Full Term
Ellie Rose McKee
Elowen Press, March 2021
Paperback, £7.99
ISBN 9781838432300
Mya Byrne is 16 and has a whole host of problems: her boyfriend broke up with her, her stepdad has been hitting her mum, and she’s gone into early labour in school — but nobody knew she was pregnant. Full Term, the first in the Family Ties trilogy, follows Mya’s journey through the first month of motherhood and finding her independence.
While Full Term handles some heavy-hitting topics with a light touch, this is not a light book. McKee pulls no punches in describing the details of hospital procedures, potential birth trauma or the realities of Mother and Baby units. Mya’s mum goes missing in an effort to evade her stepdad’s wrath, and McKee weaves the complexities of legal dealings with domestic violence neatly throughout the subplots of the story.
There is a lot of story within this novella, with a number of threads and mysteries to unravel that on occasion detract from the pacing and the development of some of the character relationships. In terms of the supporting cast, Mya’s flatmate Lynne is vibrant and jumps off the page, and Mya’s sister Zhara is aloof and intriguing enough that I was excited whenever she reappeared. Throughout the book, Mya’s determination and need to survive ring true.
Overall, Full Term is an ever-topical quick read that puts me in mind of a thematically modern version of Catherine MacPhail’s Roxy’s Baby.
Courtney Smyth
Consequently, the people on this small island speak English, French, and Mauritian Creole, and this blend of cultures and languages across a troubled history is bound to result in fertile ground for creativity. However, this multitude of languages is not always an advantage; Ananda Devi’s characters struggle to express themselves fully with all of these borrowed languages, phrases and multicultural influences. On several occasions they say that there is “no escape” from the limitations placed on them by their upbringing in their neighbourhood — apart from turning to violence and crime which further traps them in the cyclical “nasty history” of their country. They are constrained by the cultural memory of violence and slavery, and can barely imagine a life outside of this extistence. Only fiction and stories from other places provide a glimpse of a world where “possibilities shimmer”, just as this novel helps readers to understand the lives of these disenfranchised youths.
