Hello beautiful people! Welcome to a new review! For this review, I dive into something a little different from what I usually read/post about. Someone gave me The Memory Keeper’s Daughter by Kim Edwards many years ago and I dragged my heels on checking it out. Since I have so many books on the roster I challenged myself by putting all my books in a random picker and going with the one it picks for me so that I would get into books I wasn’t reading. I originally was going to pick again when this one came up but I reminded myself it was good to get out of my comfort zone. I have to say I am glad I didn’t pick another book. I was thoroughly surprised by The Memory Keeper’s Daughter and while I did find myself getting a little bored here and there I enjoyed and was drawn into the story of the Gill and Henry families.
Main Characters:
- David Henry: A young up-and-coming doctor who is looking forward to the birth of his first child with his wife Nora, delivers his own children along with his nurse Caroline after Nora goes into labour during a storm, upon Nora giving birth to their healthy son and in his eyes unhealthy daughter David makes a split second decision that will change the future of his family forever
- Caroline Gill: David’s nurse and the only other person who was able to be present for the birth of his children, has her world turned around when David hands her his daughter who has Down Syndrome and tells her to take her away to a home for abandoned children before his wife sees, she attempts to but can’t leave this beautiful little girl in this home with strangers and after finding out David told Nora that the girl was dead decides to run away and raise her on her own
- Norah Henry: Although she gives birth to a healthy son named Paul is crushed by the death of her daughter who she names Phoebe, the grief takes over and she continues to deal with it in unhealthy ways that create further divides between herself and her husband and herself and her son
- Paul Henry: Was raised understanding that his family was shaped by the twin that was to be and not by the one that lived, always felt like he couldn’t make his father happy and could never understand what it was that made his father happy
- Phoebe Gill: Was raised happily with her mother who worked hard to advocate for her needs in the late ’60s and 70’s having her differences be so misunderstood at the time, is unaware of the father who never wanted her and the mother who grieves her
My Review
As mentioned before I went into The Memory Keeper’s Daughter with not the best mindset because it usually isn’t the type of book I would check out. Being more of a thriller, mystery, and suspense lover I don’t tend to dive into contemporary fiction. I find more domestic-based novels to be a bit boring, and in the past, with others I have read (not by Kim Edwards) I found I didn’t like a lot of the characters, or didn’t find them relatable. Despite the time frame of this book being from the mid 60’s to the late 80’s I felt like a lot of the characters, their issues, and the way they would interact with other characters in the book was very relatable. While there were some characters in this book that were difficult to like I found that there were at least some aspects that I enjoyed about most of the characters. While the book is at a slower pace because we just essentially follow two families as they go through life the book jumps heavily in terms from year to year. We don’t waste time in terms of unneeded information and the book flows in a way to try and fit in all the ages of Phoebe and Paul but ultimately focuses more on when the children are adults and we can see who they are as people.
I gave The Memory Keepers Daughter by Kim Edwards an 8/10 rating. The book follows the Henry family, made up of David and Norah and the child they are going to have together. When Norah goes into labour on a dangerous winter night David is forced to deliver his child. Able to get one of his nurses to meet him at the clinic the two are ecstatic when Norah gives birth to a healthy baby boy and seems to have another one coming. A beautiful little girl is born, however, David quickly notices something is wrong and it’s that she has Down Syndrome. He tells himself it’s because she won’t live long and will die of health complications that he hands his little girl over to his nurse Caroline Gill and tells her to take the baby away to a special home. When Caroline goes to take her she sees that her children aren’t treated well at this home and like in David’s split decision to hand his child over, makes the decision to keep this child and try to raise her as her own. While Caroline adjusts to being a mother, David and his family adjust to the grief of the loss of their baby after telling his wife she died at birth. Unaware of the long-standing turmoil this singular choice would send his family through for years David must suffer with his choices. Caroline receives small amounts of money from David every year after she tells him of what she did and works to raise her daughter in a world that doesn’t want her. Caroline is forced to see how the world views those with differences, and how her daughter’s differences will also change her own life forever.
While I definitely enjoyed the book it didn’t change me into a domestic or contemporary fiction lover, and I still like my drama, suspense, blood, and gore. It was a nice change however to read something a bit more uplifting, but not uplifting unrealistically. More so in a way where different characters find their voices and can see the world in maybe a different perspective, than they hadn’t before, or see themselves in a way they hadn’t before. I was a bit surprised this book didn’t have higher ratings because I honestly had never read a book like it before, and I felt like the topic while not unique in some aspects was in others. I also felt like the book was respectful when it came to having a main character with Down Syndrome. I don’t have any family who has it but I have worked with kids in different programs in the past who have it. While in 2024 the world has definitely progressed in some areas when it comes to having a more accessible world for others who have differences we definitely still aren’t doing as great as we could be. I think the topic of parenthood, and what it really means to be one was interestingly approached in this book through the different situations the characters find themselves in.
I really enjoyed the characters of Caroline and David’s family minus him. Don’t get me wrong David has some redeemable qualities about himself throughout the book but it’s hard to see those ones when we are faced with the bad things he’s done and then how he continued it as the years went on. I struggled with David as well because he is a doctor. I am not saying that every doctor knows every medical thing but I think he knew that realistically his daughter could be perfectly healthy despite her condition. I think he just didn’t want a different child, panicked and then tried to cover it up. He seems to regret this later on but I just wish that he was honest with himself and others as to why he did what he did. Furthermore, any future parent, especially one that is a doctor should know the risks of having children. If you want to have a child that means you need to be willing to accept them in any form. There is a decent percentage that you could give birth to a child with differences, so don’t have a child if you aren’t prepared for that. I am not sure it just made me frustrated with him and his choices that followed throughout. He knows that if he told his wife their child was alive but was different and that she would want her, so that’s why he tells her she’s dead. I was so happy however that Phoebe had Caroline to raise her as Caroline did the best she could with what she had at the time. I also really enjoyed Paul as a character because he represented that even though his parents had a healthy child that wasn’t the point. His mother didn’t care that she had one healthy baby, she wanted her two babies as they were. Her grief and missing what he was not affected how he saw himself and the world. He took criticism on much harder than others because from birth he was aware that his birth left a hole in his parent’s hearts.
I thought the writing was fantastic and while I did get a bit bored in some areas of the book since we were constantly switching from year to year it was easy to get drawn back in again. This is very much a book focused on character development, family development, social rule, mental health, and trauma. We get very intimate looks into these families’ lives and the issues they go through. Have you read The Memory Keeper’s Daughter by Kim Edwards before? What did you think?
*** Don’t keep reading if you don’t want to see any spoilers ***
Norah and Paul do eventually find out about Phoebe, but it’s not until David dies. He literally takes this secret to the grave with him. They only find out because after hearing about his passing Caroline decides to take things into her own hands and tell them. Of course, Phoebe is a grown adult at this point, as is Paul, but she thinks it’s time to stop hiding. Of course, Paul and Norah are shocked but they want to meet Phoebe instantly. I appreciated the realness of the interaction. Norah expects that Phoebe will instantly connect to her and want to spend time with her and Paul, but she doesn’t. While there is a connection between her and Paul Phoebe has no desire to leave her mother, her life, her job, or her boyfriend who has the same condition and she is quickly getting serious with. Just because she has a condition does not mean that she doesn’t have a life, she isn’t a puppy that can be passed around. Norah eventually accepts this and moves at Phoebe’s pace understanding that while she didn’t ask to be disconnected from her child she is, and there is not anything she can do about it. It was a very sweet but realistic way to end the book. Based on how David was throughout the book I half expected things to go this way. He was a coward throughout so it didn’t surprise me he forced Caroline to have to be the one to tell his family.
Thank you for checking out this review! I hope you enjoyed it! Feel free to check out my socials @baddiebookreviews to be kept up to date for when I release a new review!
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