Call Me Mummy by Tina Baker | Book Review

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Call Me Mummy by Tina Baker - 5/5

Blurb:

"Glamorous, beautiful Mummy has everything a woman could want. Except for a daughter of her very own. So when she sees Kim - heavily pregnant, glued to her phone and ignoring her eldest child in a busy shop - she does what anyone would do. She takes her. But foul-mouthed little Tonya is not the daughter that Mummy was hoping for.

As Tonya fiercely resists Mummy's attempts to make her into the perfect child, Kim is demonised by the media as a 'scummy mummy', who deserves to have her other children taken too. Haunted by memories of her own childhood and refusing to play by the media's rules, Kim begins to spiral, turning on those who love her.

Though they are worlds apart, Mummy and Kim have more in common than they could possibly imagine. But it is five-year-old Tonya who is caught in the middle..."

Review:

Oh my goodness, this book! What an opener! You know in Friends when Joey has to put The Shining in the freezer? That is me with Call Me Mummy.

It is mostly told from the perspectives of "Mummy" and Kim. Pregnant Kim is in a clothing store with her children, not paying much attention to them. "Mummy" keeps an eye on her, thinking that she is lucky to even have children. She instantly classes her as a bad mother.

One of Kim's children, Tonya, wanders off and "Mummy" sees an adult sized bite mark on her arm and decides that she needs to rescue her. So she takes her.

The book follows the aftermath, Kim and partner Steve's life following the abduction and the birth of their new baby. Kim is portrayed by the media as a "scummy mummy" and the internet trolls come out in full force. 

We learn about Tonya's life in this new ladies' house and having a six-year-old daughter myself, this was hard reading considering the character of Tonya is the same age.

Both Kim and "Mummy" have had troubled pasts and these are very well-developed and honestly hard to read about. 

This book really pulls at every emotion and I am just in awe at how it is written. Absolutely fantastic, but I am a little traumatised!