This is a very well written book and it is very difficult. It is heartbreaking and emotional. By the end of this book I had nothing left in the tank. Phenomenal

Oh my gosh, I don't know how to review this. It's totally different but extremely well-written and I was fully engaged by the story. Matt Carron is the main caregiver for his daughter Minnie so you would expect them to have a closer bond. Not necessarily. Parts of the book are hard to read and some occurrences made me seethe at Matt's treatment of Minnie. His wife Karren appears to know exactly how to appease and/or manipulate Matt. It was very sad to read about the family's experiences with the NHS and I really hope it's not indicative of the system in reality. Many layers and many themes explored and I switched allegiances many times. It's not a book I'd recommend to everyone but if you have the mental fortitude you won't regret it.

It's a rather long book (close to 500 pages I think) and the chapters are longer than I normally like but I read it pretty quickly. Towards the end, the last 30% or so, there seemed to be quite a few editing errors that should've been caught before now but that's just a minor distraction. Maybe I just didn't notice them in the beginning.

My thanks to BooksGoSocial via Netgalley for the opportunity to read a copy of this novel. All opinions expressed are my own.

I guess most parents can somehow relate to this father who's got his difficulties with his daughter, especially when the mother is falling deep into depression and when the daughter is growing up to be a gothic teen. But things get harder when Minnie gets a cancer diagnosis. What would you do to save your child? What does such a diagnosis do to the marriage of the parents?
I like that the whole book is written as if it were a letter to his daughter.

Now THIS is what you call a page turner!

I honestly don't think I have read a book that has made me feel every emotion going and feel them so strongly.
I questioned whether it was because I am a Mum.. the answer was 'yes 100%'. Only a parent would truly get the emotions that I am trying to explain that this book evokes.. that raw animal instinct of protecting your child at all costs.... even it is is from the other parent or even yourself!

If you were to ask any parent what their worst fear was, I guarantee 100% would say their child dying. Now imagine being told your child is terminally ill but at the same time not being on the same path of reasoning as your partner.

The attention to detail within this storyline is sublime, everything flows so seamlessly and its evident the amount of research that has gone into it.

One thing I loved was that this wasn't a story about a hero with a perfect happy ending, there were no perfect characters that you cheered for from the very start. I LOATHED the father Matt from the beginning but by the time it hit over halfway you start wanting to support him *NO SPOILERS*

The storyline covers and touches on many subjects that can be hard to read at times but they are brilliantly written and used in the perfect context. Postnatal depression/post partum depression, child abuse, medical negligence, coercive abuse .. it's all there with bells on.

Basically tops from the POV of Matt, the father, this is his story and his experience of life from when his daughter arrives until the end.

Heartwrenching, unputdownable, and so unbelievably heartbreaking.

This is now the second book I have read by this author, the first being Locked In (review to come) and what an amazing talent he has, I've already added a whole load of his others to my TBR pile!

Huge thanks to netgalley and BooksGoSocial for the ARC.

What attracted me in this book was the title and the fact that I read other books by this author (Locked In and Future Shop) that show he has a very distinctive voice and original ideas. I was a bit reluctant to read it because of the theme but I was glad I did. The story of Matt, Karren and Minnie is heart wrenching, even for someone without children like me. Gideon Burrows knows perfectly well how to grab the readers’ attention and keep it throughout the story. This book has multiple layers and gives you something to think about.
Thanks to Netgalley and BooksGoSocial for this review copy.

This was my first time reading a book by Gideon Burrows. If I’m being honest, I had never heard of him before. I was scrolling through the Read Now section on NetGalley when the cover of his book caught my eye. The Illustrators Daughter sounded pretty good so I took a chance. I’m really glad that I did. I have to admit, the storyline is not like I thought it was going to be when I decided to read it. I actually thought that the father was going to be some abusive father because he was jealous of his child. It was not like that at all. This was a story about a married couple that have a daughter that ends up with leukemia. The story is told by Matt Carron, the father, and he’s telling it to his daughter, Minnie. In the beginning, I didn’t care for Matt. I thought he was jealous of Minnie, that she was taking attention away from his and his wife Karren’s relationship. But then I realized Matt was the better parent. Karren suffered from postpartum depression and left all of Minnie’s care in Matt’s hands. She was pretty much an absent parent throughout Minnie’s entire life. I felt she was the selfish one. This is a very sad story about childhood cancers. I got very emotional in parts, reading about everything that Minnie had to endure. It did make her and her father become very close. This might be a hard read for some people so you should really be aware of what it’s about before starting it. It showed how there are places and people out there that will scam you out of money with fake promises of being able to cure the leukemia. This was a really heartbreaking story but it’s one I’d recommend to others. I’d like to thank NetGalley for the arc. I’m glad to have found a new author to read and enjoy and I’m giving this a 5 star rating.

Thanks to Gideon and NetGalley for allowing me to read this book.

Matt and his partner, Karren, agree to start a family. But Matt seems taken aback when Karren announces that she is pregnant. Matt has a jealous streak and he is not sure that he wants to share Karren with a baby.

Karren’s labour is long and distressing.
Returning home, she is physically and mentally exhausted which leaves Matt to take care of the family and the house. Baby Minnie is difficult, stretching Matt beyond his limits.

His relationship with Minnie never really recovers.
When she is 12 years old, Minnie becomes seriously ill and the couple cannot agree on her treatment.
Unable to cope with the procedures which Minnie is subjected to, Karren leaves Matt to provide support for Minnie.

Matt’s character was quite aggressive and irrational at times. The description of the journey through Minnie’s diagnosis and treatment is disturbing.

Sorry did not have time to read this. I tried a couple of times, and could not get into this one. I loved his other one.

This book has one of those ‘sharp intake of breath’ wow factors on the very first page, so it immediately pulls you in and makes you want to read more. I love books that pique my interest from the beginning like that.
To begin with I absolutely loathed the main character Matt, he was obnoxious, selfish and an all round jerk (for jerk read a word that I don’t want to put into print, lol). The way he begrudged his baby daughter the attention she got, expecting that he should receive it instead was a little close to home for me, so it was, at times, a very uncomfortable read.
However in the second part of the book things change and you begin to see how adversity can be a trigger for that change. You see just how far a parent will go for their child.
A great read that I definitely recommend.
My thanks to NetGalley, the publisher and the author for allowing me to read this book in return for an honest review.

This is an unusual book in that it doesn’t make people heroes just because they are suffering. The ages characters - even the child - who are not particularly likeable and challenges us to empathise with their tragedies. I liked the writing style, but not the characters.

This is my second book by Gideon Burrows. It's a cancer story but not as you know it. It's in the voice of the male protagonist, Matt Carron, but addressed to his daughter. For the first half of the book I hated him. He's a self-indulgent, whiny man-baby who goes full Oedipus when he and his wife Karren Griffin have their first child, Minnie. He competes with his baby daughter for attention: "You've caused enough friction with your moods, your stubbornness. It is tearing me and your mum apart. But I will fight for her. And you will lose." Matt's parenting is performative, rather than heartfelt: "I turned my back while she pulled them up to your waist. That felt quite good. Like the right thing for a dad to do." He isn't much better to his wife, Karren Griffin, who he manipulates and measures: "'Can I have a hug?' She leant over and let me hold her. She didn't release your hand, so it wasn't a full hug."

When Minnie is diagnosed with blood cancer, something shifts in who you empathise with in this family at war. Karren withdraws from her daughter and disengages with her previous views on medical science, and Matt steps up, realises he's been a bit of a knob to his wife and daughter, and develops some actual feelings for one of them: "And I see you here, Minnie, talking to me. Being so rational. Understanding. Not emotional, not a wreck like your mum." Well I didn't say he became likeable exactly... he's still a douche to his wife, discussing her despair in callous terms: "She then went to the lounge, presumably to misery surf."

Watching this embattled family who were imperfect and struggling to relate to each other in the first place go through abortion, childhood cancer, and accessing experimental drugs in another country feels a lot closer to the reality that normal families face when beset by the same problems. They're shit at it, and each other, and these circumstances would stretch even the strongest of bonds. I was surprised by the writer's ability to manipulate my emotions from hating to empathising with the characters, and to keep me reading eagerly in a genre I'd normally poo-poo.

"The day you died was the best day of my life." With this line in the the opening paragraph, you can't help but have your interest peaked.

Matt Carron and Karron Griffen are new parents; the perfect family. Except their perfect world turns from bad to worse to desperate.

In the beginning of the novel, I disliked the characters. I found the parents (Matt and Karron) to be selfish and totally self absorbed, their child, Minnie, a holy terror - as the novel progressed my feelings changed, much as the characters changed as they dealt with Minnie's cancer.

The Illustrator's Daughter deals with the emotional upheaval of a new baby, a spoiled toddler, teen angst and a terminal illness. The changes in a marriage with a birth, balancing work/stay at home dad (who is a gig worker) and a child's critical illness. The hope, compromise, conflict, and deterioration of relationships when the stressors of life intrude.

Realistic read that will capture your interest.

Thank you, NetGalley, BooksGoSocial, and Gideon Burrows for giving me this arc in exchange for an honest review.
When the main character Matt Carson's daughter Minne was born he could not hide his jealousy towards his daughter because he believes his wife was stolen from him by her.
Things become more difficult as she grows older and her tantrums grow more frequently. The family is now faced with the shocking news of their daughter's illness. Will their relationship endure the hardships or will it crumble under the pressure?
I was drawn to this book because of the author and the synopsis of the book. The book is written from the father's POV, it shows the father struggling through a wide range of emotions.
There were many elements I enjoyed in the book includes; psychology, parents' POV, and family dynamics. Finally, l didn't like the wife because I had gaslighting vibes from her throughout the book. The characters were dynamically written.
Suitable for readers of domestic psychological thrillers.
4.5⭐

There's only one thing I can say a out this book and that's "wow". It's the second of Gideon books I've read and it certainly doesn't disappoint. It perfectly encompasses the feelings of a new parent and how Dad's often feel overlooked and neglected in the aftermath of the birth. The main characters feelings towards his new daughter are complex and at times make uncomfortable reading. However, as the novel progresses his feelings change and you realise just what a parent will do to save their child. Brilliant book.

I thoroughly enjoyed reading this book. It was an excellent page turner that I couldn’t put down. It’s full of twists and turns throughout that keel you on the edge of your seat. The characters were interesting, the plot was excellent, and the style of writing was perfect. The first book I have read by this author and I will be keeping my eye out for more in the future. If you enjoy reading a good drama/psychological thriller then this book is for you.

This story is incredible. A roller-coaster from start to finish. The characters were well written. They were flawed. They felt like people you could know

When Matt Carton and Karren Griffen have their first child Minnie, their lives were meant to come together on blissful, familial harmony.

But real life isn't like that. In fact it ca be more like a nightmare. A difficult and agonising birth that leads the mother into an apathetic post-natal depression. A first-time father who is left to struggle to bring up his child without the support of the mother, and with no natural gifts in understanding the ways of small children. Who is jealous of the attention his daughter received over him and feels squeezed out of the exclusive lobe he once felt with his wife. Who, whilst still loving his daughter deeply has little natural empathy, and is impatient, with enough of a temper to leave bruise marks on her hands as he tries to restrain her when she won't cooperate with getting dressed or playing with a jigsaw. Matt is sometimes not the most reliable of narrators, but the interior horrors of family dysfunction are too well painted with their trademark dreary colours.

The baby, named after Minnie Mouse, grows into a rude and difficult young girl. At 12, her father realises with her horrific first period, that something is very wrong with Minnie, though it takes her doctors too long to recognise it also. Minnie has leukaemia.

What then follows is the roller coaster of uncertainty, hope and disappointment, then the clutching of straws, a family surely goes through whenever a child is struck down with a life-threatening disease. The doctor they liked moves away, the health service drops the ball, there are the doctors who behave with utter insensitivity. The strains already existing with the marriage become chasms, they have different ways of coping.

Then they hear of a possible new treatment abroad that might be able to save Minnie. But can they raise enough money to get there? And is this new treatment valid anyway?

This makes for a desperate and harrowing read, the parents of any sick child will most certainly be able to relate to the things this family go through. There is, however, closure of a sort at the end. The strength of the novel comes through the emotional depths the writer is able to bring to the telling, aling with the internal conflicts of this narrator, which is why this novel is given five stars

The Illustrator's Daughter
Who's in Control?
by Gideon Burrows

Thank you, NetGalley, BooksGoSocial, and Gideon Burrows for giving me this arc in exchange for an honest review.
This was hard, hard to read, and need tissues. It was of course told in the Father's POV. Who is in charge? It is one you end it feeling there were no real winners, as in Psychological domestic families. It will be one I will remember.

I'm still thinking about this book, a few days after finishing it. An angry man, his daughter, Mum. Plenty of emotions and food for thought.

Be warned you are going to need a box of tissues.
Matt and Karren have just become a family with the birth of their daughter Minnie. After a difficult birth and Karren unable to bond with this new life, Matt becomes the care giver to both wife and baby. Matt is so in love with his wife that he begins to resent this new life. As Minnie grows and Karren goes back to work, Matt is now a stay at home dad and gives Minnie most of her child care. As soon as Karren comes home from work Minnie only has eyes for her mum. The early years of Minnie' s life was a difficult read and I had to walk away. Matt is on downward spiral and his mental health begins to suffer but all this changes when Minnie turns twelve and has just entered womanhood when the parents are informed that their daughter Minnie is now very sick. Can their marriage survive this devastating news? Are they strong enough to deal with the cards they have been dealt?
This book as I said is difficult to read in places. I have shouted at this book and I have also cried. Infact this book has raised the gamit of all my emotions. This author has put his heart and and soul into this book. I am emotionally drained. The best book I have read by this author and one of the best books I have read in the last five years.
Many thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for the ARC in return for giving an honest review.