Charlene Carr

Charlene Carr explores a heartbreaking dilemma in her emotive novel, Hold My Girl.

Born after seven years of fertility treatments, Rose, nearing one year old, is Katherine Matheson’s miracle baby. After so much heartbreaking failure, Katherine is determined to be the perfect mother, ignoring the nagging worry that Rose, with her pale skin, looks nothing like her.

Tess Sokolowski’s chance to have a child of her own ended on the day her daughter, conceived via IVF, was stillborn at 21 weeks, leading to an emergency hysterectomy. Alone and stuck in a dead end job, Tess numbs the pain of her losses with too much alcohol and indiscriminate sex.

When news breaks that a nurse at an IVF clinic has confessed to switching the eggs of two women, the lives of Katherine and Tess are thrown into turmoil.

Carr thoughtfully explores the moral and legal complexity the situation raises as Katherine and Tess both fight to claim Rose as their own. Katherine, and her husband Patrick, who is Rose’s biological father, argue that only they can provide Rose with a stable upbringing. She’ll have two loving parents, financial comfort, and a supportive extended family, though Katherine is worried that her race will count against them. Tess has biology, and her inability to have any more children, on her side, but divorced, estranged from her family, and with no savings, she can only hope it will be enough.

Both Katherine and Tess are well portrayed with nuance, and compassion for their individual circumstances. I could find empathy for both of them, even when they were not behaving particularly well. I’d like to think I would be more generous than Katherine seems to be to Tess for the benefit of Rose, but it’s such a heartbreaking situation for which there is no perfect solution.

Carr also touches on other sensitive issues including sexual assault, adultery, racism, and alcoholism, adding complexity to the debate.

Hold My Girl is a provocative and poignant novel, well written and compelling.… (more)