How to Care for a Human Girl, a review by Shelley

posted in: Shelley | 0

🤰🤰1/2
HOW TO CARE FOR A HUMAN GIRL
Ashley Wurzbacher

Atria Books
Publication Date: August 8th, 2023
352 Pages
Goodreads | Amazon

This story is told from two points of view. We have Jada and Maddy they are sisters who each find themselves unexpectedly pregnant. The book is about how each sister makes a different choice regarding their situation. There are also two timelines in the story…the present 2018 and the past 2016, just before their mother’s death from cancer and Jada recently engaged to her now husband Blake.

The whole time I was reading this I kept asking “Why can’t we say the word abortion?” Why the need to use terms like “TAKE CARE OF IT”? It boggles my mind that there is still so much stigma in this day and age. Is it because it means we had sex? And why doesn’t the man get embarrassed if his sexual partner has one?

The research data parts were so boring, it was just too clinical for my liking. I wanted emotions, anger, sadness, grief, terror. I wanted to feel something for the characters but they were just blah, and the story is very character driven…which surprised me given the plot and subject matter. The characters were just horrible people who lacked any real depth and I hated them both. I know the book is supposed to be about choices but it just dragged so much, I felt very little while reading it and it did not take sides (I guess that was the author’s goal).

The sister’s different points of view come across well and I liked when the sisters are having a discussion and one says to the other “You didn’t even have an excuse!” That is typical in today’s society, so much judgment. By the way, YOU DO NOT NEED AN EXCUSE TO WANT AN ABORTION EXCEPT THAT YOU DON’T WANT TO BE PREGNANT. I am not pro-abortion, I am pro-choice as in a woman’s right to choose what is right for her. I am all for the other sister’s right to choose to have and keep her baby (like I did at 17) but we women are ultimately alone in this decision as it is we who have to live with the repercussions. One thing I really liked and appreciated the most was that the book is not told in a judgy way and I respect that.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the Advance Readers Copy.

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