A Mix - Music - Poetry - Book Review... Spotlighting Poet Omoehi Ehixojie; Author Veronika Gasparyan

It's kind of funny, because one of my favorite quotes of all time was, "Don't judge a book by its cover," which I preached to all my friends. It used to get me mad when they would treat kids badly or neglect them if they were different. Poor or rich, unattractive or beautiful, heavy or skinny, very smart or not smart at all, we were still all children, and most of our lives were out of our own control...It seemed like my life was stuck in some kind of vicious cycle...

Things weren't looking too good for me. I started to feel down, picked myself apart, and stopped doing even small things for myself that I would usually do quite often - things like brushing my hair, taking a shower when allowed, or even brushing my teeth. The only thing that was getting better was the way I played piano. I felt that music was the only thing that was there for me, no matter what happened that day or the next. It was something that carried me away from reality and to beautiful places which I imagined when I performed. It was actually very interesting, because only a few months into that school year. I was performing at two levels, or I should say, two grades above all of my classmates. When I was only eight and half years old, I was already playing quite difficult pieces for my age that included works by composers like Bach, Mozart and Beethoven...

Mother at Seven
The shocking true story of an Armenian girl's
stolen childhood and her family's unspeakable
cruel betrayal

By Veronika Gasparyan

How to approach a review for a book you hated to read? I decided to share the poem above to illustrate that many people in the world are in the same situation as Vera, the main character of Mother at Seven... How have we lost the love for our fellow man...and how will we ever be able to live in the world that has been allowed to evolve?

Readers, this is an autobiography--it is not fiction that you may think has been overdone or unbelievable...be prepared and make a decision whether you will read this book. It is not fair to the author to rate a book because you could not accept the book as written... This book is horrible, it is outrageous, it will make you angry, and it is indeed unbelievable... Yet, it rings with the truth of the child who was caught in a nightmare from which she could not escape.

Call her Vera as all her friends do...As you read, you will discover that you will become very involved with Vera's life. You will want to protect her as a child should be protected. If you are like me, you will read a little and then have to stop and walk away from what is happening in the book--it is extremely difficult to even begin to understand how what happened, was actually happening...

Seeing the picture of the author on the back cover made me wonder the approximate dates for her story...it is set in Armenia; however, similar stories could be happening in any part of the world...that's the hardest part to handle, isn't it? Children all over the world are being abused by their parents...

Vera was not only very intelligent, she was also a brilliant pianist, so it was hard for her to understand what exactly happened when her mother had a second child, a son... My original thought was that the mother felt she had conceived an heir and now had fulfilled her husband's wish...But later, when Vera's mother started comparing her children to her own beauty, it was quite easy to see that her own ego was her driving force behind what she did...

Because at the age of seven, Vera was given total responsibility for not only her brother's care, but for handling the household responsibilities... She took advantage of the government's long parental leave from her job and turned from her motherly duties to that of an invalid who needed constant and ongoing care herself...

This is bad enough, right? But when Vera was unable to manage all that she was told to do at home, as well as continue to keep up her top grades at school, it was clear that Vera soon went into deep depression from which she was unable to recover for years...

Because her parents brought in and allowed an "uncle" to handle disciplining Vera to ensure she continued to meet the needs of her mother...that is...doing everything! The man proved to be a sadist...that's all I'll say, but be prepared the reality is graphic, not because it was written that way, rather because he acted as he did...

The fact that Vera lived through what she did, in my opinion, is because her story needed to be told...She attempted suicide several times, but each time something stopped her... The first part closes as her parents again lied to her and changed her entire life. Although she did add a beginning to the inspirational portion of the book, many readers will anxiously await to see what happened after she was again betrayed...

There are some proofreading issues throughout but not sufficient to draw attention away from this compelling, courageous story that needed to be shared. We hope the sequel will be better...but that can only be wishful thinking given the terror found in the majority of this first book.

For those who enjoy historical accounts, I felt that the happenings affecting the residents of Armenia, Russia, and other nearby countries was consistent with the time period, although this is really not meant to be historically significant. It is a story of a little girl, caught in the selfish lives of those in her life who were meant to be her protectors. Thankfully, there were a few through the years, besides her grandfather and grandmother, who offered her hope in recognizing and assuring her internally that what was being done to her should never have happened...

A personal note from the book I found interesting...At that time, all medical care was provided for residents...Isn't it strange that America has never been able to do what the remainder of the world has been doing for years... This was important to the book since Vera was taken to the hospital several times...and should have been there at other times but Vera started nursing herself for many of the bruises and cuts on her never-healing body...

People are meant to love others...Vera expected love, not what was done to her... Read this to know what happens to our children in this world... Here, too, religion and nationality became part of the problem as Vera began to find people outside of her family that loved and treated her as friends should. This caused the final betrayal as this book ends... 

Something has to begin...the time for change is right now...Consider this a must-read recommendation from me...

GABixlerReviews

Veronika Gasparyan, author of “Mother at Seven,” was born in the beautiful city of Sochi, Russia in 1981. She is a proud descendant of many generations of Armenian ancestors from both sides of her family. Today she lives in her own home, in Smithfield, Rhode Island with her two sons.
From a very young age, Veronika enjoyed playing piano which resulted in her attending a music school for ten years, and eventually, the prestigious Sochi College of Arts and Music. Other than the music, Veronika has always displayed a profound love of reading, and at a very young age, read dozens of books from her grandfather’s vast, personal library.
Veronika possesses an innate passion to help others in any way that she can, which has displayed itself in many situations throughout her early years and adult life. She considers herself to be a true survivor of what many would call a traumatic and brutal childhood, but has still found a way to not lose her kindness, patience or hope for better days.
Veronika is a strong believer in laws of attraction and positive thinking and is working on other books that she hopes will provide emotional support to those who are in need -- those who have given-up or have already lost their hope for better days and a joyful life.
Veronika believes her lifelong mission is to help one person at a time while making the world a better place for us all.