2 out of 4 stars
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Addicted to Hate by Lucia Mann is a standalone novel and is based on a true story. It deals with the age-old question of nature versus nurture and what constitutes emotional and physical abuse; whether spousal, child or parental.
The odds were always going to be against Maddie. The product of rape in apartheid South Africa by a Iight-skinned British father of a dark-skinned Italian mother would ensure a colour that afforded Maddie no rights. After a botched sterilisation in her early years, Maddie was certain that with no legal papers, name, ID number or any money and family to count on, that she wasn’t going to make it much further in life. So when David takes an interest in her at age 17 and promises her the world, she believes she has found the answer. Unfortunately, David becomes the first in a line of emotionally and physically abusive men in her existence. Later a reincarnation will come into play, and Maddie will meet the man she was destined to be with, but until then she will need to endure the loss of three children and birth another three. Surely these positives should bring Maddie the joy she craves?
Fast forward and as each child grows up the nature versus nurture question becomes apparent. The girls are manipulative, abusive, money-hungry and ungrateful children who think nothing of using Maddie’s love and turning it against her. Maddie, in the interim, has had a stroke of luck as her intellect has finally been acknowledged and she is set to work as a code-breaker earning some decent money. The selfishness of the girls puts paid to that, though, and Maddie is yet again desperate for money as she uses what she has to try to bail her children and their children out from the consequences of their actions. As the last child grows older, Maddie seems even more distrustful of her. There is more than just a bit of naughty in her, something evil lurks there. Surely nothing else can be thrown at Maddie in this lifetime? You would think so, wouldn’t you?
This book’s blurb had the making of a riveting and emotional drama and as I read 5-star after 5-star review I was keen to start reading. It’s a very difficult subject to write about, as the author needs to convey the terror and despair as well as the hope that Maddie goes through. What I was expecting to feel and what I actually felt were two different things. I wanted to feel the depths of Maddie’s dilemma. I wanted to feel the exaltation when she found love. Instead, I just felt frustrated. Firstly, because of Maddie’s actions (which is not the author’s fault) but because they seemed to be written in such a lighthearted way. There were far too many exclamation marks used which took away the gravity of the situation. In one instance I was fearful for her life and her next thought was "Curiosity killed the cat!" I just felt the seriousness was broken up by this. How much of the book was fact and how much was fiction I don’t know, but for someone to be such a survivor and yet choose to adopt the mantle of a victim doesn’t make sense. By that, I mean that every time her children abused her, and she acknowledged their abuse and acknowledged their intrinsic want to hurt her, she believed that unconditional love would stop them from doing it. Surely if you see that a type of behaviour is not working you try something else? Maddie’s work led her to be well-connected, and she uses this to sort out some major problems in her life. I thus found it quite strange that she was willing to spend thousands of pounds to help her children out of the serious problems they had caused, yet she talks about finding her mother and never tries once.
With all the rave reviews, I expected a well-edited book. While I know not every mistake will be picked up, there were far too many mistakes here to overlook. The list started with missing commas and went to missing quotation marks (or too many), to incorrect words being used like organism instead of orgasm or him instead of his. At one stage she walks to the doctor as she is having a miscarriage and loses her second child. After the procedure, she gets cleaned up and sent back home. On the way she stops to feed the birds with toast and a bun she collected and kept in her pocket from her meals earlier. Seems highly unlikely. The numerous mistakes definitely interrupted the flow of reading.
I understand that the topic was a tough one, so I commend the author on tackling a difficult narrative but feel that the depths of emotion that could have been portrayed were lacking. The book is crammed with the things that happened to Maddie and because of this you never get to process each happening thoroughly. In the last few pages there are some huge revelations, but they are only touched upon, and the book also jumps a lot from past to present which sometimes gets confusing. With the editing mistakes and the failure to reach me on the emotional level I needed from the subject matter, I rate Addicted to Hate 2 out of 4 stars. I’m not sure who I would recommend this to, but if a reader out there is struggling with something in their lives and feels as though they need uplifting, this might give them the boost they require.
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Addicted to Hate
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