The Unwelcome Child

By Terese Pampellonne

Book Overview

Arriving in Martha's Vineyard to help out her best friend Jan, who has miraculously become pregnant after years of trying, Annie Wojtoko discovers that the impending bundle of joy is a creature of... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0739462156
• ISBN13: 9780739462157
• Release Date: January 2005
• Publisher: KENSINGTON PUBLISHING CORP.
• Length: 318 Pages
• Weight: 0.53 lbs.

Customer Reviews

Chilling story!

I read this book as a teenager and have often thought of it since. Purchased it recently and I still love the storyline. Just the right amount of spooky!

Dark and haunting but with a great sense of humor

This was my first Terese Pampellone book and let me tell you, I can safely ad her to my new favorite writers because this book was very good indeed. Annie Wojtoko is our main character as we get to know about her cool ways in the beginning where she encounters many crazy things that go on in her daily life. She is such a solid and likable character that I would read many more stories with her in, although all of the characters were executed perfectly. This book was haunting, creepy and just when you thought that the weird stuff was your imagination, more things happen to Jan who is Annie's pregnant friend as we learn the terrible truths about the house she lives in. Apparently as this was a house for runaway pregnant girls at the beginning of last century and there is a ghost story woven through about the missing girl Sarah, daughter of the previous Owner, Sybil Clayton. Somehow Jen who was thought as sterile gets pregnant right after she moves into the house and runs into the spooky mysterious Gail, who ends up promising to be Jan's midwife but tells her that she can't leave the house that got her pregnant because the baby will die. Well from there weird things go on, missing bodies, strange medications hidden in the basement, the real horrors that happened at the house before, Annie's struggle to keep Jan's falling marriage together and her own missing period as she stays at the house to help Jan. As it seems that all females in the house get pregnant easily they also end up losing what they love the most. This book was very real, had tons of witty charm, summer storms and secrets hidden in the attic and characters who had ulterior motifs, down to what happened to Jan and her baby in the end - a great ending that left me covered in Goosebumps I will say. This was a real quick and engrossing read, I will highly recommend it for some juicy summer reading. Enjoy!

A fresh voice in darkness

I read a decent amount of new horror/suspense novels, and most of them aren't very engaging. Obviously, since I wrote a cover blurb for the book, I recommend this one, but blurbs don't tell the whole story. The Unwelcome Child has a lot to say about motherhood, loss, longing, and living despite it all. At turns creepy and uplifting, it's a ride you won't soon forget. I can't wait for Pampellone's next. Thriller writer Scott Nicholson

WHAT A PAGE TURNER!

I couldn't put this book down! I loved everything about it. The characters are very real - and ANNIE is hysterical. What an amazing combination: it's a thriller in every sense of the word - really scary - but the author has such a great sense of humor, there's always comic relief around the corner. Some of the best dialogue I've ever read. Also love that it's driven by a serious issue - abortion - and shows you both sides without being preachy. It would make a great feature film. I will read everything Pampellone writes!

Nicely done and a fresh voice in this genre!

Terrific read with people acting and reacting the way REAL people would when facing odd and frightening situations. The only problem I had was that in a book about pregnancy and pro-life versus pro-choice, it seems EVERY character is either pregnant, miscarries, had an abortion, is an orphan, etc. It gets a little over the top, the story is maybe 50 pages too long, but it breezes along nicely and I look forward to more by this writer.