by Jim Nelson
218 pages
For this category, I had planned to read Sh*t My Dad Says because I thought I’d need a laugh. Haha. Turns out I laugh all the time anyway, and really needed something different. Bridge Daughter is a book I have had for quite some time now. I’m sure I just found it on some list of cheap books and thought it sounded interesting, figuring I’d get to it at some point.
This book tells us the story of Hanna. It opens on Hanna’s 13th birthday. Hanna wakes up excited to see if she is a woman now. She has not gotten her period and decides to take a pregnancy test. You and I know that’s not how it works, but Hanna doesn’t. She takes the test. Guess what, it’s positive. Weird right. We all soon find out that Hanna is what is called a bridge daughter. Apparently in the world of this book, procreation works a little differently. When a woman gets pregnant, she delivers the baby after 5-6 months. This baby is always female. This baby is merely a vessel. This baby will live for about 13-14 years and grow the real baby inside of her. This baby is known as the bridge daughter. The bridge daughter will start showing signs of the real baby at about 13 years old. The baby will grow for about a year. Once the bridge daughter gives birth to what is essentially her double (except it might be male), the bridge daughter dies. It isn’t until her 13th birthday that Hanna learns she is a bridge daughter.
While I am fully aware that this is totally inefficient and really had a hard time suspending my disbelief for this story, the world in the book assures me that this is how things have always been for human reproduction. Even Jesus was born from a bridge daughter -- Susanna. Most bridge daughters are treated almost like servants. They sleep in small rooms in the home, they don’t get to wear colorful clothes, the stand at the kitchen counter to eat their meals, they cook the family meals, clean the house, and answer the door. My best guess is that families do this so they don’t get too attached to their bridge daughter. Hanna’s parents always wanted to treat her like a real daughter, so she never suspected she was a bridge.
The story does get points for originality, but I found it difficult to get into. There was an interesting turn when Hanna learns there is a way to survive after delivering the real baby. However, the book is ultimately anticlimactic.
2 Stars