I don't want to be mean about a book on this blog. Usually if I don't like a book, I just don't finish it, but for some reason I stuck with Conception, even though it rankled. I guess the story was relatively compelling. I had two major problems with the book--its narrators: the protagonist and the talking fetus. I didn't find 15-year-old Shivana Montgomery likable, or even sympathetic. I had a hard time getting past the unborn child having a voice and the somewhat pro-life stance of the novel. When I could get over my politics, I still couldn't get into its tales of its previous martyred mothers. African-American women don't have much of a chance in the past or present of Conception. If that is Buckhanon's point, she makes it successfully, but not in a way that reaches me emotionally. I'm interested to know if any of y'all have read this book and whether you had a different take on it. (Celia, give it a try during the winter break. It takes place in Chicago, if that helps.)
