Looking For Jane by Heather Marshall

☆☆☆☆☆

.ePUB, 341 pages
Expected Publication: 01 Mar 2022
By: Simon & Schuster Canada

About The Book:
Tell them you’re looking for Jane.

2017
When Angela Creighton discovers a mysterious letter containing a life-shattering confession in a stack of forgotten mail, she is determined to find the intended recipient. Her search takes her back to the 1970s when a group of daring women operated an illegal underground abortion network in Toronto known only by its whispered code name: Jane...
1971
As a teenager, Dr. Evelyn Taylor was sent to a home for “fallen” women where she was forced to give up her baby for adoption—a trauma she has never recovered from. Despite harrowing police raids and the constant threat of arrest, she joins the Jane Network as an abortion provider, determined to give other women the choice she never had.
1980
After discovering a shocking secret about her family history, twenty-year-old Nancy Mitchell begins to question everything she has ever known. When she unexpectedly becomes pregnant, she feels like she has no one to turn to for help. Grappling with her decision, she locates “Jane” and finds a place of her own alongside Dr. Taylor within the network’s ranks, but she can never escape the lies that haunt her.

Weaving together the lives of three women, Looking for Jane is an unforgettable debut about the devastating consequences that come from a lack of choice—and the enduring power of a mother’s love.

My Review:

They would rather women die in alleyways, 

hemorrhaging with coat hangers sticking out from between their thighs.

This was such a thought provoking book. Heather Marshall has a way of humanising complex issues, weaving the internal worlds of her characters and emotions into the complex web that makes up life and each individual choice within that life. This story presents both sides of the motherhood/abortion stance and it also shows it's not black and white decision despite what people may think or say. The ramifications for a woman choosing to abort can sometimes reverberate throughout her life, also those who are "forced" to give their babies away suffer long after the deed is done, there are also the ramifications for a child born to a woman who can't financially provide or emotionally be available for it. So many lives affected by many decisions. Not all good or all bad but often weighted in despair and terror and aloneness and fear. The fear of being judged, abandoned, disowned - and excluded. Damned if you do, damned if you don't. 

This is such a wonderful debut, from a Canadian author no less. I loved it being set in my hometown of Toronto, Canada. It was nice to recognize places and to be able to picture streets and neighbourhoods was a bonus I really felt immersed into it.  This story was so well thought out and really hit me with all the feels...an amazing heart wrenching story with multiple characters that stay with you long after you finished. All. The. Stars.

Disclosure:
With many thanks to NetGalley, Heather Marshall and Simon & Schuster Canada for the giving of the ARC.

#NetGalley