RATING: GOOD
SPOILERS!!!
There was a point in the book that I almost gave up. I didn't like the part where she flees with Faith, and I wasn't too fond of the part about all these church poeple getting involved.
The part about the hearing is the most powerful part of the book, and I enjoyed a lot. The day before the hearing Colin comes to talk to Mariah, and then Faith, who was supposedly sleeping, comes to her parents, and suddenly she collapses. Mariah and Colin take her to the hospital. She is not only bleeding through her hands but also her side. She has fits and fever, and she becomes comatose.
The hearing starts but Mariah refuses to leave her daughter. While she is absent, Colin's horrible lawyer drops a surprise. He wants to prove that Mariah is suffering from Manchausen syndrome by proxy, and she is hurting her daughter to draw attention to herself. The judge decides to agree to issue a restraining order, and he also demands she come to the hearing.
Mariah has no other option but obey, and her mother stays with Faith. Metz calls his witnesses and Joan, Mariah's lawyer, does her best to discredit them. At the end of the day Joan has to tell Mariah that she is forbidden from going to hospital. That weekend the condition of Faith worsens, and she suffers two cardiac arrests, renal failure, and the doctors fear she might die. Kenzie, her guardian ad litem, believes that Mariah needs to be with her daughter, so she ignores the judge order and tells Mariah to come to the hospital. As soon as Mariah is with Faith, she wakes up and her signals show an unbelievable improvement.
On Monday the hearing resumes, and Joan brings Faith to the hearing to prove that she is all right. The witnesses continue coming, and Mariah also testifies, proving that she is mentally stable. At the end of the hearing, the judge wants to talk to Faith. In the end he rules that Faith should stay with her mother.
The ending is quite happy. Mariah and Ian are together and in love, and he has decided to change the direction of his programs. The last scene shows Faith talking in the dark, but knowing that she is all alone, showing that talking to God is what can keep her mother's attention. The author says that this scene doesn't mean that Faith has been faking all along, but at some point she knows that God has gone, but she needs to pretend God is around to keep her mother's attention.
This is not the best book of this author, but it was a good read.
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