BloodMining by Laura Wilkinson – a story of mothers in crisis

Megan Evens appears to have it all: brains, beauty, a successful career as a foreign correspondent. But deep down she is lonely and rootless. Pregnant, craving love but unable to trust after the destructive affair with her baby’s father, she returns to the security of her birthplace in Wales. When Megan’s son is later diagnosed with a terminal condition, a degenerative, hereditary disease, everything she believed to be true about her origins is thrown into question. To save her son, Megan must unearth the truth; she must excavate family history and memory. Enlisting the help of former colleague Jack North, a man with a secret of his own, Megan embarks on a journey of self discovery and into the heart of what it means to be a parent.

I will come clean in duplicate at the start of my review as Laura Wilkinson (http://laura-wilkinson.co.uk/) is a writing friend of mine, and I was more than delighted to see this, her first novel, published earlier this year. Not only that, but Bridge House Publishing (http://bridgehousepublishing.co.uk/default.aspx) have also produced one of my own short stories in an anthology, so a double confession of mutual interest indeed.

The novel is set, interestingly enough, in the future though it steers well clear of the science-fiction or fantasy genres. Instead it keeps a firm grip on its women’s fiction focus, with the different attitudes and mechanics of the future very well done indeed. I particularly admired that aspect which was a delight to read.

The two female main characters, Megan and Elizabeth, are mother and daughter with Megan being the daughter and the stronger focus of the story. I enjoyed the way Wilkinson makes neither woman instantly sympathetic, but is well able to handle their many faults and failings alongside the drive of the story. I must admit to being rather thrown in the beginning sections of the book, however, as it appeared to start three times. First we see Megan full-tilt in her career as a war journalist in the middle of a crisis. Then we switch to seeing her as a pregnant woman giving up her job and returning to live with her mother, Elizabeth, in order to have her baby. Finally we suddenly jump a couple of years to when her child, Cerdic, is a toddler. There’s a great deal going on, and it felt rather disconcerting to me as the reader to be taken up just when I’d settled in to a scenario and landed somewhere else. It needed a much smoother and stronger edit at this point. However, once we’re with the young Cerdic, we stay there and I felt we’d really begun.

The major focus of the novel is on motherhood in all its various forms – for instance how women cope with young children and, conversely, how grown women cope with their mothers. It’s an interesting mix. The drama involving Megan’s increasingly tense and dramatic search for a cure for Cerdic’s apparently incurable illness was an issue (not being a mother myself, or having any great love of children) I was less interested in than I imagine most readers would be.

What did grip me was the relationship between Megan and Elizabeth, and then in flashback the relationship between Elizabeth and her own mother, Hannah. On the whole, I enjoyed Elizabeth more as a character, as she seemed to have broader experiences than Megan has. Wilkinson is not afraid of introducing her characters’ dark sides though, as has already been mentioned. I’d just become rather fond of Elizabeth when her harsh attitude and indeed cruelty to her mother’s remarriage made me think again. Speaking as a step-daughter myself, I have to say I was quite happy when my own mother got married again when I was 18, so the attitude and actions of the rather older Elizabeth at being a step-daughter left me deeply shocked indeed. To me she seemed to be acting like a 9 year old, but perhaps I’m simply more chilled than I thought … Anyway, credit to the author for not being afraid of showing the faults of her character, without excuses.

The centrepiece of the book is undoubtedly the flashback scene, involving Elizabeth and her young family, in the terrible plague that occurred in 2015. The description of the rats, how their threat slowly grows and how people and society gradually begin to fall apart was frankly superb, and I was gripped throughout. It’s a masterpiece of the futuristic genre, to my mind. I really wish we’d started the book there, and been in Elizabeth’s viewpoint throughout. Actually, that would have been stunning, I think. That said, the aftermath of how the plague affects Elizabeth went on for a little too long, perhaps.

I’ve probably given the impression by now that the novel is entirely full of women, with Cerdic being the only male influence. However, Megan’s former journalist colleague Jack mentioned in the blurb appears at key points in the story and is a delightful counterpoint to Megan’s serious and sometimes dour nature. I enjoyed their relationship for the most part.

So, in conclusion this is a very ambitious first novel indeed, and on the whole achieves what it sets out to do, though occasionally it can come across as a little clumsy. But Wilkinson at her best is an author to watch, and I shall look forward very much to seeing what she does next.

BloodMining, Bridge House Publishing 2011, ISBN: 978 1 907335 14 3

[Anne rather likes rats, and undoubtedly prefers them to children, but has never thus far included them in any novel of her own.]

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