From the Publisher
Holly Brown’s novels are irresistibly readable and infused with a profound understanding of human frailty.” — Sophie Hannah, New York Times bestselling author of Woman with a Secret
“Darkly funny and perfectly twisted, [...] a gritty look at infertility and adoption, and the implications of being deprived those things we want. With elaborate characters you’ll love to hate and an ending that will stun, Holly Brown proves herself a master storyteller and an expert of suspense.” — Mary Kubica, international bestselling author of The Good Girl
“highly stylized [...] Brown adds layer after layer to this well-constructed psychological drama, showing the unchecked emotions seething just below the surface. A clever twist [...] illustrates how watching unsympathetic people battle each other can be quite satisfying.” — Lisa Ko, author of The Leavers
“[A Necessary End] offers a glimpse of a writer whose sensitivity to the nature of the modern family, and all of its possibilities for tragedy, could soon lift her into a league with Paula Hawkins and Jodi Picoult.” — USA Today
USA Today
[A Necessary End] offers a glimpse of a writer whose sensitivity to the nature of the modern family, and all of its possibilities for tragedy, could soon lift her into a league with Paula Hawkins and Jodi Picoult.
Sophie Hannah
Holly Brown’s novels are irresistibly readable and infused with a profound understanding of human frailty.
Lisa Ko
highly stylized [...] Brown adds layer after layer to this well-constructed psychological drama, showing the unchecked emotions seething just below the surface. A clever twist [...] illustrates how watching unsympathetic people battle each other can be quite satisfying.
Mary Kubica
Darkly funny and perfectly twisted, [...] a gritty look at infertility and adoption, and the implications of being deprived those things we want. With elaborate characters you’ll love to hate and an ending that will stun, Holly Brown proves herself a master storyteller and an expert of suspense.
USA Today
[A Necessary End] offers a glimpse of a writer whose sensitivity to the nature of the modern family, and all of its possibilities for tragedy, could soon lift her into a league with Paula Hawkins and Jodi Picoult.
Associated Press Staff
highly stylized [...] Brown adds layer after layer to this well-constructed psychological drama, showing the unchecked emotions seething just below the surface. A clever twist [...] illustrates how watching unsympathetic people battle each other can be quite satisfying.
Library Journal
02/01/2015
Soon-to-be-40 Adrienne is so desperate for a baby that she allows a pregnant teenager whose child she will adopt to move into her and husband Gabe's California home. Does this sound like a good idea? From the author of Don't Try To Find Me, a licensed therapist whose blog Bonding Time has 1.5 million visitors a month; a 50,000-copy first printing.
Kirkus Reviews
2015-04-15
What could go wrong with an open adoption among a woman desperate for a baby, her less-enthusiastic husband, and the strange young woman who demands a very special price for relinquishing her child? In Brown's second novel, just about everything. Adrienne wants a baby more than anything. As she approaches middle age unable to have one of her own, she and husband Gabe are still licking their wounds following a terrible experience with another soon-to-be mother, Patty. Although Gabe is indifferent to the idea of fatherhood and happy with his life as a car salesman living about 40 minutes from San Francisco, Adrienne, a second-grade teacher, has become obsessed with motherhood. So when Leah, a beautiful, pregnant teen, gets in touch with them and asks for a ticket to California, Adrienne is more than happy to spring for it. When Leah arrives, both Gabe and Adrienne are stunned to see how much she resembles Adrienne. Soon, the newcomer—due to give birth in a couple of weeks—puts her cards on the table and demands that she be allowed to live with the new parents for a year after the child's birth. Although initially resistant, they capitulate, and, from there, things go from simply strange to diabolical. While Brown (Don't Try to Find Me, 2014) has a winning writing style, she hasn't managed to correct the one major flaw that marred her first novel: she fails to create sympathetic people. Not one of the characters—Adrienne, Gabe, Leah—has a single redeeming characteristic. They're all presented as selfish, opportunistic, and interested only in themselves, placing the reader in the unenviable position of having no one to root for and, thus, no stake in the book's eventual disastrous outcome. Unlikable people doing bad things to one another.
