister Stella alone. She has fallen into the trap of being too many things to too many people and feels she will find herself if she can trace her birth mother.
We follow her search, meeting the friends and relatives who have helped make her the person she is, and watch as she comes to terms with her past, forging a new bright future for herself. And no, I won’t spoil the enjoyment by letting you know how her search ends but, like Emma, we can all learn from her experience.
In a society where broken families and relationships are commonplace we don’t have to rely on our heritage to be successful, valuable, loving and lovable individuals.
My description may sound a bit twee but Are you my Mother? is a totally absorbing and engrossing tale with lessons for us all – mothers, sisters, daughters, and friends. On the strength of it I’ve order Louise Voss’ first novel To be Someone and can’t wait for it to arrive!
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4 of 6 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Once again Louise Voss delivers, 10 Aug 2003
By A Customer
It must have been a hard act to live upto, with the debut book of to be someone, though Louise Voss delivered yet another gripping story with enough suspense, twists and emotion to loose a day reading it. The main character, Emma is adopted and after meeting a helpless vagrant on a train decides that its time she took control of her life and starts looking for her birth mother. Emma worries that her sister (Stella) may resent this as she may loose the only piece of family life that she is able to cling onto, though with the aid of Mack, a neighbour and TV producer, Emma embarks on a searching journey, learning a number of lessons along the way. My rendition appears quite cliched, though there are enough twists in the story line to keep you grappling for one more page. For me the story is about a need to belong, friendship, and needing answers. It reminds me somewhat of Jane Green's Bookends. A roller coaster journey that can leave you laughing one minute and snivelling the next. I didn't think To Be Someone could be beaten, though this book comes close. A thoroughly nice read.
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