Inside Out Girl

Inside Out Girl, Tish Cohen, 3 Stars

Reviewed September 2013

 

I read several of the other reviews before writing this to see what others thought. For some reason this is a tricky book to review. I would agree with others when they say that there are too many plot lines and that expanding on one or two more would have been better than adding the rest.

Rachel Berman is the editor of a parenting magazine that is going under, as well as the mother of a 12 and 14 year old. So, not only is she dealing with professional crisis, she is dealing with snarky pubescent children.

Len Bean is a successful lawyer whose life was perfect until his wife died, leaving him with the solo challenge of dealing with a special needs child.

The absolute best part of this book is the tenderness and exhaustion that expresses Len's love for his daughter Olivia. While I'm certain to those who have challenged children this book does an inadequate job at explaining the real ups and downs, I think for those of us who don't, it painted a better picture than we might be able to do on our own.

Rachel and Len's worlds intersect both by accident and because their children attend the same school. A bond forms between them, which requires that they help the three children deal with each other and their own issues. Both Len and Rachel have private issues that they must reveal to the other, which adds to the extreme complexity of their lives.

For the most part, the plots all wrap up neatly, which is actually unfortunate. I'm not sure that Tish Cohen intended for the book to end this way, it feels like she stopped writing. Walking through the pain of one or two of the story lines would have been more emotionally fulfilling and the book would have been richer for it.