Wavewalker by Suzanne Heywood: A Book Review

I read an excerpt from this book online and thought it sounded rather interesting and decided to put in a request for it through my local library. It came in shortly before Christmas, and after my family left on Christmas Day, I decided to relax by reading it. Briefly, it's the story of the author's family leaving behind their everyday lives when she was a small child, and sailing off on a "remake" of Captain Cook's third voyage. What should have been an awesome adventure turned into years of drudgery, neglect and emotional abuse.
I can't honestly say that I enjoyed it. Don't get me wrong: the author is a good writer, knows how to engage her readers and keep them interested. But her parents were just so aggravating. They were both self-centred, immature, entitiled narcissists who had no business having children. And if they did, the most responsible thing they should have done was leave the children on someone's doorstep. I read the whole book waiting, hoping for them to grow up and behave like responsible adults. But they never did. Picture this: your young daughter experiences a near-fatal accident in a storm that almost destroyed the boat. When you finally get her to a doctor, he explains that she will require surgery, and you respond, "What if we do nothing?" I can barely describe how disgusting I find this couple. They reminde me of those Instagram "influencer" parents that portray their perfect family life to the world, but when the real "behind the scenes" story comes out, it's a very different tale. Too full of themselves, they would never see themselves as child abusers, but that's what they were. They may not have beaten or sexually abused their children, but there are other kinds of abuse: emotional abuse, neglect, failure to provide the necessities of life. That the author not only survived, but went on to get the education she so desperately wanted, had a successful career and a happy marriage and family, is a testament to her persistence and resilience. 
But there are a few things that puzzle me in this story. The first one was when she called the "Help Line" while she and her brother were living in Australia. Why was there no follow up? She and her brother had essentially been abandoned by their parents and left to fend for themselves with only quick, brief phone calls when they were in a port from which they could make a call, and very rare visits. Why wasn't this reported to Child Protective Services and an investigation done? I know this was 40-odd years ago and laws/regulations have changed, but still it was an obvious case of neglect. Was it because they were foreigners? Or because they were already teenagers by this time? Surely our obligation to protect children doesn't end because they don't happen to be citizens of the country, or because the author was almost 18? Hmm, I wonder what legal age in Australia was at that time...
The other thing that really puzzles me is Chapter 28, "Fiji: Looking for Wavewalker". Personally, I know nothing about the Fijian culture, but reading this chapter made me feel like I was reading a spy novel, or something. Why did it seem that almost everyone was colluding on keeping the author from finding out what actually happened to the boat? Furthermore, what difference did it make? I was perplexed as to why it was so important to the author to find the boat that was the site of so much anguish, neglect and abuse. She spent time and money travelling to Fiji from England to do so. The only thing I can conclude is that she needed it for closure, and for confirmation that what she went through actually did happen. And maybe I can relate to a certain extent. I know how discombobulated I felt when I discovered that the house I had lived in, in Saskatchewan, had been torn down. It had been a really rough patch in my life and my marriage, and I found it rather disorienting that the house was gone, as if that part of my life had been erased. 
Regardless of her reasons, my sympathies are with the author, and I'm glad she's achieved success and happiness in her life. My biggest take-away from this book is how thankful I am for the parents I had. They were definitely not perfect - none of us is - but they were so much better than the author's parents that they weren't even in the same league. Thank you, Lord, for my parents.