Overlapping and difficult family relationships in a prep school community where what appears almost idyllic is only a dangerous facade with frightening undertones.. ( )

The Review

I had no expectations about this novel when I received it. I didn’t read the back cover, nor did I read any reviews. I was a blank slate when I started this journey which was exactly how I needed to be in order to be shocked, engaged, and engrossed by this chilling tale.

Brundage delivers a novel that provides a myriad of characters where the reader sits in the minds of. Each character is uniquely tied to the “bigger picture” of the story, yet remains completely separate in his/her inner struggle to find happiness and peace. Each character gets his/her own time in the mind of the reader in which he/she can understand, empathize, and or despise said character. For me, I found a depth of understanding these broken people and a desire to see them grow through their personal hurdles.

Somebody Else’s Daughter takes the reader on twists and turns and manages never to lose the reader’s attention. Although these 338 pages are filled with considerable text, I always looked forward to continuing my read and, at times, felt it was very difficult to put it down.

I believe that this novel was a terrific book and it would also make an amazing movie as it provides enough characters, twists and turns to keep you glued to the story. I am quite impressed with Brundage’s writing style and am going to be adding The Doctor’s Wife to my “Books to Buy” list.

A Little Tidbit: For those of you who may know Shana of Literarily, her review is quoted in the book’s front page! Congrats, Shana!

Other Reviews to Check Out:

http://www.skrishnasbooks.com/2008/11...

http://www.3rsblog.com/2008/11/tlc-bo...

http://www.bookroomreviews.com/2008/1...

http://thefriendlybooknook.com/2008/1...

http://needmoreshelves.blogspot.com/2...

http://belleofthebooks.wordpress.com/...

http://blogginboutbooks.blogspot.com/...

On Sher’s “Out of Ten Scale:”

When it comes to this recommendation/rating portion of my post, I always ponder whether or not I would lend this book to a friend with a recommendation. For Somebody Else’s Daughter I would, without a doubt, recommend it! It’s got just enough drama, romance, mystery and intrigue to keep the reader captivated! Seeing as how I’d easily and readily recommend it, for the genre: Fiction, I will rate Somebody Else’s Daughter a 8.5 OUT OF 10. ( )

I wish I hadn't been reading this book in the midst of my recent packing-and-moving adventure; I would have liked to be able to read it in a few sessions rather than in small chunks over several weeks. Somebody Else's Daughter is an engrossing book, but there are quite a few characters and subplots, and having to take so many breaks while reading it threw off my momentum and sometimes made it difficult to re-orient myself to the story. I think if you have the time, this would be a pretty fast read.

Elizabeth Brundage's second novel covers a relatively short chronology - less than a year - but a lot of psychological and relationship territory in this story of the community around a small prep school in the Berkshires. She introduces a lot of characters, and it takes a while to see how their stories will intersect, but have faith that eventually they will...

READ MORE HERE: http://www.3rsblog.com/2008/11/tlc-bo...

Review posted on my blog 11/30/08 ( )

This is a spectacular book. It reminded me of some kind of drama series on TV, somewhat like October Road or something like that. Her descriptiveness was excellent in the love making scenes as well. I really felt like I was there. ( )

When I first accepted this book for review, I was under the impression that it was mostly about the thoughts and feelings of Willa Golding, a teenager who was adopted as a baby by wealthy parents. It’s not. Although Willa’s point of view certainly comes into the story, this book is about misogyny, p*rn*gr*phy, pr*stituti*on, drug abuse, and a host of other sordid activities. Before I give my other comments on the book, I’d like to state that in no way do I believe that Brundage endorses these vices; however, I also don’t agree with her presentation of the case against them either. This book is brutally graphic, and I just wasn’t prepared for that. Knowing that this will color my review, I’ll try to be as fair as possible.

The book starts out by introducing Nate Gallagher and his girlfriend Catherine as strung out heroin addicts. Catherine gets pregnant with Willa and is clean for a time, but soon after Willa is born Cat becomes just too sick to care for her, and they decide to give her up for adoption. The couple who adopt her, Joe and Candace, are wealthy residents of the Berkshires and seem to have it all, yet they are hiding some pretty dark secrets. Very dark. Not only that, but it seems quite a few other characters in the story have even scarier skeletons in their closets. Here’s where it starts to break down for me a bit. It seems a bit too much that all of ‘this’ is going on in the same small community; it just is not believable to me. Gosh, I hope that wouldn’t be the case, anyway.

As Willa grows up, she attends an elite private school headed by Jack and Maggie Heath. Their daughter Ava is good friends with Willa, and the two girls have a group that they hang out with who are into alcohol, drugs, dares, and the like. All the girls are smitten with the new boy at school, Teddy, but it is Willa that catches his eye. Meanwhile, the new creative writing teacher at the school is a Mr. Gallagher. Yes, it’s Nate Gallagher, Willa’s birth father, but he tells no one of his relationship to Willa.

This is where the book then goes off into the weird areas listed above. Although I believe it was Brundage’s intent to bring awareness into the sufferings of women in these so-called ‘professions,’ the horrible descriptions of the things they endure was just too unnecessarily graphic. I know I am very conservative compared to most, but I have a hard time imagining that an average female reader would be able to get through this book without disgust and revulsion. I honestly would not have gotten through much of it at all had I not committed to this review. In addition, there are some descriptions of Willa’s s*xual experimentation that were very explicit to the point of poor taste.

I am honestly not trying to bash Elizabeth Brundage as a writer or as a person. However, I believe I do represent a certain group of women who share my views. I also believe it is my responsibility to speak out about content that is so over the top and objectionable so that those who feel the same as I do can stay clear of it or at least make an informed decision about it. ( )

When Nate was young, he lived as a junkie in San Francisco with his partner Cat and their small daughter Willa. When Cat’s AIDS begins to kill her in earnest, she decides they will have to give Willa up for adoption.

Fast forward to Willa’s high school years. Nate has cleaned up and misses his daughter, so he decides to teach at her school without telling anyone of his connection to her.

I expected Nate to be the narrator of the book, perhaps Willa and her parents as well. Instead, Brundage has a broad range of narrators, including Claire and her son Teddy who have recently returned to the area, Willa and her parents, and the wife of the headmaster of the school. At times this method seemed somewhat over ambitious, like the story could have been crisper if it wasn’t dealing with everyone in the community’s intensely screwed-up lives. However, by the end of the book, I realized that Brundage was bringing all the storylines into a cohesive ending that really worked.

It definitely took me awhile to get into “Somebody Else’s Daughter,” but once I did i was very pleased with the way the story was told. ( )

Somebody Else's Daughter is a dark novel about the interaction of different families in Berkshire. The novel unfolds into a gripping tale of suspense, focusing on each of the characters. The book is narrated by different characters, allowing to reader to see the consequences of actions from multiple points of view. It is an effective method of storytelling, and one that Brundage uses well.

One of the most interesting thing about the novel is the way Brundage develops her characters. She establishes the basics of each character at the beginning of the novel and then spends the rest of it slowly building them up, layer by layer. By the end of the book, they seem to have developed their own lives, complete with damaged psyches. It's an interesting method of character development that slowly draws the reader into the twists and turns of a person's mind.
However, a consequence of this is the pace of the book - it is very slow. It takes a long time for the plot to become gripping and suspenseful.

The subject matter also makes the book difficult to read at times. Brundage deals with not one, but several weighty issues that could take up an entire novel on their own. AIDS, abuse, molestation, pornography, prostitution - and that's just to name a few! Still, Brundage tackles each of these subjects well and should be commended on her ability to juggle these multiple weighty issues with dignity and due diligence.

Somebody Else's Daughter is a novel that will appeal to people who enjoy character driven stories. If you can get through slow pace and heaviness of the novel, you will be rewarded with a well-written and expertly crafted novel that has a surprising ending you won't see coming.

From S. Krishna's Books ( )

The book starts out with Nate, the drug addicted father and Cat, the even more addicted mother and girlfriend. Cat gives birth to Willa. When she is a few months old they realize that can't care for her even though they love her. They are both young and addicted to drugs. They decide to give Willa up for private adoption. As one of the conditions to the adoption they drive Willa from San Francisco to Massachusettes. The couple is the Goldings and they are a wealthy couple. Shortly after handing Willa over to them Cat dies of Aids in their driveway.

After handing Willa over and dealing with Cat's death Nate sits in the car and writes a leter to Willa in hopes that the Goldings will give to her on her 16th birthday.

The book picks up sixteen years later in the same town, Berkshire. All the families are connected to the prep school, Pioneer. Nate who has turned is live around has returned to Berkshire as the new teacher and struggling writer. He discovers Willa is in his writting class.

We discover that the Goldings are a wealthy family who have built their fortune on a secret profession. The head master jack Heath lives a dangerous life. All the characters lives start to come together in this small town and slowly all the secrets are revealed. Some of the secrets are good and some prove to be deadly. ( )

As she did in The Doctor's Wife, Elizabeth Brundage has once again given us a compulsively readable, compelling story of the complicated secrets that lurk beneath the idyllic surface of small town life. Somebody Else's Daughter examines the interconnected lives of students and parents at an exclusive private school in the Berkshires, in the process exploring important subjects like adoptive parenting, drug use, and our fractured expectations for and treatment of women. Her writing is lovely and her characters ring true, and, like with the best of literature, the story here grabs the reader and never lets go. Somebody Else's Mother is one of the most satisfying books I have read this year ( )

This is a dark, disturbing novel that was difficult to put down. I thought Brundage tackled some heavy issues in her debut novel, The Doctor's Wife, but she took on an even more massive load in Somebody Else's Daughter. Adoption, alcoholism, drug addiction, pornography, sexual abuse, murder, AIDS, prostitution, adultery. Thanks to Brundage's skill as an author, there is a lot going on, but it doesn't overwhelm. She slowly weaves together seemingly disparate story lines and characters in a masterful way that never fails to leave me in awe of her talent as a storyteller.

What I love about Brundage is how she sets up her story. She takes her time, slowly creating a sense of place and developing her characters superbly. All of this is imbued with a subtle, underlying sense of suspense. I find myself reading her opening chapters with relish, knowing that she is building, gradually and deliberately, a gripping crescendo.

A distinct difference between this novel and Brundage's debut, for me, was the likability of the characters. Though The Doctor's Wife held me in its grip, I struggled to truly like any of the characters, despite the fact that they were extremely well-developed. Reading Somebody Else's Daughter, I found it easy to love several characters. Willa was conflicted and sensitive, spurning many of the elitist attitudes she had been raised in the midst of. Several of the characters - Willa's adoptive parents, Claire the feminist sculptor, Claire's pot-smoking son Teddy - were flawed but basically, in the end, good people. And Willa's biological father, Nate, well, I kind of fell in love with him ... a struggling writer with a past, he was handsome, passionate, wise, and sensitive - a perfect hero. ( )