Book Review: Countless by Karen Gregory

Countless
Author: Karen Gregory
Publisher: Bloomsbury Australia
Release date: 1/07/17
Pages: 384 pages

                                   

'Is there anything concerning you?, Felicity says. 'College, home boyfriends?'

Slowly she leans forward and in a gentle voice I've never heard her use before she says, 'Have you done a pregnancy test?'

When Hedda discovers she is pregnant, she doesn't believe she could ever look after a baby. The numbers just don't add up. She is young, and in the grip of an eating disorder that controls her daily life. 

But as the days tick by, Hedda comes to a decision. She will call a truce with her eating disorder, just until the baby's born. She can do it, if she take one day at a time...

My review

My thoughts on the book: Countless is the stunning debut novel from Karen Gregory which tell the story of a young girl called Hedda. Hedda has an eating disorder who she has named 'Nia'. Since Nina has taken over her life she has been in and out of hospital, has lost one of her dearest friends, her family basically want nothing to do with her and now she discovers after a one night stand that she is pregnant. Now Hedda must figure out if she is willing to get her body healthy enough to have this baby or terminate the pregnancy. Upon deciding that she will keep the baby Hedda decides to call a truce wi Nina and eat just enough so the baby will be born healthy. But when the baby is born will Hedda go back to her old ways or will she realise that she needs to smarten up and be a mother and a positive role model for her baby?

I absolutely adored this book. I must say that I can't say anything about how Hedda, let alone anyone, would be able to stay away from food and exercise so much. I kind of have the opposite problem and love food and would rather sit in a food coma than exercise. But on the whole pregnancy and motherhood side I can defiantly understand that. I myself was a young mum, I was 19 when I had my oldest child, and can defiantly relate to some of the things that Hedda felt during the pregnancy and after. All you want is for your child to be healthy and you try and do the right things for them but in some people's eyes it's not enough or your never going to live up to the standards that they place on you. Reading Countless brought back so many of those first few moments with my oldest and I want to thank the author for that. It was really special.

I think the author did a fabulous job of wrapping up the story as well and gave us some very positive snippets of what the future may hold for Hedda and her family. I defiantly think that she is moving in the right direction and would have loved to have known for sure.

If there was anything to really fault I didn't really like the romance side of the book with Robin and his suprise announcement that he made after it all started. I think it would have been better left out and maybe if we could have learnt a bit more about this one-night-stand daddy I would have enjoyed it more. 

Rating: 4/5