Unfit: A Novel

Wow this is something I never knew about and it breaks my heart, this book was fascinating it felt like a true story but was a fictionalized amalgamation of different people, and it worked well, I really came to care about Chrissy. I never knew anything about the eugenics program before and was horrified that this happened in our country and how long North Carolina held on to this antiquated practice. If you don’t know what I am talking about eugenics is- forcing sterilization procedures on thousands of people deemed “unfit” to reproduce. And who decided this? People with fancy degrees who thought they knew better than anyone else. Kids who were sent to juvenile hall were sterilized, and girls like Chrissy whose mother was on show more welfare were threatened if she didn’t have the surgery they would lose their benefits, Chrissy’s mother worked a job but it wasn’t enough to raise all of her children. And yes before you think it Chrissy’s parents were married and had children then her father was killed in a car accident that is when they ended up on welfare.

That Chrissy was ever able to love & marry and have a happy life was a credit to her strength even when she felt she had Unfit tattooed across her forehead most of her life. How awful would that be to be told at the age of 14 that you are unfit?? Especially when Chrissy’s mother dies too and she loses all her brothers and sisters and feels the guilt of being mean to her mother after the surgery and what really bothered me they didn’t sterilize her mother and how could Chrissy not feel anger towards her mother who had signed the papers before Chrissy was even told what would happen to her.

This book grabbed me right away and was hard to put down, it is a fascinating read and well written. My only qualm was I so wanted Chrissy to find her siblings, I wanted them all to be okay and had been raised by loving happy parents but with a book like this the reality is she probably never could find them especially the little ones, but I wanted a happy ending for Chrissy, I wanted to hug her and tell her everything would be okay, so the author did a great job at making me care about the characters in this book. This book is a must read , about an embarrassing and heartbreaking time in North Carolina history.

5 Stars

Full disclosure: I received this book from Netgalley and publisher for a fair and honest review show less

Chrissy is sterilized by her mother's consent because the local social worker threatened to cut their welfare check if the mom did not agree to the procedure. The family was poor, and Chrissy ran away from home with a friend where the two of them performed sex acts for men who were willing to pay their way a little further down the road to their dream of performing as a duo and hopefully becoming famous. This was the "crime" she committed that made her eligible for the sterilization.

There are stories of young people who never knew what had been done to them, but Chrissy knew. She wasn't of age to refuse, but she said no. They did it anyway.

She fell into a bad marriage in hopes of finding stability as a young adult. As she grew stronger show more and accepted herself as she was, she and her second husband did decide to adopt children. She became the mother she wanted to be.

It still amazes me that these things happened in the US. This book felt like a memoir, but it was indeed a novel.

Unfit is free right now on Amazon Kindle. show less

Born into a poor family, Chrissy's mom signs her up for a sterilization procedure when her welfare checks are threatened. Devastated, Chrissy is unable to hide her anger. Immediately after a fight, her Mom commits suicide. Chrissy, technically an adult, is separated from her siblings.

Overall, I thought this was a good book with interesting characters. It was a moving story, addressing a little known fact, eugenics programs in the United States. I did question why Chrissy did not keep in contact with her siblings. She had raised them as their mother, and then seemed to lose all interest in them. The last three chapters of the book read as an epilogue. Chrissy jumped back and forth in time and repeated the same information. Despite these show more criticisms, this is a good read and one I would recommend. show less