Freedom’s Child | Jax Miller

This episode of Books for Men features Freedom's Child by Jax Miller. A thriller novel about a mother living as a protected witness who comes out of hiding (twenty years later) to save the daughter she gave up two minutes after birth. It's not for the faint of heart. Listen for more!

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Welcome back to Books for Men, a podcast to inspire more men to read and bring together men who do. So as always, I just want to start off by thanking everybody who has supported the podcast thus far. It means a lot to me and to society as a whole to continue to push the initiative forward in inspiring men of all ages, really to continue reading throughout their lives. I think it's probably one of the most beneficial things for various reasons that someone could do in their life. And so I really, really am thankful for everybody who has shared the podcast with family, and friends and continues to support just by listening. So thank you. With that being said, if today is your first time listening to the show, thank you. But also I wanted to take a moment to remind you that one of the pillars of this podcast is variation.

(01:02)

And so we flip back and forth each week from fiction to non-fiction. And so if you don't like a book or this isn't your cup of tea, then tune back in next week because there might be something that is more aligned with your preferences. But really, I'm hoping to bridge you from one genre to the next, or hopefully spark interest or engage you in something that you might not know you like, but you might actually enjoy reading. So in that way, the flipping back and forth from fiction to non-fiction kind of tries to kill two birds with one stone in balancing interests for the pure fiction reader or the pure non-fiction reader, and also secretly trying to get the non-fiction reader to read more fiction in the fiction reader to read more non-fiction. Hopefully, I'm able to do so, but I think at the very least, if you're engaged by the genre that you do and you come back for that, that's a win all in itself.

(01:58)

So now let's move on to today's book. And I'm kind of coining this the month of thrillers. I don't read too many thrillers, but last week or two weeks ago, sorry, I featured a thriller slash noir Blacktop Wasteland by S.A. Cosby. I mentioned that it's kind of a blend and it wasn't a pure thriller thriller. And so this week I wanted to share what I would consider to be a pure thriller thriller. And again, I don't read too many thrillers, mostly because in the crime genre, my preferences lean toward mysteries or literary mysteries or just straight crime. Sometimes thrillers could be a bit fantastical in a way, it's like watching an action movie. And so it's its own genre, right? It's thrilling. It leaves you at the edge of your seat and it's suspenseful, but they're not always the most believable. And for me, my favorite books have a high element of believability to them, and that's just what drives the suspense or the interest or the engagement, the excitement, everything really, the believability is core to my personal preferences, both as a reader and a writer for that matter.

(03:05)

And just to be clear, I'm not trying to knock the genre at all or discredit it in any way, shape or form. I'm just trying to give you a little bit more of a deeper understanding of where my preferences are and you know what I lean to reading normally. However, with that being said, the book that I'm going to share with you today, Freedom's Child by Jax Miller, is probably one of the best thriller thrillers that I've read. And it also hits on something that I want to insist and continue to insist that, yes, this show is Books for Men and meaning that they're books that I think men will like, but in no way does that mean that they're all books that are featured by male authors. So yes, but this book specifically Jax Miller, is a female author. But don't you mistake yourself if you're one of those chauvinistic type guys out there and think, and you think that only men can write super hard books because this book is as hard and as brash and entertaining as a book can possibly be.

(04:13)

And in fact, and excuse me for swearing, I don't swear a lot of the show, it's pretty fucked up. It's a screwed-up book, and it's mostly grounded in reality. It gets a little fantastical toward the end of the book. But I think that I really relate to the style of how this book is told in the edginess. So much so that I read it in two days. It went down very, very fast. And that's not always the case. That's how I know a thriller really did what it was supposed to do. If you read the book fast and it leads you to one thing to the next and you just can't put it down, to me, that's a hallmark of a really good thriller. All right, so I should probably tell you what the book is about. I'm not going to share too much because one of the best parts of a thriller is, well, you don't know what's going to happen next, and you don't want to ruin the plot by sharing too much.

(05:07)

So what I will say is it's about a woman named Freedom Oliver, who's living on witness protection with a bunch of secrets of her own, like killing her husband for one thing, and she gets drawn out of hiding to save the daughter that she gave up two minutes after she was born. And so the story is really her journey back to her daughter. And I don't want to share too much like I said. So read it and hopefully you enjoy it. I will say that the book had me from the very first sentence or sentences I should say. It starts off with, “My name is Freedom Oliver, and I killed my daughter. It's surreal. Honestly, I'm not sure what feels more like a dream, her death or her existence. I'm guilty of both.” Come on. How good of a way is that to start a book?

(06:00)

If you like thrillers, of course. Or perhaps if you don't like thrillers, it's still a really great way to open up a book and draw you in immediately, or at least it did for me. But the other thing I should mention is that this book also came as a recommendation for me. Someone I know, actually an editor of mine knows the author, and she said to me, “Hey, Doug, you know, should really read this book because I think you'll like it.” And so she was right. I did really like it. And I also think that it's one of those books that is a really good recommendation book because it's not overly popular. And it came out, I think in 2015 or 16, so it was quite some time ago. So it's well out of the cultural significance at this point. I just love reading books probably perhaps more than anything.

(06:49)

And this probably goes from music or movies as well that just catch you off guard. You know, don't see it coming at all. You didn't even know about this author two weeks ago, and now you just devoured their book in two days, so to speak. It's just a really fun experience and one that I would love to pass on to you, whether it's this book or books that I share in the future on Books for Men. So I told myself I was going to keep this episode on the shorter side, mostly because I have the recap episode coming out in a couple of days or towards the end of this week. So I don't want to double up my airtime, so to speak, and this is me staying true to my word. But before I wrap this up, for any technical people out there who enjoy understanding a little bit more about the technical aspect of the book, you should know that the book is written in both first person and third person.

(07:44)

So you get freedom's perspective in the first person. And then the rest of the book, the antagonists and the supporting cast, so to speak, is written in the third Person. I really like books that are done in that way. It really gives, if it's done well, it gives a nice flow to the book. And this book is cut together extremely well. It has to be in order to read it, and the speed that I read it really because it just flows one thing into the next, and it doesn't even give you a chance to get off the hook or to put the book down. And that's a great quality, as I've already mentioned for a thriller. And lastly, it's not an incredibly long book. It's only around 300 pages, 320 pages, as you know by now, if you've been listening, that's a sweet spot for me.

(08:29)

One thing I don't typically mention, but I wanted to throw it out there, is if you have any questions or you have any feedback on the books or on anything at all, don't hesitate to reach out. It's not too hard to get in contact with me. You can shoot me an email at dv (at) booksmen.org. I'd be more than happy to hear from you. All right, that's a wrap on this week's episode. I hope you enjoyed it, you so much for listening. And as always, I want to remind you to please share with family, friends, and people who you think might enjoy the podcast. Word of mouth is really the most important element in helping spread the word about anything really, in this case, really pushed the initiative forward in inspiring more men to read and bringing together men who do they say that rating, reviewing, and subscribing also helps. So I want to encourage you to do that as well. But most importantly, share with family, friends, and people who you think might like the show. Also, for more information, you could visit BooksforMen.org where you can also sign up for the newsletter, a monthly roundup of all the books and authors that you hear on the podcast.