– A Complicated Psychological Story About Surrogacy –
Publisher’s Synopsis
Libby needs a break. Three years ago her husband split, leaving her to raise their infant son Ethan alone as she struggled to launch her writing career. Now for the first time in years, things are looking up. She’s just sold her first novel, and she and Ethan are going on a much-needed vacation. Everything seems to be going their way, so why can’t she stop looking over her shoulder or panicking every time Ethan wanders out of view? Is it because of what happened when Ethan was born? Except Libby’s never told anyone the full story of what happened, and there’s no way anyone could find her and Ethan at a faraway resort . . . right?
But three days into their vacation, Libby’s fears prove justified. In a moment of inattention, Ethan wanders into an elevator before Libby can reach him. When the elevator stops and the doors open, Ethan is gone. Hotel security scours the building and finds no trace of him, but when CCTV footage is found of an adult finding the child wandering alone and leading him away by the hand, the police are called in. The search intensifies, a lost child case turning into a possible abduction. Hours later, a child is seen with a woman stepping through an emergency exit. Libby and the police track the woman down and corner her, but she refuses to release Ethan. Asked who she is, the woman replies:
“I’m his mother.”
What follows is one of the most shocking, twist-y, and provocative works of psychological suspense ever written. A story of stolen identity, of surrogacy gone horribly wrong, and of two women whose insistence that each is the “real” mother puts them at deadly cross-purposes, Lost You is sure to be one of 2019’s most buzzed-about novels.
- Title: Lost You
- Author: Haylen Beck
- Publisher: Crown (August 6, 2019)
- Genre: Mystery, Psychological, Suspense
- Hardcover: 320 pages
My Thoughts
While this story starts out interesting enough, the intensity is short-lived. After Ethan is abducted we jump back and begin reading what has happened prior to that time.
We learn about Anna, a woman who loses her job and needs money badly. When she hears of a clinic that matches childless couples with surrogates, she becomes excited. It pays very well, and it sounds like an answer to her problems.
We then proceed to read about the childless couple, Libby and her husband, who are matched up with Anna. Of course, the touching story can’t help but pull at heartstrings.
Libby carries her desire for a new baby to an extreme, by wearing an expanding prosthetic latex stomach. She only parts with it when she showers.
Anna, on the other hand, grows closer and closer to the baby boy she is carrying. She finds herself talking to her Little Butterfly more and more.
Beck depicts the feelings of both women. At the same time Anna experiences the birth of her premature baby, Libby has the pain of an emergency appendectomy.
While this is presented as a psychological thriller, it ends up portraying much more. What is motherhood? Is it preparing for a baby? Is it giving birth to a child? How strong is a mother’s love?
You will no doubt feel a rollercoaster of emotions as you read this story.
What Concerned Me
I felt the book moved from a suspenseful, intriguing beginning to a slower tale filled with unrelatable characters. While showing each side of surrogacy is interesting, both women were anything but normal. They were so far from being stable that it made me cringe to think of either of them caring for a child.
What I Liked Best
The topic is very real and definitely bears room for thought.
About The Author
Haylen Beck is the pseudonym of Stuart Neville, an acclaimed, Edgar-nominated author whose crime fiction has won the Los Angeles Times Book Prize, and made best-of-year lists with numerous publications including The New York Times, The Los Angeles Times, and The Boston Globe.
​Find out more about Stuart Neville at his website, https://www.stuartneville.com/.
