Unbecoming Review by Emma

Recently, I read the novel Unbecoming by Jenny Downham. The story is centered around three women. The main character is a seventeen-year-old girl named Katie, who’s struggled with her sexuality since unexpectedly kissing her best friend, and who dreams about being independent from her overprotective, cojnstantly worried mother, who pressures her to care for her younger brother and do perfectly in school. When the story begins, she’s first meeting her estranged grandmother, Mary, who has just come under the family’s care due to Alzheimer’s disease. When Katie first meets Mary, she’s delighted to get to know her and learn about her family history. However, her mother is less than happy about Katie prying into her past, and Mary, despite her bold, even chaotic nature, is often confused by her own memories or the “blanks” in her past. As Katie digs more and more into her family’s past, tensions grow and all three characters’ secrets begin to come to a head. Throughout the story, we get to follow Katie as she learns about her family and the reasons for Mary’s absence, begins to come of age, gain confidence, and form her own identity, and begins to newly appreciate her own family tree. 

I really enjoyed this book, and would highly recommend it. One thing in particular I thought was done well was the structure of the book. Although it’s mostly narrated in the third person from Katie’s point of view, it also includes chapters from Mary’s point of view during the present day, a flashback, or some combination. This really helps the reader empathize with everything she’s gone through before the events of the book, from giving away her only child to dealing with the causes and consequences her sister’s early death to being kept away from her grandchildren as they grew up.  It also does a really good job showing what it’s like in the head of an individual with Alzheimer’s disease in a really powerful way, which helps the readers understand the meanings for actions that could otherwise simply come across as reckless or stupid. By showing Mary’s fear and confusion at losing her own memories of the past, something most of us absolutely take for granted, we can truly understand her motivations and sympathize with her.

Another thing that this book did really well was creating a whole set of well-developed characters. We get a lot of insight into Katie’s personality and motivations, since the story mainly takes place from her point of view, and we’re following her through the events that take place. However, characters like Mary, Caroline, Katie’s brother, Chris, and even characters we never meet in real life like Katie’s dad and Mary’s father and sister are also really well-fleshed-out and three- dimensional, and we gain an understanding of the flaws, motivations, and personalities that drive all of these supporting cheacters. This helped make the events of the book feel realistic and made the story much more compelling. 

I would warn readers who don’t love slow books or books that lack a lot of action against Unbecoming. Although I personally really enjoyed the story overall, it did at times feel a little bit slow or aimless, as though you didn’t really know where the story was going. However, I’d highly recommend the book to anyone who enjoys more realistic fiction and character-focused books, and in general, I had a great time reading this story!