Elisabeth B. (eabdeb8176) reviewed Saving Grace: The True Story of a Mother-to-Be, a Deranged Attacker, and an Unborn Child on + 10 more book reviews
Helpful Score: 5
This book is so poorly written and contains many typos, formatting issues,
inaccuracies, and misinformation throughout that I hate to give it even one star.
Words in the middle of sentences are separated by hyphens on many pages.
On Page 267, it mistakenly refers to Sarah (the victim) as Katie (the
perpetrator) when referring to Katie's family's belief that Katie had made several payments to Sarah to adopt her child.
On Page 293, the authors cite a similar case of Lisa Montgomery, who in 2003 murdered a young expectant mother and performed a crude C-section to kidnap her baby. The authors incorrectly state the baby was a boy. This case received massive publicity, yet the authors couldn't even get the baby's gender correct.
Sarah grew up in a trailer park. This fact is pointed out over and over to the point of redundancy. Then to insult our intelligence, one of the authors admonishes the reader with the following homily: "The words "trailer park" trash are part of our common language. In reality, it is unfair to stigmatize anyone who must or chooses to live in a trailer or trailer park. The labeling is cruel and unfair." Duh!!!
These are just a few examples.
The flow of the story is so bad that I have to wonder: Did each of the
authors write a portion of the book in the course of a day or two and then compile it all together with one another to create this mess?
My heart goes out to Sarah. I cannot imagine the ordeal she has suffered,
but I think her story could have been condensed into a feature story in a
good magazine with a decent editor instead of dragged on for over 300
pages.
inaccuracies, and misinformation throughout that I hate to give it even one star.
Words in the middle of sentences are separated by hyphens on many pages.
On Page 267, it mistakenly refers to Sarah (the victim) as Katie (the
perpetrator) when referring to Katie's family's belief that Katie had made several payments to Sarah to adopt her child.
On Page 293, the authors cite a similar case of Lisa Montgomery, who in 2003 murdered a young expectant mother and performed a crude C-section to kidnap her baby. The authors incorrectly state the baby was a boy. This case received massive publicity, yet the authors couldn't even get the baby's gender correct.
Sarah grew up in a trailer park. This fact is pointed out over and over to the point of redundancy. Then to insult our intelligence, one of the authors admonishes the reader with the following homily: "The words "trailer park" trash are part of our common language. In reality, it is unfair to stigmatize anyone who must or chooses to live in a trailer or trailer park. The labeling is cruel and unfair." Duh!!!
These are just a few examples.
The flow of the story is so bad that I have to wonder: Did each of the
authors write a portion of the book in the course of a day or two and then compile it all together with one another to create this mess?
My heart goes out to Sarah. I cannot imagine the ordeal she has suffered,
but I think her story could have been condensed into a feature story in a
good magazine with a decent editor instead of dragged on for over 300
pages.
Eva Marie L. (babyjulie) -
Helpful Score: 5
This is a very well written book. I wouldn't recommend it to anyone that isn't a fan of true crime however. This gets VERY in depth, VERY graphic, and isn't for the faint. I'd suggest only avid true crime readers trying this one. It is however a great look into the mind of someone that would resort to trying to kidnap a fetus. There is also a part in the back with looks into other past cases of fetus kidnapping and how it's becoming more and more common.
Kami F. reviewed Saving Grace: The True Story of a Mother-to-Be, a Deranged Attacker, and an Unborn Child on
Helpful Score: 1
This book is one of the worst books ever... seriously, it's that bad.
Essentially, this book is the memoir of Sarah Brady, who was attacked by Katie Smith in Katie's attempt to surgically deliver and kidnap Sarah's unborn baby. A harrowing, horrifying experience, that Sarah fought through, and miraculously, survived. I read this book some time after seeing the case highlighted on an episode of Snapped on Oxygen.
While Sarah Brady's story is compelling, and this COULD HAVE BEEN an inspiring, meaningful book, unfortunately, it is terribly subpar. It is chock full of typos. There are elaborate explanations of things that did not need to be explained, and it lacks explanations of other things that should have been explained. There were several sections that seemed to say exactly the same thing as previous sections. The book was contradictory in places; Sarah's boyfriend was described as "humble" and "reluctant" to talk of his days as a high school football hero, then they proceed to quote him speaking "proudly" of his high school football days.
Plus, the adjectives used to describe Sarah and Katie relied heavily on opinions, rather than facts. They described Sarah as beautiful, and, seemingly, a perfect child, student, friend, etc. Katie was described at one point as ugly, and, if I remember correctly, they said something along the lines of Katie being "isolated" due to her ugliness, being overweight and wearing glasses. (Gah! Alienate your audience much?)
At any rate, the language of the book was clearly bent on portraying Sarah as "good" and Katie as "evil," and that bothered me. This was not fiction, not a Disney cartoon... this was the true story of two imperfect people. Though Sarah was totally innocent that fateful day, she is not infallibly "good." And, though, Katie plotted and attempted to execute a terribly evil plan, she was not "evil" incarnate. Personally, I think she was terribly mentally ill, and her lack of treatment, unfortunately, rippled into Sarah's and others' lives in a horrendous way.
Personally, I would have appreciated the book being written with more journalistic integrity, rather than being so opinionated, which only served to make Sarah, as a co-author, sound self-aggrandizing (which I doubt she is in reality).
Perhaps three authors was too many... Sarah, plus two journalists. Perhaps a rough draft was submitted and they published it without it going through it again. I don't know how or why such a poorly written, poorly edited, flat-out poorly executed attempt at writing a book ever made it to publication.
It's a real shame, though, because Sarah's story is worth considering, but deserving of a well-written book... not this sloppy mess. Perhaps someday, if she has the publication rights or can get them back, she can work with a REAL author, someone who knows how to frame a memoir, and write a book worth reading.
I hope so.
Essentially, this book is the memoir of Sarah Brady, who was attacked by Katie Smith in Katie's attempt to surgically deliver and kidnap Sarah's unborn baby. A harrowing, horrifying experience, that Sarah fought through, and miraculously, survived. I read this book some time after seeing the case highlighted on an episode of Snapped on Oxygen.
While Sarah Brady's story is compelling, and this COULD HAVE BEEN an inspiring, meaningful book, unfortunately, it is terribly subpar. It is chock full of typos. There are elaborate explanations of things that did not need to be explained, and it lacks explanations of other things that should have been explained. There were several sections that seemed to say exactly the same thing as previous sections. The book was contradictory in places; Sarah's boyfriend was described as "humble" and "reluctant" to talk of his days as a high school football hero, then they proceed to quote him speaking "proudly" of his high school football days.
Plus, the adjectives used to describe Sarah and Katie relied heavily on opinions, rather than facts. They described Sarah as beautiful, and, seemingly, a perfect child, student, friend, etc. Katie was described at one point as ugly, and, if I remember correctly, they said something along the lines of Katie being "isolated" due to her ugliness, being overweight and wearing glasses. (Gah! Alienate your audience much?)
At any rate, the language of the book was clearly bent on portraying Sarah as "good" and Katie as "evil," and that bothered me. This was not fiction, not a Disney cartoon... this was the true story of two imperfect people. Though Sarah was totally innocent that fateful day, she is not infallibly "good." And, though, Katie plotted and attempted to execute a terribly evil plan, she was not "evil" incarnate. Personally, I think she was terribly mentally ill, and her lack of treatment, unfortunately, rippled into Sarah's and others' lives in a horrendous way.
Personally, I would have appreciated the book being written with more journalistic integrity, rather than being so opinionated, which only served to make Sarah, as a co-author, sound self-aggrandizing (which I doubt she is in reality).
Perhaps three authors was too many... Sarah, plus two journalists. Perhaps a rough draft was submitted and they published it without it going through it again. I don't know how or why such a poorly written, poorly edited, flat-out poorly executed attempt at writing a book ever made it to publication.
It's a real shame, though, because Sarah's story is worth considering, but deserving of a well-written book... not this sloppy mess. Perhaps someday, if she has the publication rights or can get them back, she can work with a REAL author, someone who knows how to frame a memoir, and write a book worth reading.
I hope so.
