Today it's not technically my turn on the BlogTour Only the Lonely by Joanne Nicholson because I missed it, however I am going to sneak my post in among the others for today.
Joanne Nicholson is an Australian author who enjoys boating, exercising, reading, writing, music and spending quality time with family and friends.
Joanne’s career began in advertising and marketing. After a hiatus to raise her four children, she owned an indoor play centre, worked in property management and bookkeeping. Joanne gave these up to focus on her passion for writing.
She has published the contemporary women’s fiction novels: ‘Intuition’, ‘In Another Life’ and ‘Positive’, as well as a YA novel ‘Music Score’ and several short stories. Her latest novel is ‘Only the Lonely’.
After Tiffany is orphaned on the night of her 18th birthday, she discovers, as the sole heir to her parents’ estate, she has inherited a frozen embryo from when her parents did IVF to have her. Feeling lost, alone and longing for a sense of family, Tiffany can’t bring herself to destroy or donate the embryo. Instead, she decides to be impregnated with her biological twin.
A legal battle ensues over whether the embryo is a person or property and the ethics of whether it is acceptable to give birth to your own sibling.
Set in Australia, this contemporary fiction novel is full of emotion, dilemmas and unexpected friendships, as Tiffany forges a new life without her parents.
Review
Tiffany has everything you can ask for. Two caring parents, great grades and a plan for the future. All of this comes tumbling to a halt when her parents are killed by a young drunk driver one night. She feels a deep hatred for the perpetrator and is convinced they need to spend their life in prison.Her fragile state of mind fixates on the embryo left to her in the will. One last link to her parents and the closest genetic link she would have left, surely everyone can understand why she wants dirty nappies instead of creating a life and career for herself. I think in her grief her desperation and selfishness takes over the thought process.
Oh boy, this is definitely the kind of plot that will get people talking. It circles the boundaries of personal beliefs and ethical decisions, but first and foremost it involves a very controversial topic. It's also a question that keeps courts and lawyers in business. If you found out a loved one had left you a frozen embryo what would you do? Would you destroy it, give it to an infertile couple or have it implanted in yourself?
Yeh, those are big choices to make and none of them are simple and without implications. It would perhaps be a whole different kettle of fish if Tiffany were a slightly older woman struggling to conceive, however a very young woman with no fertility issues is a whole other ball game.
Leaving aside the ethical issues, the fact Tiffany is a young woman driven by grief and loneliness has to be the deciding factor. Her need to replicate a sense and feeling of family is the reason she wants to have her biological sibling. It is a selfish choice, albeit one driven by her feeling of being completely alone in the world.
It's a contemporary read. A read driven by ethics, the law and what each person considers to be the right choice for themselves. Although at this point I would point out the fact that pro-life is adverse to choice for the individual or the carrier, and yet in this case it suits the pro-lifer to have a choice.
Along with the question of punishment, guilt and redemption, this story about a girl and an embryo is one that will create discussion, and perhaps somewhere along the line perhaps even understanding for both points of view.
Buy Only the Lonely at Amazon Uk or go to Goodreads for any other retailer. Buy at Amazon com.
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