Pregnant Pause is the realistic, touching, and sometimes very sad tale of Eleanor's teen pregnancy and the response of her friends and family to it. However, when the baby is born, a surprise awaits everybody, but for nobody more than Eleanor herself.Whether the author intended it or not, Eleanor is a thoroughly flawed character. The kind of flawed character who usually irritates me. Although the reader is made to believe that she is a difficult, rebellious girl, in this story Eleanor comes across as a naive, whiny, needy girl who can't do anything without the assistance of either her parents, in-laws, or beer guzzling, dope taking husband. When those individuals seem to fail her, she starts looking for the next romantic interest who would marry her so that she can keep the baby. Maybe one can't entirely blame Eleanor for her insecurity. Her missionary parents, who see her pregnancy as punishment for her waywardness, would rather go to Kenya to care for AIDS babies and orphans than take care of their own daughter. Her in-laws are simply rude, and Lam, her husband and father of the baby, is never sober, and he cheats on her. Despite everybody's belief that she won't be able to care for a baby, Eleanor is convinced that her successful work as counselor at her in-laws' weight-loss camp, will prove that she is good with kids. In the end, after suffering betrayal and rejection on several levels, Eleanor realizes that the most unlikely people can be her friends. A tale of deep betrayal, a young girl's insecurities, and a mother's unconditional love, Pregnant Pause is a stirring, sensitively written novel suitable for empathetic readers. (Ellen Fritz) SPOILER ALERT: (This is for a book report, and it spoils the ending, so don't read this if you don't wanna know the details about the book) The reason I chose this book was because I was in the library during passing period and I picked up the book and checked out and left hoping it would be good, and luckily it was otherwise I wouldn't be writing this right now. Basically the book takes place at a camp for fat kids and the only reason why Elly is there is because when her parents find out that Elly is pregnant they don’t want to live in the US anymore and they want to move back to Kenya where they do their work but Elly is a teenager who is “in love with her boyfriend” and she doesn't want to move to Kenya because she would be all the way across the world from her boyfriend and her baby daddy. Elly becomes pregnant at the age of 16 as a druggy and a party girl and her boyfriend Lam is 17 almost 18, also a druggy and a party kid, the only way to make it legal to have a baby together and date would be to get married so they got married and since Elly’s parents were moving to Kenya, Elly decided to move into a cabin at the fat camp with Lam. So they did. They live in the cabin and as long as they work and do stuff around the camp or the IL’s (Lam’s parents) won't let them stay. The IL’s don’t like Elly because they think that they turned their precious son into some bad guy, but in all reality it’s the other way around. The IL’s want Elly’s baby when it’s born and so does Elly’s sister who is married and can’t have kids on her own, and Elly is stuck in between who she should give the baby to or if she should keep the baby. As the story goes on Elly meets this little girl that goes to the camp and her name is Banner. Banner and Elly start to get along really well because Banner gets bullied by the girls in her cabin and Elly is really the only one who is nice to Banner, they start to get really close throughout Elly’s pregnancy and as the days go by Elly is seeing less and less of Lam because he keeps saying he has late swim lessons for kids, but finally she talks to some of the other camp counselors and she finds out that Lam hasn't been to any of the early or late swim lessons and that he always goes and gets high with his friends. While at this camp and being alone a lot because Lam is never home she meets a counselor named Ziggy and Ziggy falls in love with Elly and they kiss but it was a mistake until Elly finds out that Lam cheated on her and was having sex in the canoe shed with another camp counselor Jen. They fight and then make up and then fight some more, and then make up. One night when Elly went to go to the bathroom she heard some noise so she shined her flashlight over and she saw Banner, she was really freaked out and she asked Banner what was up and Banner came clean that she was always so hungry that she snuck out every night to go steal bread from the kitchen, now remember this is a camp for kids who are obese and they want kids to lose weight so extra eating isn't aloud. Banner told Elly how she feels and how she feels that no one wants her and how no one will miss her when shes gone, and Elly thought that she just meant from the camp, and after their talk she brought Banner back to her cabin, and in the morning when she woke up it was her due date, and she saw a necklace on the door handle and it was Banner’s and Elly was flattered that Banner gave her the necklace, until she realized what Banner said last night, “No one will miss me when I’m gone.” and she panicked, she ran all over looking for Banner and she ran down to the lake and saw something floating in the water and she realized it was banner, and she screamed and cried and screamed so someone could save her but they couldn't, she was dead, and it was Elly’s due date and she was crying and she had to go to the hospital so Lam brought her but Elly wouldn't stop crying so he pulled out a joint to make her calm down and she thought about it and took it but didn't smoke it and then a cop came and knocked on the door and saw the joint and arrested Lam, and took her to the hospital to have her baby but they realized that she had to have a C-SECTION and there could be one person in the room and she was pissed that Lam wasn't there and her mom wanted to be in there but the only person she wanted was Ziggy so they called Ziggy and he came and was in the room until Lam got released and then the doctor came and told her that Lam was there and if she wanted him to switch with Ziggy they could but she didn't and obviously Lam was pissed. After they got the baby out Elly went to sleep for a while and when the nurse came in they still didn't have her baby, and she wanted to see her baby but they wouldn't let her and she thought that the baby died but it turns out that the baby has down syndrome, and everyone that wanted to take the baby turned her down but when Elly finally got to see her baby she didn't care because she loved her baby like she never loved anyone else. She fell in love with her and named her Emma Rose, and she wanted to keep her baby, but the IL’s told her she couldn't stay at the cabin anymore because her and Lam were over, and her parents lived in Kenya and she had no where to go. So she put Emma Rose up for adoption but she had like 13 days to decide if she wants her back and that gave her just enough time to find a place to live and she did, she moved in with an old lady which is one thing I wont spoil who she is, and she helped her clean, and she took care of her, and that old lady fed and kept Elly and…. Emma Rose with her. Elly got to keep her baby girl.
What do You think about Pregnant Pause (2011)?
One of the saddest books I have ever read. Longer review to come.
—marinamd113
