It’s a truth universally acknowledged – and if it isn’t, it should be – that life is full of what if’s and maybe’s where every choice, every decision, changes the course of a life.
That’s the premise of Lucy V. Hay’s thought-provoking Proof Positive where bright, ambitious Lizzie locks herself in a public toilet with a pregnancy testing kit.
When the test proves positive Lizzie is faced with what could be the most important decision of her life.
She has two stark choices: to abort or not to abort?
Whatever she decides there WILL be consequences and, just like a falling stone sending ripples across a pond, her decision will affect not just her life but that of other people too.
What if she aborts the unwanted baby? Without telling the baby’s father? Or her mother? And what happens when they find out?
Pedigree
Alternatively, suppose she keeps the baby? How will it impact on her ambitions? On her relationship with her boyfriend? Her best friend? Her parents and siblings?
What if…
Hay writes with confidence and assurance – as you’d expect from someone of her writing pedigree.
What the blurb says:
On the eve of her 18th birthday, Lizzie finds herself pregnant: she’s literally days away from her exam results and university beckons around the corner.
The bright Lizzie has big plans, but can she have the life she wanted, with a baby in tow?
What will her family and friends say? And what will the baby’s father choose to do: stay out of it or stand by her?
An exciting “What if…” journey in the style of Run Lola Run and Sliding Doors.
Her debut crime novel, The Other Twin, was featured in The Sun and Sunday Express newspapers and Heat and Closer magazines.
She’s also a script editor and blogger, who helps writers via her Bang2write consultancy, and is the producer of two Brit thrillers, Deviation (2012) and Assassin (2015), as well as the script editor and advisor on numerous other features and shorts.
Teenage mum
In addition, she’s the author of Writing and Selling Thriller Screenplays for Kamera Books’ ‘Creative Essentials’ range, as well as follow ups Drama Screenplays and Diverse Characters.
Proof Positive is dynamically different: Hay, who was herself a teenage mother, presents five ‘what if’ scenarios. All are eminently plausible and each choice takes Lizzie on a different journey.
Strictly speaking, this is a YA novel but, truthfully, the book has an important message for young and old: life is one crossroads after another and, at each one, it’s important to take the path that’s right for you rather than someone else.
It’s a truism that is vividly and eloquently expressed. An entertaining and enjoyable read.
Review by Sue Featherstone.
Available to buy on Amazon.
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