Baby & Solo Book Review

 Book Review: Baby & Solo by Lisabeth Posthuma

by: Luke Fahnestock

        For my final book review of 2021, I chose to evaluate Baby & Solo by Lisabeth Posthuma. This is the same book that I read recently for my health class book talk. The story was very enjoyable, so I figured I would also write a blog review covering it. 

Baby & Solo focuses on the life of a teenager who is trying to reintegrate himself into society after an extended stay in the hospital caused by psychological problems. Seventeen-year-old Joel Teague has spent the majority of his high school years in the hospital dealing with a severe case of psychosis. His condition causes him to have hallucinations of a girl named Crystal, in a way he has a much more palpable imaginary friend. Joel wants nothing more than to be accepted back into society as a normal person, but the years of hospitalized isolation make this difficult to achieve. So when his therapist suggests that he get a job, he readily accepts the challenge, viewing it as an opportunity to prove his worth to the world. He soon finds himself employed at ROYO Video, where he is given the Star Wars alias Solo to fit in with his movie nicknamed coworkers, Poppins, Dirty Harry, Maverick, Hannibal, Scarlet, The Godfather, and Baby. Joel excels in this refreshingly “normal” work environment and is promoted to shift manager only a few weeks after starting. He is even able to befriend his coworker Baby, who is infamous for her sullen personality. Solo has finally found a place where he belongs, where he is accepted as a normal teenager. Unfortunately, his coworkers are still oblivious to his past, and his perceived normality takes lots of work to maintain. Hiding his past is hard enough on its own, but becomes nearly impossible when he starts having relapses of psychosis. Baby, who he has developed a close friendship with, notices Joel’s peculiar behavior and begins to question him. As the days go by it becomes increasingly evident that the truth about his past will eventually come to light. However, revealing the truth has the potential to destroy everything Joel has worked so hard to rebuild.

Baby & Solo was an overall interesting book. It is not the style of book that I usually read, but I enjoyed it nonetheless. This book is written in a very unique style which makes it very engaging. The narration is structured in a way that creates an element of mystery surrounding Joel’s past. Instead of giving the reader Joel’s complete backstory, Lisabeth slips in hints and riddles concerning his history. In order to understand the events of the book the reader must pay close attention to detail. While this style does make the story more interactive, it can also be confusing at times. In conclusion, I did like this book and I would recommend it. It was definitely not my favorite but was still worth a read.