Thank you to Wednesday Books/NetGalley for a copy of Unexpecting in exchange for an honest review.
Summary
Benjamin Morrison is about to start junior year of high school, and while his family is challenging, he is pretty content with his life, with his two best friends, and being a part of the robotics club. Until an experiment at science camp has completely unexpected consequences.
He is going to be a father. Something his mother was not expecting after he came out as gay, and she certainly wasn’t expecting that he would want to raise the baby as a single father. But together, they come up with a plan to prepare Ben for fatherhood and fight for his rights.
The weight of Ben’s decision presses down on him. He’s always tired, his grades fall, and tension rises between his mom and stepfather. He’s letting down his friends in the robotics club, whose future hinges on his expertise. If it wasn’t for his renewed friendship (and maybe more) with a boy from his past, he wouldn’t be able to face the daily ridicule at school or the crumbling relationship with his best friends.
With every new challenge, every new sacrifice he has to make, Ben questions his choice. He’s lived with a void in his heart where a father’s presence should have been, and the fear of putting his own child through that keeps him clinging to his decision. When the baby might be in danger, Ben’s faced with a heart-wrenching realization: sometimes being a parent means making the hard choices, even if they are the choices you don’t want to make …
Unexpected?
Sometimes the fun of the story isn’t the end but the journey. Author Jen Bailey pretty clearly telegraphs the ending of Unexpecting about mid-way through the novel. But that doesn’t diminish the value of the book, as Ben’s mental state is of far more import. Instead of waiting to be surprised, the reader waits for Ben to reach the inevitable conclusion.
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Ben is a lot. But, hey! He’s about to be a teen dad. His fluctuations between grief, excitement, and “Oh, sh*t!” feel excruciatingly honest. You totally root for him to figure it all out. (If I had any quibble about the plot, it’d be that the romance in this story was unnecessary, bloating it, perhaps shallowing Ben’s motivations.)
Father Figure
What is a dad? That’s one of the questions Jen Bailey asks in Unexpecting. I love that she dedicated the book to her stepfather. That love shines through this novel. Stepfamily can be rough, but reading an example of it working is excellent. Sure, there are plenty of bad stepparents in the world. But for every Evil Stepmother, there’s at least one Roger (Ben’s stepdad).
Roger does a great job of being patient with Ben. He’s there for the kid when he needs him. It clearly hurts Roger that Ben doesn’t see him as someone to rely on, but he never pushes him too hard. That is A+ stepparenting. Prospective stepparents could definitely take some cues from this character.
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Should You Read It?
Unexpecting is a quirky little book. A gay kid impregnates his best friend, whom he had sex with “to make sure”? An absurd premise, but the book is sweeter than that. A novel such as this could have easily gone cynical or sappy, but Jen Bailey takes neither route. Unexpecting is unexpectedly poignant.
Unexpecting is out on August 22, 2023. Pick up a copy at your local indie bookstore or library. 📚🫃
https://www.geekgirlauthority.com/new-book-releases-august-22-2023/
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