The Perfect Child
Lucinda Berry
A Washington Post and Amazon Charts bestseller. A page-turning debut of suspense about a young couple desperate to have a child of their own—and the unsettling consequences of getting what they always wanted. Christopher and Hannah are a happily married surgeon and nurse with picture-perfect lives. more
371 pages, Kindle Edition
First published Thomas & Mercer
4.06
Rating
116791
Ratings
11297
Reviews
Lucinda Berry
24 books 9356 followers
Dr. Lucinda Berry is a former clinical psychologist and leading researcher in childhood trauma. Now, she spends her days writing full-time where she uses her clinical experience to blur the line between fiction and nonfiction. She enjoys taking her readers on a journey through the dark recesses of the human psyche. Her work has been optioned for film and translated into multiple languages.If Berry isn’t chasing after her son, you can find her running through Los Angeles, prepping for her next marathon. To hear about her upcoming release The Secrets of Us, visit her on Facebook or sign up for her newsletter at https://www.lucindaberry.com/.
Community reviews
I’m okay with not having a happy ending, but an ENDING would be nice. I feel like the book ended in what should have been the end of a chapter. Good book, although I found the husband, Christopher, INFURIATING. more
Christopher was a blind IDIOT. I can't tell you how livid he made me. How can a supposed intelligent DOCTOR be in such denial. And do you want to know what else infuriated me. The fact that-(Hate the way I ended my rant. more
There was a knock on the door, I peeped behind the curtains to see who it was then I didn't bother to write a review after all. . more
No ending. Great story, but then it just stopped. It was as if the author got tired and quit. Such a disappointment. . more
One word to sufficiently describe this book: DISTURBING. Dr. Christopher Bauer and his wife, Hannah, have been struggling with infertility for years. Hannah, now 41, has all but given up hope of having children until. A young girl is found abandoned and walking alone through a parking lot covered in blood, malnourished, and once examined, is found to have multiple old and new bone fractures, none of which have ever been treated. more
“No matter how many times I was questioned by the police, it never got easier. My nerves jumped into high gear automatically. They always made me feel like I was lying, even when I was telling the truth. ”― Lucinda Berry, The Perfect ChildOh wow. I have SO MUCH to say but I am sure you do not wan t to hear a long and extremely furious book tantrum from me so I will try to keep it short. more
FULL REVIEW UP. Watch the Line Between Fiction and Reality Get Truly Blurred in this Chilling Novel A Perfect October Read. Christopher and Hannah have it all - except one thing . . . more
LITERAL CHILLS PLOT Hannah and Christian have been married for years. When Hannah turned 40, they decided to stop trying for a child. Just when they gave up on their dream of parenthood, Christian, through work as an orthopedic surgeon, meets Janie, a child found in a trailer park. Janie is starved, with multiple cuts and broken bones, underdeveloped. Christian feels bad for the girl and spends all his free time in the hospital with her. more
BEWARE OF SPOILERS. A dead meth addict's child being wild proves to be a pretty good read, even though placed far out in the field of unbelievable. I'm not sure where the ending is, though. Do regular 6-year old undernourished kids the size of a newborn (even crazy ones) have the necessary strength to kill a grown up meth addict. Is it really all right to ignore that the kid's mentally ill. more
I'm not sure I've ever read such a crazy, intense, non-stop, haunting, anxiety producing novel. but only in the best and most desirable way. I didn't want it to end. Once this book has you in it's grips, it won't let go. I started it this morning and literally could not put it down. more
Okay I have been thinking about this book for the past 24 hours as what I am going to write well here it goes it was one disturbing read which I am not sure if I liked it or not. I had a few issues with it, first of Christopher got under my skin how could a Orthopaedic surgeon be so gullible, knowing true well what Janie was like even though he thought she was the apple of his eye could not do anything wrong. yeah right. Piper Goldstein was Janie's social worker she did all that she could to help Hannah & Christopher through Janie's adoption but even she fell short, I did Feel for Hannah she was with her all the time & in the end she had a complete meltdown coping with a new baby & Janie she was a complete mess. You thought Damian from The Omen was Bad but Janie makes him look like an angel There is a lot of descriptive child abuse in this was very dark & disturbing I could not stop turning those pages . more
Not Me. I am truly curious about certain people. The masochistic kind. What makes a person with a good comfortable life want to upset the apple cart. What makes someone want to bring pain, misery and evil drama into his or her life. more
Jesus, What I’ve just read. This book is very disturbing but I couldn’t put it down. My emotions where all over the place because I didn’t know who should I feel sorry for more. I guess all of them :(It is a story of the couple Dr Christopher Bauer and his wife Hannah, who adopted an abused by her real mom child, Jenie. I think they underestimated how hard it is to foster traumatized child. more
Too long, too boring, too unbelievable. And worse, NO ending. Perfect flop. BTW, having worked in CPS, There's NO WAY a mother called SEVEN TIMES begging for help and NO ONE responded. Not even in Seattle, Chicago or Houston. more
Audiobook. narrated by Christine Williams Erin Bennett, Dan John MillerThe three voice narrators kept me interested - really hooked. One reviewer compared this to ‘Baby Teeth’. Both books deal with a mentally troubled child. But where ‘Baby Teeth’ was fiction nonsense — in which several of my friends who are child therapists agree. more
5 Disturbing Stars. This book will stay with me for a very long time. It was a disturbing and horrifying read but also it was so painfully real that it made my hair stand up on my arms at times. It is definitely not an easy read but oh so captivating and so hard to put down. I admire any parent that decides to adopt or even foster a child, especially a child that has special needs, mental or physical. more
I honestly can’t believe this book had such high ratings. It is poorly written, poorly paced and completely unoriginal. But more than that: it feeds into the prevailing narrative that adopting kids in foster care is a last resort compared to having biological children or even international adoption - it actually goes further than that: it plays on the stereotype that children in foster are are dangerous. It was horrifying to see how many of these ridiculous stereotypes and tropes were shoved into this novel but I was at a complete loss for words that the author is a “trauma psychologist and leading researcher in childhood trauma”. How irresponsible of her to perpetuate this extreme, rare and unfair portrayal of abused children in the foster care system, the assumed superiority of biological children (i. more
I’m dizzy from rolling my eyes over this one. An orthopedic surgeon who is so dim witted as to miss every red flag thrown in his face was hard to believe. The incidents with the classmate and the death of the cat would have caused any thinking person to realize Janie needed a lot more than he could give. Hannah’s trip to the ER being too embarrassing to even mention to her sister was also ridiculously unbelievable. I felt for Hannah, but was annoyed that she didn’t flee the train wreck before it hit her. more
Christopher, the husband, has to be one of the dumbest persons on the planet. A typical evil child wrecking havoc in a home. Although Janie was bad, it's Christopher I wanted to slap. Enough said. more
4. 5* What a disturbing book. I have seen this in all the bookstores and online without reading what it is about. plus, it is free from Amazon Unlimited. so why not. more
What a mess. This is the direct to video version of Baby Teeth We may have a new winner for my least favorite character ever. Which is sadly the only superlative I can award this pile of manure. This was bad. Like, shockingly bad. more
Described by many as 'disturbing', and we can all agree on that one. RTC - another good book and another one I liked but did not love. more
After years of infertility Dr Christopher Bauer and his wife Hannah, a nurse, gave up the idea of having a biological child. When abandoned and battered six-year-old Janie winds up in the ER, they decide to adopt her. Despite warnings from professionals that Janie trauma will take years to heal, if it ever does, the Bauers feel they are equipped. Then somebody dies. Readers don’t know who the murder victim(s) is (or are) until near the end of THE PERFECT CHILD. more
Man, this book really had an impact. On the plus side, it was gripping in a kind of "can't-turn-your-head-away-from-the-scene-of-an-accident" kind of way. I mean, I was really caught up. couldn't wait to find time to read and find out what's going to happen next, how's this going to turn out. The characters, although bordering on too stupid to live, engaged me and I cared about them. more
This was such a tough one. So unsettling, disturbing, and just plain sad. I wouldn’t call this a thriller at all. It’s fiction obviously but the fact that this could happen IRL just makes my skin crawl to even think about. Not for the faint of heart, and definitely nowhere near a happy ending, but for sure one I’ll be thinking about for a bit. more
Absolutely INCREDIBLE. This is my second read from Lucinda Berry and she is a phenomenal writer. I just bought two more of her books, Phantom Limb, was just . 99¢ today. This book touched me, sent chills down my spine several times. more
Read the book if you want to read something that would scratch the dark side of your mind. This one is so disturbing. I had to close the book when I reached 80 percent into it because I knew I would resort for some kind of therapy if I didn’t. I wish I could unread this one but also I am happy I read a book that would haunt me forever. A doctor and her (perpetually sighing) husband decided to adopt a severely neglected and abused toddler. more
Holy sh. $Freakishly disturbing and scary. I can't with that ending. I'm speechless 😶So good from start to finish. Loving Lucinda Berry and her disturbing stories. more
WOW. What did I just read. Christopher and Hannah both work in the medical field and have the perfect marriage and lives, the only thing missing is a child. They've spent years trying to conceive, but Hannah's been diagnosed with an inhospitable uterus. But when a six-year-old girl, Janie, is found abandoned in a parking lot covered in bruises and blood and brought into the emergency room at their hospital, their lives begin to change. more
"We'd like to think a mother and father's love can turn everything around, but there are times where parents do the very best they can, but the kid- even from the get-go - is just a bad kid . Ignore the problem, and we could have blood on our hands. " Adrian Raine, psychologist (University of Pennsylvania). https://www. theatlantic. more