Title: Hannah Tate, Beyond Repair
Author: Laura Piper Lee
Series: n/a
it’s okay to fuck up your kid
Much thanks to Laura Piper Lee, Dreamscape Media, and NetGalley for allowing me to listen to a free eaudio ARC in exchange for an honest review.
Hmm.
Well, one thing I can say for sure is that conservatives probably won’t like this book much. It should have the subtitle “a WOKE novel.”
Did you just cringe? Me too. Though, blanket disclaimer, I support love. LGBTQ, found family, unmarried, I don’t care. You do you, responsibly. So I don’t mind a novel with modern sensibilities. Even if the author’s pretty aggressive about it. And even if she somewhat hypocritically includes a few old-fashioned stereotypes as well.
Ostensibly this book is fun and humorous and heartwarming. I admire Hannah’s desire to be a good, stable parent and loving daughter. She’s a good, likeable person. I loved the spirit of her story.
But the logic isn’t there. In my opinion.
If Hannah was so obsessed with providing a wholesome and secure environment for Bowie, specifically regarding Hannah’s life partner (she IS bi, fyi; it was very important that you know that for no particular reason), why did she allow herself to get pregnant out of wedlock? Isn’t that, like, the #1 no-no? Was that not shooting herself in the foot?
But okay, accidents happen. At least, I assume Bowie was an oopsie. If he wasn’t, then yeah, Hannah really didn’t understand the assignment she gave herself. But hey, she can still be a great mom, and she really seemed to be.
Except she can’t resist her attraction to the flightiest man ever. It’s like she’s trying to self-sabotage. He’s the perfect conflict for her, sure, but excuse me while my eyeballs roll across the floor.
I did not care for River, aka said flightiest man ever. I did not trust him, I did not respect him. I felt no attraction to him whatsoever. Man bun. Lives off the grid in a tree house. No phone. No computer. No medical, no dental. No steady job. No worries. Something about he hated his previous corporate job, hated his judgmental parents, and decided to just not deal with any of it. Because that sounds like someone rational who can handle reality and stressful relationships—just what an unmarried new mother with a parenting complex and fledgling enterprise needs! *two thumbs up!*
(Note: Hey, if you live your life like River does, more power to you. I’m just making the point that for a woman looking for reliability, commitment, and stability, River’s not a great choice, I don’t care how nice or hot he is.)
What I really don’t get about the book, though? Why was Hannah wrong? Why was her desire to be a better parent than her mother a bad thing? Because Gma sounds irresponsible and flaky as shit. Was I really supposed to appreciate Hannah and her mother’s heart-to-heart, in which her mother says some people take 60 years to figure out how to be a parent? Because I didn’t. I, personally, would respond that those people shouldn’t be parents, then. If you can’t take care of yourself, you have no business being responsible for a dependent. Being a good grandparent does not make having been a shitty parent okay.
Was the takeaway message here seriously that it’s okay to half-ass your parenting? Was Hannah’s arc really in learning that a stable environment is overrated and that she should indulge her hormones (which is perhaps what got her into the conflict of being an unprepared parent to begin with) rather than listen to what her common sense is screaming at her? That she shouldn’t want commitment and reliability for herself, for her child?
I disagree.
And if that’s not what Lee wants readers to take away from the narrative . . . well, then I hope I’m an anomaly.
Also, please don’t take this out of context. I’m not saying parents aren’t allowed to make mistakes, that they need to be perfect, that they can’t leave harmful relationships, or any nonsense like that. I’m saying that I don’t like that the novel dismisses Hannah’s childhood trauma and pooh-poohs her desire to make Bowie’s childhood less traumatic than her own. That is all.
And that’s my biggest problem with the book. I’m fine with it being aggressively woke, and the writing was fine. It was funny and heartwarming and the narrator was great. Lee made me care about Gma and Big Daddy despite them being the kind of people I disapprove of. I’m just not on board with Hannah’s arc or romance. I love her as a character, but not the story the author gave her. Because it made absolutely no sense to me.
