Saving Noah Paperback – September 6, 2017

This novel was very difficult for me to read, for several reasons. However, it is also a very important novel, not just for me, but for all people. This delves into the issue of pedophiles. This is not an easy subject to tackle and I credit Lucinda Berry for bravely taking it on.Lucinda Berry's very deep and realistic novel covers a multitude of Waze and different people that are affected when pedophilia and molestation come to light. It's not just traumatizing for the child, the parents must feel 10 times the grief in some ways. The child that that they thought they had is forever changed in both their minds, and the most harshly in the minds of others.I think that Lucinda Berry does an excellent job of showing what struggles exist on the other side of the pedophilia equation. Almost everybody has read a book, or have seen a movie, or television special on a child being molested. But we look no further and that hamstrings us as a society. Would you want to be born a pedophile? I certainly wouldn't. It would be absolutely devastating to find out my child was a pedophile. How could you stop loving your child, even finding out that they had done something horrific? Ms Berry does a deep dive when she demonstrates the confliction and horrors that beset Noah and his family. I think that this is an excellent book.What I think is more important, is that we need to do studies to find out more about these people who are born this way. We need to be able to address this as quickly as possible, before anybody gets hurt. I have a lot of empathy for somebody who was born a pedophile and doesn't act on it. And I'm speaking as someone who is a childhood victim and is also the mother of five girls. My five girls that I educated and did all I could to make sure that they never were victims, or if it did happen that they could come to me and know it is not their fault. Practiced molesters cultivate guilt, which festers into shame, worthlessness, and worst of all, silence.The reason that this was personally difficult is that I was molested at the age of 5 multiple times by the babysitters 15 year old son. I never do spoilers, but this is a bit of one. Noah is 15 at the time and his victims we're 6. Noah didn't do that much, but my perpetrator was there every day to do his worst. And he did far more than just play doctor. Also being a ward of the state of Michigan and a foster child, I was preyed on again and again. So this issue triggers some gut responses in me.Yet I have done research into this issue, and I genuinely believe that pedophiles are born that way. Thus, how can we not have pity for them, as long as they don't act upon their urges? Why aren't there more studies, to protect small children? To allow otherwise good people to thrive without the fear of hurting children and taking the drastic action that Noah felt he had to. It's easy to hate a molester, but can we not feel empathy for the ones who are born that way, give them a hope for a normal life? There's a community in Florida that has a type of 12 step program for offenders, but we need to help BEFORE they hurt children and feel/are past fixing. This is a public health and safety issue. Granted, not easily addressed, but one that if we truly put forth the effort, funding and set aside judgement would spare so many from trauma. What we do now is not working.Thank you, Ms. Berry, for bringing this to light.

This book was not one that I went into semi blind, I knew with my past I would need to definitely make sure that I knew exactly what I was walking into. Let me start by saying this book was not at all what I thought it was going to be at all. With that being said, I do think the author did an amazing job at writing about this subject matter in a way that wasn't over the top and not disrespectful? not sure if this is the right word to use but it feels appropriate to me.I'm unsure how I completely feel about this book as it does touch on a very real and hard subject.Noah is a seemingly well rounded teenager. However when he does something unspeakable yet ultimately decides that he needs to tell someone the truth of his crimes...not to get help but to be punished. I found myself wondering what I would do in his mothers shoes, as I do have children. What lengths would I go to in order to protect them? Would I do as Adrianne and try to brush it off as a mistake and hope that everyone else would be on board in order to ensure that my childs future wasn't destroyed? Or would I react like Lucas did and shut down pretending that my child no longer existed?Saving Noah explores these matters, more so through the moms point of view with Noah and Lucas' povs sprinkled in here and there. I thought that I knew where this book was going and what the ultimate outcome would be, and I was halfway right.SO to just put it out there and be blunt about it, Noah is a pedophile. There is no sugar coating that, because at the end of the day he is. Multiple people realize this, but his mother is unwilling to hear or see it until she has no other choice. Noah seemingly feels bad about abusing two minor girls that were in his swim class. Yet also realizes that there is something wrong with him and wants to be punished for this. He ultimately decides that he HAS TO DIE because there is no curing him and to be fair he's not wrong. He sees the facts for what they are and doesn't do anything to shy away from them. In this regard I find it somehow redeeming that he was upfront, honest and has a plan about what he needed to do in order to ensure that the hurt he has already caused didn't go any further than that.Adrianne drove me nuts because she lived with these rose colored glasses on, even when people where like girl WAKE THE F**K UP AND LOOK AT EVERYTHING! On one hand I get it, I get her thinking as a mother I want to believe the best of my children and that I would be able to protect them from any and everything including themselves. However I also understand that my children are human and they do and will make mistakes, all I can do is hope that I've raised them well enough to know right from wrong and how to act with and around others. This womans denial was astounding! I wish that I could learn how to live in her delusion.Lucas on the other hand was the voice of reason (I will regret thinking this later after I think about specific things). However the way he handled things with Noah was awful...especially when you get to the end and find out that the reason he HATED and I say hated Noah, is because he admits it. This is because they are literally the same person!? I should have seen this coming when he is arguing with Adrianne and says more or less you don't understand him the way I do...excuse me sir wt actual f? Which begs the question if he is the same as his son, yet very much worse in my personal opinion because he abused his cousins, how can he live with himself and worse yet be okay being alone with Katie the young daughter? He is the pot calling the kettle black and then scoffing and being like well no one knows so it's different. Not that it makes what Noah did any better however the crimes they committed while still in the same realm are very different in some aspects, yet both are very heinous.In the end Noah kills himself with his mothers help which I don't even want to get into. Adrianne moves back home with Lucas and Katie knowing that her marriage is over. Oh yeah Lucas made her move out with Noah because he refused to have him in the home with Katie. Yet never stopped to look in the mirror...I also want to point out that Katie started displaying behaviors of a child experiencing trauma at the end of the book. And after finding out the truth about Lucas it made me pause and think....its never explicitly said that she's having the responses she is due to her home/family life and not that we now know what we know about Lucas. Not saying that anything happened to Katie but once you know what you know it's hard not to look at the whole situation from a totally different perspective and wonder about it all.While this was not my favorite read so far it was well written and done so gracefully while covering such a heavy and real topic. Definitely a quick read and worth taking the time out to read. 4.5/5