A very difficult subject matter and a book that I struggled to get into, never mind finish.

Not sure what the premise of the story was and it was not the book I was hoping it would be.

I was unable to finish this book. The writing was a bIt confusing, and truthfully it just was too depressing for me to read at the time.

Baby Lost takes an incredibly difficult subject (the loss of one's child) and treats it with the dignity and respect the that it deserves. The author is compassionate, nuanced, and understanding throughout. I have never had an experience like this myself, but the over arching themes of dealing with grief, struggles, and disappointment are relevant to all. I appreciate the bravery and candor the author had to share her experience and help us all to learn from her.

I am in charge of our Senior School library and now during this time of lockdown, I am looking for a diverse array of new books to furnish their shelves with and inspire our young people to read a wider and more diverse range of books as they move through the senior school. It is hard sometimes to find books that will grab the attention of young people as their time is short and we are competing against technology and online entertainments.
This was a thought-provoking and well-written read that will appeal to readers across the board. It had a really strong voice and a compelling narrative that I think would capture their attention and draw them in. It kept me engrossed and I think that it's so important that the books that we purchase for both our young people and our staff are appealing to as broad a range of readers as possible - as well as providing them with something a little 'different' that they might not have come across in school libraries before.
This was a really enjoyable read and I will definitely be purchasing a copy for school so that our young people can enjoy it for themselves. A satisfying and well-crafted read that I keep thinking about long after closing its final page - and that definitely makes it a must-buy for me!

Heart-wrenching. There aren't many books that emotionally move me but Robert's story was honest, raw, and emotionally exhausting. She is a very brave and strong woman to be able to share this with others with such a great use of language as well.

This book was insightful and reflective of the emotions one goes through after a still birth. The author was open and honest about how she felt, sharing her family's struggle through this pain. The poetry and blog posts used in the book were particularly incisive at times -- and I highlighted many of them in my copy. At other times, they seemed to distract from the moment. The part I will always remember is how the moms had to make their last kiss a stand-in for all of the hugs, kisses, goodbyes, and "be safe" moments they would have had if their daughter had lived. I was especially appreciative of the detail on the legal status of fetuses and the challenges of giving these lives legal standing while preserving a mother's right to an abortion when necessary for a myriad of circumstances. Recommended reading.

I have attempted to read this book twice now but just cannot seem to get into it at all.
I think the cover fits the blurb well. The blurb made me interested in reading the book but I just could not get along with it at all.
For me the book jumped about too much between the time of the "impact" then back and forth.
Did Not Finish

This was such a moving story of loss and love. Hannah, who was 34 weeks pregnant gets in a car accident and loses the baby. I felt so heartbroken and sad for Hannah, her partner and their other kids. I also felt anguish during their process through their grief. Really loved this story and would recommend to others who have lost someone they loved.

I tried on several occasions to get deeper into this book, but I just couldn't finish it, which is very odd for me. It is definitely a sad story. I just didn't care for the style of writing. I would like to try something else by Hannah Robert to see if maybe it was just the story-line & not the writing.

Thank you NetGalley for this advanced copy in exchange for my honest opinion.

"I can't imagine what she's going through," says every mother when they hear that a woman has lost her child. I don't quite agree. If you're a mother you know well enough what that loss would feel like because you love your child with every fiber of your being.

Baby Lost by Hannah Robert is the telling of her own journey through the grief of losing her child at 8 months pregnant. A car accident crushed her vehicle around her and her family, causing placenta abruption and death of her daughter before she could even be born. I was drawn to this book on NetGalley because I wanted to see inside another mother's loss. Having experienced a miscarriage, I felt an affinity to the author before reading her story. There is not one right way to handle such monumental pain and Hannah Robert guides us through her own process.

When I started this book, I couldn't put it down until Hannah reached the point of kissing her baby Z goodbye. I felt that I needed to stick by Hannah's side through her extraction of her car, through the doctors trying to find the heartbeat, beyond the cat-scans that followed the silence in her womb, and alongside her and her family as they held baby Z for the one day they physically let her go. Once Hannah kissed her baby for the last time, the chapter ended, and I allowed myself to quietly sob.

I was angry and hurt for the unfairness of her situation. I re-opened the hurt of my own lost child at 11-weeks gestation. Not far enough along to be determined a boy or a girl. This then brought new tears to my eyes; I found myself jealous that Hannah at least had a chance to hold her baby and know it was a girl. I thought she was "fortunate" to have at least held her baby and that she could hold a service for baby Z. I realized quickly how absurd that was, cried anew with guilt, and eventually brought myself back to the present.

Mothers who lose their children, regardless of when they were lost, all share grief. There is not a "best way" to lose a baby. We can't be jealous of those who shared 18 years with their babies, 30 years, 2 months, or any amount of time. Mothers aren't supposed to bury their children. And yet, so many women do. Hannah Robert knew several people in her group of friends and family who joined her in this shared misery. I began to reflect on my own connections and realized there are two people (that I know of, there could be more) who have had to be induced and endure a still-born delivery. Where am I going with this? To be honest, I don't know. The mind wanders in all kinds of directions when trying to find reason and understanding of such tragedy.

I felt that Hannah's book was organized and followed a nice structure and yet it was also disorganized in a way, as she stumbled along in her after-impact life. Her telling is an honest reflection of her pain while also including journal entries that were true to the actual moments that she's sharing with her readers. The story moves forward and backward through time much like we do while we process our new altered reality. We move forward and feel proud to know we are making progress toward a new normal, and then in the next moment we are spontaneously weeping. Hannah shows amazing courage throughout this book. She has a brilliant mind, and eloquently shares how she chose to find peace after loss without religious faith.

Like Hannah, I am not religious. Religion probably would have helped guide me in my own grief because then I would have known where he/she went after their heart stopped beating. I would have felt a certainty that he/she was in a better place. Hannah respected the beliefs of her partner Rima, and they held what sounded like a lovely service for baby Z, 30 days after she both died and was born. Together they chose spiritual godparents to love and care for their daughter in the place where they could not care for her themselves. Hannah feels her daughter in the ocean, the sand, the rain, and her pomegranate tree. It felt very real to me, I believed in her feelings, and it attaches her daughter to the world of the living.

I could keep going on and on about all the things that I appreciated about this book. I would never say that "all things happen for a reason". Hannah wasn't destined to lose her baby so that she could write a book to help others with child loss. This book was an aftereffect. In loss, many of us are driven to create anything positive out of our experience. It could be developing new laws, awareness of a need for funding of an illness, prevention of losses where it can be prevented, or simply sharing the pain so that others know they aren't alone. It was important to me to find people who understood my pain from their own experience, and this was true for Hannah as well.

I have to say this book was perfect and give it a 5-star rating. It is hard to judge a story like this because there is no perfect way to tell such a story. Hannah made it easy to give this book 5 stars because she wasn't trying to teach us how to conquer grief, she was simply sharing her own.

Baby Lost re-opened my grief. I am grateful for this which is odd to say. I keep my grief tucked away in a corner inside of me because I have other children. Revisiting my loss felt like I was honoring my unknown child again. In just 11 days it will be six years since my loss, and this book brought it all back to me as if it was yesterday. Time truly helps us heal even if we don't want to accept that.

A sad story about a baby lost. I could not read the full book.

Very sad, raw with emotion, but I felt like I wasn't fully connected to the characters.

Only two days after Christmas back in 2009, Hannah's life changed drastically after a car crashed into her car while she was eight months pregnant with her little baby 'Halloumi'.

Also in the car was her partner, Roma and their daughters, Jackie and Jazzie who all managed to escape the wreck along with Hannah but unfortunately, baby Zainab had just one tender day with her family due to the horrific accident. No amount of bruises or broken bones were as significant a side effect of the crash as an innocent newborn life being so cruelly taken. I feel anger towards the reckless driver for taking this poor family's precious baby away, reckless drivers need stopping and need punishment.

Hannah's writing during the time of being in hospital talks of her inability to face traveling in a car again so soon as the trauma caught up to her and all she was facing ahead of her felt too much, working with a physiotherapist to walk again properly as well as grief all taking a toll.

I was glad to know that the reckless student driver was caught but saddened to know that Hannah and Rims split. However, their grief was aided by Ali's arrival, a newborn baby boy joined their family and sent a new glimmer of life and hope to them.

I was so glad to read that Hannah's family escaped but the loss of a new baby is always a tender thing. In our family, my aunt suffered a lot to get pregnant and I have a friend trying multiple rounds of IVF to try and have a baby, it's an emotional toll to endure at any stage of pregnancy from conceiving to birth. Hannah's account is detailed and strong, the family is a powerful team and baby Z would be proud to have such a loving family.

Many thanks to the publishers for allowing me to review this book for them!