Baby Dust by Deanna Roy - Review and Giveaway

Since you are all going to scroll down anyway I'll just announce the winner first!  First to let you know how I picked.  I found a website where you put names in a virtual hat and they assign the names.  So, I put everyone's names in the hat, as well as my own, and it assigned the name to me.  That's the person who won the giveaway.  drum roll...  Sarita Boyette!  Please email me your address so I can snail mail you the book.  lilyorange2@yahoo.ca

I was super eager to read this book.  I remember when I lost my son Blaine going to the local library and trying to find anything I could.  They had a total of four books on miscarriage or pregnancy loss.  They were all either medical books or really old.  None of them dealt with the emotions or changes I would go through as I lived through the loss of my child.  "Baby Dust" is a fictional account of 5 woman and their loss.  I say fictional because it is a novel however, it is a unique novel in that Deanna has taken real life stories and compiled them to make these characters.  Whether fictional or not, so much of it rang true for me.  I could see myself in each of the characters but the one I feel I related to the most was Melinda.  The guilt she felt, the hallucinations, the attempts to "look normal," her hesitation to join the group of women and talk about her loss, I remember all of that. 
I really enjoyed the book and as I said there was a little of each story that I could relate to and see myself and my son in.  My only critisizm would be that each story ends with a sense of hope.  The entire book is such a realistic representation of women and loss and yet I felt this was unrealistic.  Yes, it's a novel and obviously a mother reading this, especially one who may be early in her grief, wants to believe that life will get better and easier.  However, we all know that for some that isn't true.  Life only gets harder and sometimes there is no hope.  I would have liked to have seen one of the stories end in that way.  That is just my opinion though.  I would definitely recommend everyone read this book.  It is also a great gift to give someone you may know who is dealing with a new loss or struggling to find resources. 
I want to thank Deanna for allowing us to review the book and for graciously donating a copy of it for giveaway.  I hope it is a huge success and am really hoping she does a follow up novel! 

"Baby Dust" was dedicated by Deanna "For My (her) Angel Babies... Casey Shay December 1997 to April 1998 gestation, Daniel June 2001 to July 2001 gestation and Emma Hope August 2001 to October 2001 gestation."

Baby Dust - Book Review Part One

The following review is thanks to our guest blogger, Holly from Caring for Carleigh.

The book Baby Dust by Deanna Roy is a fictional book based on the stories of real women who have lost babies. The book revolves around the stories of 5 women who have suffered the loss of their babies at varying gestations. We are able to see how their losses have affected every aspect of their lives-something you don’t normally see in a book.

One of my favorite quotes from the book is as follows: ”What horror to face, to choose the moment of your child’s death, to see the machines whir to a stop, the monitors to beep, the line of the heartbeat to go flat. No one really recovers from that.”

This book is different than anything I have ever read before about the loss of a baby. Most books are about coping with loss but with this book you see grief how it is. Grief isn’t painted as a pretty picture in this book but as something that is real and that affects far more women than people realize or care to acknowledge. The situations are real and relatable for babyloss moms. I highly recommend Baby Dust for anyone to read, whether their baby has died or not. I think this would actually be a very good book for people who have not lost to read as I think it would give them a glimpse into life after losing a baby.

An Exact Replica of a Figment of My Imagination

"A child dies in this book: a baby. A baby is stillborn. You don't have to tell me how sad that is: it happened to me and my husband, our baby, a son."

I just finished reading An Exact Replica of a Figment of My Imagination. It is incredibly sad and hopeful and heartwarming and heartbreaking all at once. When the author, Elizabeth McCracken, talks about the emotions surrounding the loss of her son, I feel I could have written those words myself.
McCracken was 41 weeks pregnant with her first child when it went horribly wrong. The baby died, for unexplained reasons. She had to deliver the baby, still, and find some way to carry on. She talks candidly about the loss, her feelings for her son before and after birth, her relationship with her husband, the effect it had on them, their friends and family. We follow her through the journey of telling family and friends; of moving and packing up the baby items; of finding a new neutral home to live in; to navigating the brand new world of subsequent pregnancy.
McCracken was fortunate to deliver a rainbow baby, born almost exactly one year later. The rainbow baby comes with a whole new set of emotions and she writes

"Everyday as I love this baby in my lap, I think of my other baby. Poor older brother, poor missing one....The love for the first magnifies the love for the second, and vice versa."

I think the sentiments and experiences in this book can ring true for many of us. I found myself not only able to put myself in McCracken's shoes but also in the shoes of the "childish and unnerving" mother from the book signing who laughed wholeheartedly over a seagull stealing her husband's tuna sub and pressed McCracken to write a book about the lighter side of loss. I think that's another book I'd dive right into!