I received an advanced digital copy of this book from the author, publisher and Netgalley.com. Thanks to all for the opportunity to read and review. The opinions expressed in this review are my own.

Wild Game is a heartbreaking memoir of the effects of treating your children as equals or friends. Ms. Brodeur was put into a position no child should ever have to deal with. A role that she was not old enough nor mature enough to handle.

A riveting story, so engrossing and well written you almost forget that you are reading nonfiction.

5 out of 5 stars. Highly recommended.

This book surprised me over and over again. Wild Game broke my heart at times, and definitely kept my attention as I longed for a reconciliation story between mother and daughter. Adrienne Brodeur showed great grace throughout her relationship with her troubled mother, what an example!

I’ve now read Wild Game twice and I continue to be amazed at how captivating Adrienne Brodeur’s memoir is. She recounts the details of her mother’s affair with a family friend and how helping her mother keep the romance a secret impacted their own relationship and both of their lives. I particularly love the way Brodeur shows the ever-present struggle between wanting her mother’s love and approval and wanting to make her own choices. I had the joy of reading this with my book club, and I highly recommend readers do the same–there isn’t a chance you’ll finish this book without wanting to talk about what you’ve read.

This was my first read by this author and while its not a bad book by any means it just didn’t hold my interest. However, I would like to read another book by her.

I picked up this memoir in the middle of reading two other books and I completely forgot about them. I could not put this book down!

This is a book that sometimes reads like fiction, you sometimes cannot believe this could be real life. The burdens that Adrienne's mother puts on her are a reflection of her selfishness and proves that not everyone is fit to be a parent.

This book was unlike any memoir that I've read before but that was part of what made this read interesting to me. It starts off with our main character Adrienne sleeping when her mother, Malabar, comes into her room and confesses that she has just been kissed by a man named Ben who also happens to be her husband's best friend. Right from the start I thought that was an odd thing that you would confess to your daughter. But that is where the novel really takes off. It is not long after that, that Adrienne suddenly and unwillingly becomes her mother's confidant and partner in the secret affair that happens between her mother and Ben. I liked this book
because it talked a lot about the family and how our Adrienne dealt with the situation that was forced upon her but what I liked the most was how she also talked about her mother and the relationship that she had with her lover so it was like finding out family secrets at the same time as our character. Very good read I've never read anything like this before it wasn't full of abuse or neglect it was just a secret that put lost of stress and strain on our main character and with good reason. The more I got into this book the more I found it insane how a mother could put that much pressure on her own daughter. I felt that telling her about the affair in the first place and especially all the details it was like she was talking to her friend and not her daughter. I can't
imagine ever being in that situation it would be horrible and almost abusive in a way.Every page I finished drew me deeper into the story and the chaos that was their family and I couldn't put it down. Great read I'm very glad I got the chance to check it out. Not at all what I was expecting but one million times better.

Enjoyed this honest, emotional memoir. The narration on the audiobook was excellent. I purchased this audiobook through Audible in 2019 and was later gifted a copy from the publisher via NetGalley.

A beautifully heartbreaking story of a daughter who has to keep her mother's secret. This secret affects all aspects of the narrators life.

This memoir is interesting and compelling. The author draws in readers with relatable people and intriguing circumstances. The author provides an interesting and relatable read.

I had read about it in numerous places before it was published and was so excited to read it. My overwhelming reaction was intense disdain for Malabar and Ben, who were both so narcissistic and wrapped up in themselves. Their vapid lives involved lying and deceiving others, especially Malabar’s impressionable 14 year old daughter that she made her confidant. Both of them were portrayed as extremely unlikable. I had a hard time understanding the massive consequences that Adrienne suffered as a result. They seemed inconceivable to me, as well as well as unrealistic. The ultimate gift - the necklace was just a symbol of the relationship between them. I know that this is Adrienne’s memoir, but I was not drawn to Adrienne, Malabar, or Ben. Lily and Charles seemed the only realistic characters to me. Having spent many childhood vacations on Cape Cod and currently living near San Diego I enjoyed those descriptions, as many childhood memories resurfaced. Thank you to Adrienne Broderick, Houghton Mifflin, and NetGalley for affording me the opportunity to read this memoir.

Fantastic, engrossing memoir about the authors troubled relationship with her mother. I absolutely adored this book! When Rennie was only 14 years old she is awakened by her mother, who with extreme excitement, tells her that one of her good friends husband kissed her. Then the betrayal begins as Rennie’s mother continues to confide and use her as an alibi for years of deceit and selfishness. Sadly the mother’s self centered behavior has a profound effect on her daughter for many years to come. This book is an absolute page turner. Highly recommend.

WILD GAME is a beautiful, heartbreaking memoir that demonstrates how our relationships with our mothers can devastate us. As teenagers, we long to be grown ups, so when give a back entry into that secret world, it can feel like a privilege, even when it is a curse. As a mother with a teenager, this was a hard book to read, but the seductive story drew me in and I became completely immersed in it.

I loooove memoirs. I love getting to peek into how other people live. This book is a glimpse into a complicated mother/daughter relationship. It was hard to put down and I found the story captivating.

At age 14, Adrienne is living a very privileged, but otherwise normal teenage life, when her mother wakes her in the night to tell her a secret. This secret will intertwine them in the mother's affair and will change the course of their lives from that moment on.

Although I am generally not a huge fan of memoirs and often struggle with reviewing them, I was interested to delve into this particular autobiography. From the beginning, Adrienne Brodeur lures the reader into this wild, but wicked game. She is an eloquent writer, and a convincing victim in this tangled web. Prior to reading this story, I had never heard of the writer, nor her parents, and purposely did not do any research beforehand so as to not go into the story with presuppositions. The story is one of lies and deceit precipitated by a mother with no moral compass. It was the stuff of soap operas, and it fascinated me that this much dysfunction actually exists in educated families. How a mother could ever be so incredibly immature is unfathomable... however learning about the unimaginable loss in her own life, one can only imagine what such pain would do to a mother's psyche.

After I finished reading this memoir, I did a bit of research, and learned that not everyone in this real-life melodrama agreed that Adrienne was solely a victim. Some felt as though she should have extricated herself from the situation long before she did; that her complicity continued too far into adulthood. Often in familial drama, the whys and hows are so much more complex than any one individual can shed light on. What I can say with certainty is that Ms. Brodeur is a fine author. I was fully engrossed in the story from the beginning. However, I was a bit confused as to why she chose to change names in this memoir, only to reveal their real names later in her acknowledgements.

Many thanks to NetGalley and Houghton Mifflin Harcourt for gifting me with this memoir in exchange for an honest review.

Check out more of my reviews at https://mamasgottaread.blogspot.com/

This is not a novel I would usually read but let me tell you... y’all need to read it. The writing was excellent and the storyline will just blow you away.

I loved this book. The script flowed along beautifully as I turned every page. Such a talented writer, A wonderful book set in Cape Cod, a lovely daughter gets caught up in her narcissistic Mother’s life.

This book is a must read for summer! It's about growing up and forming identities of our own separate from our parents. It was easy for me to identify with the main character. I think all of us have things we wish we could change about our relationships with our parents and knowledge about the things that they have experienced in their relationships. I found the ending to be sad and happy all at once. The mother in me wants to hold her, and tell her that it all works out. But, that isn't always true.

This book was amazing and kept my attention throughout. Adrienne's codependency with her mother fascinating.

<I>Wild Game: My Mother, Her Lover, and Me</i> from Adrienne Brodeur is a memoir of her life revolving around her relationship with her mother and her mother's affair with her stepfather's best friend. Starting with a kiss, her mother dragged her into the affair from the very beginning, when Adrienne was only fourteen. Expected not only to keep the secret of the affair, but to facilitate stolen moments.

I find the experience of reading a person's memoir is to fully commit myself to their feelings, or at least the feelings that they want me to know, to feel, to understand. Adrienne Brodeur, however, doesn't just bring you along for the feelings, which she fully admits are a recreation from the other side of the journey. She brings you along for the experience, writing up food descriptions that feel like you've never truly eaten before, describing Cape Cod summers that feel tangible in a very real sense. Committing to reading Wild Game, I found myself taken on a full experience of her memories of her life through her incredible writing.

Unlike most book reviews, this is not a book where I can simply judge the characters. Instead, I found myself making excuses for Malabar as Adrienne made those same excuses to each new person who knew what she had undergone. While at the same time, I felt deeply for child and young adult Adrienne, going through these events and experiences.

Brodeur does not hold back about her feelings about her complicitness in the affair. While she's clearly grown and strengthened as an adult, that feeling of guilt, of being complicit rather than dragged along, is still strong a powerful. The honesty, however, Brodeur approaches this memoir with, the openness about her feelings of involvement, the excitement, the headiness and rush of each moment as it occurred, is incredible. She has given the sense of leaving her soul open and bare for the reader to judge. It feels as a reader that we are being trusted with her inner demons.

I received a copy of this book from Houghton Mifflin Harcourt via NetGalley in exchange for a fair and honest review. I truly cannot wait to see what else Brodeur has up her sleeve, and hope to see more from her in the future.

Review will be posted on June 2, 2020.

Wild Game, My Mother, Her Lover and Me; the title pretty much sums up Adrienne Brodeur's memoir of life with her family.

Adrienne is fourteen years old and asleep one summer night in Cape Cod when her mother wakes her to say "Ben Souther just kissed me." Though we don't always know the moments that change the trajectory of our whole lives for Adrienne, this is it. Instead of being her mother's child, she becomes her friend, her confidante, her enabler in her affair with Ben Souther, her step-father's best friend.

The affair continues for many years, the consequences are great for everyone involved, especially Adrienne.

Adrienne is brutally honest in relaying her relationship with her mother. Though the subject is heavy and dark the writing is beautiful. This is a brave memoir filled with the angst and love of the mother/daughter relationship.
This is a quick read that you will not be sorry you read especially if you enjoy a memoir told from the heart and soul.