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Reviewed by Keith Mbuya for Readers' Favorite
When sixteen-year-old Joan Andersen realized she was pregnant, she could not face her parents or her handsome boyfriend, Jack Smithfield, her high school’s mean football team captain in East Elm, their hometown. She turned to a friend for help, who connected her to a quack doctor for an abortion. A few days after the procedure, her health continues to worsen, and she is forced to confess her secret to her parents and Jack. After Joan’s recovery, Jack weds her, and she seems eager to conceive and give birth. However, before the wedding, her guilt about her first pregnancy led her to a medium, who communicated with the spirit of her child, sparking an obsession in her about the possibility of her child’s spirit being reincarnated. She also encounters a fortune teller, who warns her about her future husband. Will any of these come true in her future? Find out in Very Bad Parents by Amy Meitz.
Setting the story in a conservative, small midwestern town in the 1960s and 70s, Meitz immerses the reader in an all-American family. The narrative unravels at a fast pace, relying heavily on lively dialogue riddled with colloquial language. Joan embodies the struggles of young girls of that era, and her interactions with the cast display how society viewed them. Her father is dismissive of her aspirations to be a novelist and would rather she pursue a traditional career such as teaching. Her mother, on the other hand, cannot seem to handle a mother-to-daughter conversation about sex. The story explores themes of illegal abortion, teenage pregnancy, trauma, abuse, addiction, parenthood, toxic masculinity, and more. If you’re looking for a literary novel flavored with dark humor, drama, social realism, and psychological thrills, Very Bad Parents by Amy Meitz is a perfect pick.
