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    Replacement Child: A Memoir
    Replacement Child: A Memoir
    Replacement Child: A Memoir
    Audiobook6 hours

    Replacement Child: A Memoir

    Written by Judy L. Mandel

    Narrated by Laural Merlington

    2.5/5

    ()

    About this audiobook

    Judy L. Mandel was born into a family crippled by grief. But it would be years before she would discover the shocking circumstances of their loss.

    In her award-winning memoir, Replacement Child-now a New York Times bestseller-Mandel tells the true story of a horrifying accident: A plane crashes into a family's home, leaving one daughter severely burned and another dead. The death of the child leaves a hole in the family that threatens to tear it apart. In an attempt to fill the painful gap, the parents have a "replacement child."

    This powerful tale of love and lies, family and hope, is an intimate account of being brought into the world to provide "a salve for the burns." As a child, Mandel unwittingly rides the deep and hidden currents of her family's grief-until her discovery of this family secret, years later, changes her life forever, forcing her to confront the complex layers of her relationships with her father, mother, and sister.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherHighbridge Company
    Release dateJun 11, 2019
    ISBN9781684570270
    Replacement Child: A Memoir

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    Reviews for Replacement Child

    2.5/5

    12 ratings4 reviews

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    • 3/5
      I wish I could give half stars here. I enjoyed the book, but I wouldn't say it was great. It is tragic and true, so it is kind of like the car wreck- you have to find out more. That's why we look, right? With the title, I expected more discussion of what the effects of being a "replacement child" were on her. I feel like the story is really more of a retelling of the accident after many years of research.
    • 3/5
      Imagine if you spent all of your life knowing that the only reason you were born is because your parents had lost a child, suddenly and tragically, long before you were even thought of. In fact, imagine that if your oldest sister hadn't died and your surviving sister hadn't been terribly injured, your parents would never have considered having a third child. Imagine that you've always been the replacement child, living in the shadow of a much loved and missed perfect older sister. Judy Mandel was that replacement child, conceived only in the wake of a plane crashing into her family's apartment which killed 7 year old Donna Mandel and badly burned 2 year old Linda Mandel and she tells her story in the memoir Replacement Child. Three different narratives thread throughout this memoir. There is an account of the day leading up to and culminating in the crash that killed little Donna Mandel; there is the story of Judy Mandel's childhood in a family so marked by tragedy; and there's the present day (2005) account of Judy as an adult, mother, and writer tackling this very memoir. Each of the narratives are designed to show the devastating and lasting effects of the tragedy on the Mandel family and to help Judy understand how the death of one sister and the disfigurement of another years before her own birth shaped her experience and made her the person she is today. The tale of Judy's childhood is a heartbreaking one of understandable but dysfunctional family dynamics. She was always unable to live up to Donna's memory, especially in her father's eyes and heart, and she was forever cognizant of her parents' very guarded love for her and their inability, due to fear, to let her experience everything in life she wanted to experience. She lived with and understood the family's focus on Linda and her frequent hospitalizations to try to ease pain and to make small repairs to the massive damage done to her by the fireball but Judy Mandel herself suffered the emotional hurts of being shunted to the side and never being talked about positively in a way that might have drawn attention to Linda's disfigurements, an unacknowledged victim of the crash as well. Mandel weaves her need to write this story because of the looming impact of Donna's absence she always felt in her own life with the events of that terrible life-changing, family-destroying day. And this weaving together is interesting in the beginning and in her dawning understanding of its impact on her personality and relationships but towards the end of the memoir, Mandel seems to lose the thread and start repeating herself, which made the later portions tedious. Somehow, despite the telling of such a horrible story, there's also an emotional distance maintained, perhaps intentionally, but one which makes it a little difficult for the reader to connect with Judy and with the sadness and suffering that must have pervaded the family always and forever. She tells the reader of her conclusions with regards to her family and marital relationships but doesn't always convincingly show how she reached them. So although the premise of the memoir was interesting and compelling, the reading itself was, unfortunately, not nearly so.
    • 2/5
      I received this book from NetGalley in exchange for a fair and honest review. Replacement Child by Judy Mandel discusses an interesting concept that I wasn’t previously aware of: replacing a dead child with a newly birthed or adopted one.That’s right. Judy Mandel’s family, before she was born, suffered from a tragedy. An airplane crashed into their home, killing Judy’s older sister while severely burning her other sister Linda.Judy was birthed as a replacement child for Linda.The story sounds compelling, and in actuality, it is a compelling tale. However, there were three story lines to follow:1. The day of the crash (compelling)2. Judy’s life growing up (interesting)3. Judy’s day as she is writing this memoir (not sure why that’s included, it took away from the story)The story itself is intriguing, sad, and amazing. Yet, I don’t think it was told that way.I spoke to my mom about the story, and she said she grew up with someone who was the replacement child. It was totally new to me.Do you know of this occurring?Thanks for reading,Rebecca @ Love at First Book
    • 2/5
      Judy was born as a replacement for the daughter who died in a tragic plane accident. I was unable to finish this book. It had no chronological order whatsoever, which was very disorienting. Also, while I was interested in her childhood, her adulthood bored me to tears. It seems more appropriate for a psychology exercise than a novel.