No Name Baby by Nancy Bo Flood

No-Name Baby
Nancy Bo Flood
106 pages
Published March 1 2912 by Namelos
Rating: 1/5

Okay, so let me just say it flat out... I did not like this book. Usually when I read a really good book it's hard for me to put it down. Well, I put this thing down several times and had little desire to pick it back up. There was nothing that gripped me from the beginning of the story that made me want to find out more, even the big family secret waiting at the end was not enough, but I pushed through.

The story became very monotonous after a certain event in the story line. It seemed like several chapters were nothing but do chores, watch baby, deal with Aunt Rae, think about boy next door, ask about mama. One chapter of that was enough for me. As far as the characters, I didn't hate them but I didn't love them. I felt Flood just scratched the surface of her characters so I could never really connect. I needed more besides their names, relationships with each other, and what seemed like two sentences of a background story. Though I did not really know the characters, I was appreciative that the author made them Italian, allowing the reader to be exposed to another culture, however, that exposure was very limited. There are some Italian words thrown here and there, the mention of garlic and tomato sauce, and the homeland but that's it. I expected a little more since it seems like the main character, Sophie, is only the first or second generation of the family born in America. Usually immigrants that came to the land of opportunity didn't rid themselves of homeland traditions that quickly, so I was kind of wondering, "Did Sophie's family come to America and dump most of their 'Italianess' (yes, I am aware I just made up Italianess)?" Anyway, let's discuss Aunt Rae.

What can I say about her? At first, I thought she was just a bitter woman, but as the story progressed she seemed to become a little bipolar based on her actions with Sophie. I mean, I know why she was so up and down with Sophie (if you want to know why, you can read the book, sorry no spoilers here) but I wanted to say to her, "Come on lady! There's got to be a better way for you to deal without looking crazy!" All I can do is just shake my head at that character. Let's just move on to the nitty-gritty of the story... the BIG family secret. Well for one thing, it's not that BIG of a secret and you can see it coming a mile away once you get half way into the book. That was annoying. I want a story that keeps me guessing until the very end, on the edge of seat. The reaction of the family secret from the main character, Sophie, also seemed very unreal to me. Yes, there was some crying but I feel like any real person that was in her situation would do more than cry and wouldn't be "over it" in the matter of one night, this is fiction but come on at least put realistic reactions for the characters in the book. It just seemed rush, like the author needed to wrap it up and didn't have time to spend on the main character truly processing the secret she learned. Overall, like I said earlier, I did not enjoy this book and would not recommend it.