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I voluntarily reviewed a complimentary copy of this book which I received from the author. All views expressed are only my honest opinion.
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MY REVIEW:
Genre | Tropes: Historical Fiction, Contemporary, Women’s Rights
Rating: 5 out of 5 ⭐
Until reading this book, I had never heard of Carrie Buck or her case in the 1920s. I’m very well aware of the history of Eugenics and the practice of force sterilizing female populations in an attempt to weed out “bad genetics”. It’s been going on a long time and still prevails today. But I was unfamiliar with this specific case.
Learn More About the Carrie Buck Case
Counting Backwards is based on this story and juxta supposes this 1920s case with a 2022 case of investigating similar treatment of women in immigration detention centers. This was an emotional book for me and left me with more questions about these situations than I realized. The main character in the 2022 perspective is a lawyer who is early in her marriage and trying to have kids, but they’re having a hard time getting pregnant and it’s something she’s always stressing about.
Then this pro bono case comes to light and she takes it as an attempt to do more good with her work. But as she engages the client, which is a woman being held in an immigration detention center, the woman mentions that they did a semi-forced procedure on her where her uterus needed to be removed. After some more prodding, she quickly finds out that many of the women, past and present, at this facility have undergone similar circumstances.
Comparing the present timeline with looks back at 1922 and 1924 where Carrie Buck was a poor, uneducated young woman, forced to provide physical labor as a “foster child” in someone’s home, she is taken advantage of and finds herself pregnant. Not sure what to do, she hides it as long as she can and when her “guardians” realize it, they send her off to a colony for dim-witted and feeble minded individuals. This is where the atrocities take place and a new eugenics law in Virginia provides the backdrop for mass sterilizing young woman in the poorer communities who they deem as unfit to pass on their genetics.
It’s a tumultuous and emotional journey through both of these cases. I really appreciated the care and love that Friedland poured into this story to bring this one to fruition because it’s worth the time to read and understand these dynamics. Every character is complex with their own set of challenges, but they are all respectfully presented as individuals. Carrie’s perspective was heart breaking as all of these things continue to happen to her and she’s really unaware of her abilities to push back and not let them do this to her. Even if it would have been futile at that time, every woman should understand that they cannot be taken advantage of like this.
An information and evocative read, it’s one to educate the masses and foster a reminder of that flame in all of us. We are not without our voices.
GET IT HERE:
A routine immigration case, a shocking legacy. Jessa Gidney’s quest for justice draws her into the heart of an abhorrent conspiracy. As she uncovers her personal ties to a heartbreaking past, her life takes a dramatic turn, in this emotionally riveting novel inspired by true events.
New York, 2022. Jessa Gidney is trying to have it all–a high-powered legal career, a meaningful marriage, and hopefully, one day, a child. But when her professional ambitions come up short and Jessa finds herself at a turning point, she leans into her family’s history of activism by taking on pro bono work at a nearby ICE detention center. There she meets Isobel Pérez–a young mother fighting to stay with her daughter–but as she gets to know Isobel, an unsettling revelation about Isobel’s health leads Jessa to uncover a horrifying pattern of medical malpractice within the detention facility. One that shockingly has ties to her own family.
Virginia, 1927. Carrie Buck is an ordinary young woman in the center of an extraordinary legal battle at the forefront of the American eugenics conversation. From a poor family, she was only six years old when she first became a ward of the state. Uneducated and without any support, she spends her youth dreaming about a different future–one separate from her exploitative foster family–unknowing of the ripples her small, country life will have on an entire nation.
As Jessa works to assemble a case against the prison and the crimes she believes are being committed there, she discovers the landmark Supreme Court case involving Carrie Buck. Her connection to the case, however, is deeper and much more personal than she ever knew–sending her down new paths that will leave her forever changed and determined to fight for these women, no matter the cost.
Alternating between the past and present, and deftly tackling timely-yet-timeless issues such as reproductive rights, incarceration, and society’s expectations of women and mothers, Counting Backwards is a compelling reminder that progress is rarely a straight line and always hard-won. A moving story of two remarkable women that you’ll remember for years to come.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Tracie Peterson
Jacqueline Friedland is a USA Today and Amazon bestselling author of historical and contemporary women’s fiction. After graduating from the University of Pennsylvania, she earned a law degree from NYU and a Master of Fine Arts from Sarah Lawrence College. Jackie regularly reviews fiction for trade publications and appears at schools and other locations as a guest lecturer. She lives just outside New York City with her husband, four children, and two dogs. Connect with her online at JacquelineFriedland.com
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