Makes you really think about the character's motives and actions

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	• Helpless: A Novel Barbara Gowdy Metropolitan Books, 2007 - 307 pages average customer review:based on 9 reviews view larger image
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highly recommended

Makes you really think about the character's motives and actions

This author seems to have a real way with characters. I found myself thinking hard about each one, trying to understand how their lives have influenced their actions. There is just the right amount of flashbacks, enough to make you see that each character has a whole backstory. I think quite a few more books could be written using this same set of people. One of the main characters is a very disturbing person who does very upsetting things, but it's to the author's credit that you are left feeling as if he has fought a fairly courageous battle to not make his life a total disaster. The only time the book dragged for me at all was during police procedural and searching parts, which seemed a bit textbook. But this isn't really a plot driven book. I read it frantically whenever I found a moment, and have been thinking about it ever since.

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AWESOME NOVEL!

I haven't read any of Barbara's novels previously but I loved, loved, loved this book! All the characters are so real, and the dialogue and storyline flows. I am definitely recommending this novel to friends. It weaves mystery and suspense with the feelings from the human heart. Gowdy creates a character so believing in Ron, the reader actually feels sympathetic toward him. Just a great, great story!

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I expected more...

I would have liked to have a little more character development of all the main adult characters, and a little less of how beautiful a child the child was who got kidnapped. It was a short book that could have been longer, and the story could have been a compelling one; instead, it fell short.

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deep psychological study

In Toronto, single mom Celia Fox works two jobs while raising her beautiful mixed race daughter nine year old Rachel. Celia works at Tom's Video and plays jazz and blues at Casa Hernandez Motel. As protective as Celia is of her daughter, she is unaware of the impact her exotic looking offspring has on men, but begins to comprehend when a child model agent wants to hire Rachel; Celia has doubts, but Rachel sees a chance to earn money that she and her mom could use. However, mom is unaware that repairman Ron has seen Rachel and fallen in love.

Ron wants to save his beloved from poverty and maternal neglect and abuse. When a blackout occurs, Ron realizes he has the opportunity to save his Rachel so he abducts her for her own good. He enlists his girlfriend Nancy to help him "protect" the child, but finds his needs for her beginning to overwhelm his reasoning. As the police search for the missing preadolescent and Celia fears the worst, the media turns the abduction into a circus.

This is a deep psychological study that looks into the minds of the key cast members especially mother, daughter, kidnapper, and accomplice. The story line is totally character driven with the suspense coming from the subtle changes in attitudes of the prime quartet. Celia suffers from guilt and doubt as she deals with a caring mother's worst nightmare; Rachel begins to change her attitude as the Stockholm Syndrome begins to take affect. Nancy begins to have doubts that they did the right thing for the little girl as she realizes that Celia is not a terrible abusive mother. However, it is creepy Ron who makes the tale as he begins to conclude his pristine reasons are not pure. This is a frightening insightful suspense thriller that never lets the readers pause for a moment.

Harriet Klausner

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