Book Review: "Baby Proof"

Baby Proof by Emily Giffin seemed like my kind of book when I skimmed over the short synopsis GoodReads gave me when it showed up in my recommendations. Based on both that and the title, I figured what the hell, I'd give the book a shot. And, it's not that the book is badly written or anything - much the contrary, it's actually very well written and has a lot of good humor in it. Except that for someone like me.....

It reads like a damn horror novel.

Seriously. The premise of this book is basically a nightmare come true as far as I'm concerned. As a late-20's-something female with no intention of having children and knowing that this causes a HUGE strain on trying to form lasting relationships with, well, much of anybody, I thought maybe a story like this would be empowering. Liberating. Feel like somebody's got my back, even if it's just a fictional character. The main character, Claudia, is about 30 and wants *no* part of parenthood. Same goes for her husband, Ben. Except that over time, for Ben, he changes his mind and wants a baby more than anything. Inevitably, this leads to a divorce. All hell ensues.

Now, I realize this happens in real life pretty often; that's not the part that bothers me. What bugs me about this story is the fact that it teaches a really shitty moral, as far as I'm concerned. Lose your sense of self at any cost, if it means saving your relationship with your man. How terrible is that?? Seriously, the way the story ends up, Claudia decides she'll have a baby to appease Ben just so she can get back together with him. I just... I have no words for how upset I was with the ending of this book. I felt it was very patronizing to women like myself and trying to instill some notion of sell your values; you'll never be happy without a man and a baby! *facepalm*

I wanted to like this book. I really, REALLY wanted to. But the ending just ruined it for me. I don't know if I'm the only one who felt this way about the book or not, but, that's how it was for me. Nevertheless, the quality of the writing itself was good, so I suppose if you're like 90% of the rest of the female population, you'll probably like this book just fine. If you're like me, however, you'll resent it. But by quality alone, I'll rate this one a 4 star review.