Welcome to Litsy!

Thanks @Rissreads for your review. An interesting read. Library system did not have one hard copy. 🥲 . eBay rewarded us. Pic is from 2004 Edinburgh Book Festival. Doris was promoting her book about Grandmothers. The copies hadn't turned up so we got a small book about a cat for her to sign.

😬 This book is bloody terrifying! So brutal in so many ways! I haven‘t been able to stop thinking about it. Who is the monster exactly? The fifth child Ben or the mother, the family or society? It also made me think about motherhood and how you are damned if you do and damned if you don‘t. Someone always suffers. The depictions of the pregnancy, birth and breastfeeding of Ben made me feel really squeamish 🤮
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️1/2

Ben, the fifth child, is, from the beginning, a horror story come to life. Lessing keeps it ambiguous exactly what Ben is - he's described at various points as a troll, a goblin, a throwback to some earlier, pre-human lifeform. And Lessing uses Harriet's unenviable predicament to explore issues such as the limits of maternal love and how society deals with its rejects. Most unsettling.

Enjoying! #recommendsday

I liked the concept of this book...a loving couple gives birth to a creepy and unlovable baby who proceeds to destroy their lives...but it was fairly slow-paced and the language and story-telling seemed dated.

Wow. Pretty disturbing for such a short read...and I thought Baby Teeth was creepy....

More than once she woke to see Ben standing silently in the half dark, staring at them. The shadows from the garden moved on the ceiling, the spaces of the big room emptied into obscurity, & there stood this goblin child, half visible.

Go to sleep Ben, she would say, keeping her voice level because of the sharp fear she felt. What was he thinking as he watched them sleep? Did he want to hurt them?
#sinisterkid #Octoberxfiles
@Robothugs @Cinfhen

Taken as it is, it is a story about a boy born to parents in the 1960's England who is so ugly, primal, different...that he tears the family apart. It is, however, a moral allegory. The Lovatt's are a couple who want a huge family, but can't afford it or manage it without a lot of help, and the fifth child puts a stop to their wishful lifestyle. They wind up sacrificing almost everything, and their fifth child becomes a societal problem.

David and Harriet buy a big house and want a big family with many kids and a house full of people and happiness. For a while their dreams seem to come true but then Ben is born.
Harriet really wants to love him and tries her best and exactly this is what's driving her away from the rest of her family. An impressive, chilling read in just 150 pages.

Pic: NYC

Wouldn't want to live without my #Kindle. I sneak a hard copy in now and then though just so I don't forget the experience.

My two last book purchases before Lent. I am attempting to fast from book purchases ( among other things). I love Lessing's short stories, but I have never read one of her novels. I had to get a copy of Goodbye to All That after hearing about it on the BBC podcast A Good Read. Great podcast!

Finished 5 books during #24in48 ! Winding down the night with wine and this creepy story. I will make it to at least 12 hours which was my goal knowing that 24 was going to be a stretch!

I'm still in the Halloween spirit, jamming to this playlist on Apple Music 🎃👻

Amazing! Disturbing! Profound! I'll be mulling this one over for a while. Wondering if I should risk picking up its sequel Ben in the World.

Speaking of #DisasterousKids I can't think of anything more disturbing than realistic psychopathic children. I'm about half way through and am thoroughly creeped out. #Octphotochallenge.

Finally starting my Halloween read! #gothic #horror #NobelPrize

Sometimes a book touches on a fear that's just too real for me to enjoy it. The Fifth Child really disturbed me but, not in a good way. #numberintitle #somethingforseptember