Billie Girl is a story of both unrelenting tragedy and ordinary humanity. Abandoned at birth, Billie Girl is sold for a silver coin to Mama Edith and Big Mom. Raised with care, if not love, by the unusual pair, their deaths again leave Billie Girl at the mercy of Fate. As Billie Girl grows to adult hood and then old age we are witness to her difficult existence and the rare moments of relief of her experience.

I chose Billie Girl from the NetGalley catalogue because I was intrigued by the sypnosis. I wasn’t sure what to expect, but thought it was worth taking the chance, and I am glad I did.
Billie Girl combines some very confronting themes in an uncompromising and unsentimental way. These themes encompass societal hot buttons – sexuality, euthanasia, child abandoment, adultery and as such have the power to make the reader feel uncomfortable particularly if these are subjects you have specific views on.
Loss though, is the universal theme that weaves itself through out this novel, loss of love, identity, family, self respect, inhibitions and life.
Weaver has created deeply flawed characters who are in the main disturbing, yet oddly ordinary. You can empathise with the “two mother’s” need to keep their secret but not condone some of their actions, Dove is probably the only truly noble character in the entire book, but his influence comes too late for Billie Girl. There is little redemption or joy to counter balance the depressing realities of Billie Girl’s life, yet strangely you get the feeling that Billie Girl is mostly content.
The characters are difficult contradiction to explain and I think it speaks to the skill of the author’s writing style that they are so complex and ambigious.
For me, Billie Girl is a book I am glad I had the opportunity to read. It is undeniably thought provoking, if not exactly likeable. It has taken me four days to write this review because it’s been so difficult to articulate my thoughts, I’m not sure I have been able to do that successfully anyway. Billie Girl is a complex story that will not appeal to all readers but is strangly compelling and powerful reading

I didn't get a chance to read this before it expired on my nook. I'm sorry!