SOCIAL SCIENCES

Laura & Emma

by Kate Greathead
S. & S. Mar. 2018. 352p. ISBN 9781501156601. $25; ebk. ISBN 9781501156632. F
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Born with a silver spoon in her mouth, Laura naïvely considers herself to be living a modest life. She does have a job after all—never mind it's one created for her and sustained by her family connections. And she lives in a comparatively modest penthouse that is Harlem-adjacent. Despite her supposed frugality, she has never really had to work for anything and drifts along with a sense of financial security and being taken care of. Her passive take on life leads to an unexpected pregnancy that she doesn't terminate, more by distracted accident than by intention. And so she has a daughter named Emma. Motherhood doesn't much change the haphazard way Laura is used to dealing with life. When Emma develops into an independent young woman, it seems more in spite of her mother rather than because of her.
VERDICT This novel makes a seemingly unlikable character sympathetic and interesting to the point that her story becomes unputdownable. Set against the backdrop of the 1980s to mid-1990s, this debut by a Moth StorySLAM champion will appeal to readers of character-driven women's fiction. [See Prepub Alert, 9/25/17.]
Reviewed by Karen Core, Detroit P.L. , Feb 15, 2018
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