Mother of Pearl by Kellie Coates Gilbert - REVIEWED

About the Book: (from Abingdon Press)

Barrie Graeber has two great kids, a loving husband, and a respected job as the high school counselor in her close-knit community. Without warning, everything unravels when her teenage daughter, Pearl, is betrayed by friends and lashes out.

Nothing prepares this mother for the helplessness that follows when her attempts to steer her daughter back on course fail and Pearl shuts her out . . . or when she discovers the unthinkable about her nemesis, the football coach.

Emotionally riveting and profoundly moving, Mother of Pearl brings us into the heart of a mother bound by an incredible burden, who ultimately finds she must recognize her own vulnerability and learn to trust in something much bigger.

My Thoughts:

“No one warned me nightmares could get worse when you grow up.” (p. 75)

At the moment this thought crossed Barrie Graeber’s mind, she was living through a parent’s worst nightmare.  True to this thought process, her nightmare does indeed grow darker as the truth comes to light.

The greater truth is revealed later in the story, and while it is a truth many struggle to understand, it is truth that stands regardless of circumstances. The circumstances that frame this story are hauntingly familiar if you’ve followed the news lately.  Teens today must face rather dire choices in the 21^st century, and most often they don’t possess the maturity to choose wisely.  Emotions are most often the determining factor, and choices are made in the heat of the moment. Choices that alter a life-course forever after.  Barrie Graeber’s daughter, Pearl, makes  some choices that impact many lives for all eternity.

This story was not what I expected to discover behind the cover.  The first few chapters seemed to confirm my expectations.  And then…things took a totally unexpected turn.  I found myself weeping with Barrie and her family.  I felt their heartache, and anger, and confusion – their shock, and disbelief and frustration.  Gilbert is an author that writes very believable emotions and situations into her character’s lives, and she makes it possible for the reader’s heart and mind to reel with those same emotions in those same situations.

I highly recommend this story to everyone! The issues that are presented are real and relevant! Read this story!  Love your children! Trust God! And pray for each other! Now.

The Author:

A former legal investigator and trial paralegal, Kellie Coates Gilbert writes with a sympathetic, intimate knowledge of how people react under pressure.  She is a Pacific Northwest native, and now calls Dallas home.