Six Weeks - Book Review

Title: Six Weeks

Author: Jessica L. Degarmo

Genre: Teenage/ Drama

Description: SIX WEEKS FOR LIFE OR DEATH ...
In 'Six Weeks', Jessica L. Degarmo departs from the style of her very successful Romance novels to examine every teenage girl's nightmare: that she is pregnant and not certain she's ready for a child.

Image courtesy: goodreads.com

It is a life and death decision – not her life, but her decision - and despite the opinions of those around her, she is on her own.

In a world of gray, one thing is black and white. Six weeks is her deadline to decide.

Maybe you have been there, in which case you will understand.


My Rating: 7.5/10

My thoughts about the book: The author’s writing is one thing that will draw you in. It’s written in first person POV. It’s like you are reading someone’s personal diary, although it’s not so. I was inquisitive from the very beginning as to how things would unfold for Imogene[Immy], whom you happen to care for since the start of the novel. 

The dialogues are so real; there is nothing fake in here. I’m certain this is exactly how people word their thoughts and yet, there is a surprise when one or the other character speaks. Talent, I call it!

The novel starts with Immy in the hospital taking the test for pregnancy. It’s positive. She’ll be a mother soon. That’s not a happy thing for her. She’s just nineteen. She has to measure her steps, and she has only six weeks to decide whether she should keep the baby or not.

Immy has an emotional backdrop. She studies hard in the college; works part time, takes care of the domestic expenses and still gets the abuses hurled at from her mother. She isn’t allowed to stay with her loving father because he couldn’t get her custody when she was young; she lives with a drunkard mother who abuses every waking second and consumes her daughter’s income in her own alcoholism. Immy tolerates her mother even after turning an adult because of her half sister, Sadie, who is her life. Immy works hard to make ends meet for the house.

Immy has a boyfriend named Matthias, whom she likes because they both share a rather disturbed childhood and he accepts her the way she is, or maybe he is just a distraction for her from the ugly life she leads. One party, where they ‘make love’, turns out to be the biggest mistake of Immy’s life, or so it seems in the beginning. Her decision about keeping the baby or not would impact many lives, not just hers.

I liked the part of the nuns in this book. It was soothing. Reading this book, I felt that Immy’s life was supposed to be with people who couldn’t do anything to make things better for her, but the nun was a welcome change. Her suggestion to try one alternative for size was weird, though. I couldn’t bring myself to imagine if one could completely follow that, but Immy did follow and that settled some of her confusions.

She has three options – Abortion, adoption, or keeping the baby. Abortion seems to be the easiest way out – no worries; adoption the most criminal – she chucks it right away; it's ‘keeping the baby’ that gives her jitters and makes her think hard. How can she bring a child in a world which she herself hates? She hasn’t got enough money, the family life is pathetic and the baby would halt her career. She has every reason to say no, but she still clings on to ‘how can I have an abortion?’ 

The emotional investment in this book is evident; your eyes might moisten for the pain that the girls go through, Immy and Sadie, both. I loved the characters. I liked Immy for being so strong and so unlike her mother. Somehow, I feel proud of this protagonist. She is every way an elder sister should be. She has her faults, I guess, but her words ring true to me, marking that she is honest, confident and hard working. She would never fail in her life, for that I’m glad.

Sadie is the one who seems to be too matured for her age; just eight years old and she talks like she has seen the world inside out. But then, she’d had her share of pain by having a father she knows zilch about and a mother who’d never want her.

You might/ might not like the ending. I have mixed feelings on that one.


Would I recommend it: I would recommend giving it a try. I’m certain that Six Weeks will attract its audience, not all.