Review: The Surrogate by Louise Jensen

                                                                      

Print Length: 324 pages

Publisher: Bookouture (September 27, 2017)

From Goodreads.com:  ‘You know that feeling? When you want something so badly, you almost feel you’d kill for it?’

Be careful what you wish for…

Kat and her husband Nick have tried everything to become parents, and are on the point of giving up. Then a chance encounter with Kat’s childhood friend Lisa gives Kat and Nick one last chance to achieve their dream.

But Kat and Lisa’s history hides dark secrets.

And there is more to Lisa than meets the eye.

As dangerous cracks start to appear in Kat’s perfect picture of happily-ever-after, she realises that she must face her fear of the past to save her family…

                                                         *******************

My Rating: 1 star out of 5 

For starters, I'm happy to report that the book I read immediately before this one, the with the nearly identical cover and the exact same title, was NOT a complete rip-off after all. Yes, there were certainly some similarities, but overall the two stories were different enough that I don't believe the newer one copied this one.

I also enjoyed this book a little bit more.

Granted, considering I gave the other one zero stars, the bar wasn't exactly difficult to clear.

One thing I appreciated right away was how this story handled its central premise. While the couple also chose not to go through a proper fertility clinic, at least the husband and the surrogate weren't expected to conceive the baby the "old-fashioned" way.  I also appreciated the fact that it wasn’t a complete lie on the surrogate’s part, the way it was in the other book. I even thought these characters were a slight step up, although they weren’t without their own set of issues.

That's not to say they were particularly good.

Kat was an absolute neurotic mess. She jumped at every shadow and somehow managed to convince herself that nearly everything happening around her revolved around her specifically. Even after finishing the book, I still struggled to understand why she believed she was the target of some elaborate conspiracy when, in reality, she was arguably the only truly innocent person where certain events of the past were concerned. Now, don't get me wrong she wasn't completely innocent in all aspects, but no one knew about the other incident that she did play a part in. 

Nick had plenty of issues of his own. In fact, I found it incredibly difficult to sympathize with him when one of the biggest problems in his marriage stemmed from a lie that never should have existed in the first place. Instead of simply telling Kat that his parents were still alive, he tells her they'd both died years earlier. Unsurprisingly, that decision snowballs into a host of completely avoidable marital problems.

Then there's Lisa. 

Honestly, I have one question for thriller authors: Are you physically incapable of writing a surrogate without making her seem suspicious from the very beginning?

Every time Lisa appeared on the page, I found myself waiting for the inevitable reveal because the author practically hung a giant neon sign over her head saying, "Definitely pay attention to this person." It would be so much more satisfying if the twists actually came as... well... twists.

Speaking of which, that's ultimately where this book lost me.

I was already struggling with the narrative structure because the story constantly bounced between "Now" and "Then." While the "Now" portions were told entirely from Kat's point of view, those during the "Then" chapters bounced back and forth between her and Nick and because we only ever got little snippets at a time, it made everything feel confusing and disjointed rather than adding suspense.

Then came the ending.

I just sat there staring at my Kindle in complete disbelief.

Not because it was some brilliantly executed finale.

Because the author genuinely expected me to accept it.

What happens to the two victims at the end could have been explained in a dozen different ways that would have felt far more believable and satisfying than the explanation we actually received. Instead, the book asks the reader to simply shrug and move on, and I just couldn't.

Overall, I'm glad I read this one if only to satisfy my curiosity about whether the other The Surrogate had copied it. Now, however, I'm beginning to wonder whether any author can write a psychological thriller centered around surrogacy that actually lives up to the premise. At the moment, I'm two books into this very specific subgenre, and while I still have two more waiting on my Kindle, I think I may need a break before diving into another one.

Hopefully the next time around, I'll finally find one that does the concept justice.