Not Yours to Keep

August 15, 2024
In Ruskin's thriller set in 2012, a married couple hoping to adopt a child contend with a dangerous stalker with dark secrets. Billie Campbell and her hard-driving attorney husband, Tyler, are in their 30s and considering adoption after unsuccessfully trying to conceive a child. Adopting a child won't be easy, though, due in part to their financial struggles. Billie finds herself becoming increasingly distraught and frustrated, and her job at a local adoption agency makes matters worse, as she keeps witnessing people living the life that she wants but can't have. Her anguish parallels that of a mysterious woman from Tyler's past named Anne, who also yearns for a child she can't have. As she begins stalking Tyler and Billie, he keeps Anne's identity a secret from his wife, which also threatens to undermine their quest to build a family. Ruskin uses this explosive dynamic to place Billie and Anne on an inescapable collision course, foreshadowing disaster at every step. The labyrinthine twists and turns that follow are, indeed, messy, but they also contain moments of real sweetness and profundity, as when an adult adoptee talks about her relationship with her adoptive dad: "Sometimes, after a particularly tough day...my father would come in, open the window to my room, and help me step out onto the roof. We'd lie there looking at the stars. He'd pull out some chocolate, and we'd share it without ever saying anything." The author's depiction of Anne's increasing instability is particularly heart-wrenching and thought-provoking. The story engagingly examines what drives a person to commit villainous acts, and whether such acts are necessarily committed by bad people. By story's end, it's clear that, for some people, the answers to such questions can be nuanced and complex. An often intriguing narrative about loss and enduring hope.

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