BOOK REVIEW: Untitled for Now
by Desiree Moore
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ABOUT THE BOOKS (from Amazon):
Helen wanted to break the cycle she was born into.
Raised in the deserts of Southern California by a family plagued with addiction, poverty, and trauma, Helen’s life was full of heartache and turmoil. Nevertheless, her circumstances fueled her desire to make it out. That was until one day, she broke.
When Helen wakes up in a mental hospital, her mind is shattered, her memories are gone, and she clings to the comfort of not remembering. But, when a memory of her daughter emerges, Helen realizes she has no choice but to unearth the painful truth and face her past.
Through dual timelines, readers will be immersed in the intricate tapestry of Helen’s life, gradually unraveling the events that led to her broken state.
Untitled for Now captures the difficulty of breaking chains, the essence of mother/daughter relationships, grief, and finding forgiveness for yourself. It is a novel for those who revel in the lived experiences of others and want to know that even the saddest stories can have a happy ending.
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I met the author, Desiree Moore, on TikTok. As the amazing pre-launch book marketer that she is (with almost 300K followers!), she had reached out to me and captured my attention by asking me for advice. I responded to her question in a TikTok and from there we began engaging in one another’s videos.
I learned that she, like me, is a marketer, and that she has a tragic backstory—one that she used as the inspiration for her novel. Desiree talks about her backstory in her TikTok videos often—her former husband murdered one of her daughters. It’s heartbreaking, and it makes you stop and want to know more.
The book—Untitled for Now—is a fictionalized version of Desiree’s story. The subtitle is “Based on a True Story.” And her story is sad.
As a young girl, the main character, Helen, is raised in a poor family with a drug-addicted mom and plenty of other dysfunction. Helen finds herself pregnant at 16 years old and the father of the baby skips out on her. She works hard to support herself, meets a new guy, and finds herself pregnant again.
Meanwhile, in the dual timeline of the storyline, we’re also getting to know Helen as an older woman in a mental hospital. She’s had a breakdown and we don’t yet know why. This Helen is being treated for her memory loss and as some of the memories start coming back to her, she’s trying to put the pieces together, but she’s also not sure she really wants to remember the life that’s coming back to her.
The entire story is extremely emotional, yet heartwarming in the end. This book may be for you if you enjoy literary fiction, women’s fiction, and/or coming of age fiction.
