Reviews tagging 'Child death'

The School for Good Mothers by Jessamine Chan

59 reviews

cartermon4's review against another edition

dark emotional sad medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

I was so frustrated throughout the book, but it definitely hints at real world inequalities and insane expectations for mothers.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Torture, Gaslighting, Emotional abuse, Abandonment, Grief, Addiction, Sexism, Child death, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Child abuse, Death, Suicide attempt, Physical abuse, Mental illness, Forced institutionalization, Eating disorder, Misogyny, and Animal death

Moderate: Chronic illness, Drug use, Stalking, Racism, Confinement, Racial slurs, Violence, Injury/Injury detail, Cursing, Xenophobia, and Vomit

Minor: Miscarriage, Panic attacks/disorders, and Car accident

cheskams's review against another edition

challenging emotional slow-paced

4.75

A bit of a difficult read, filled with raw emotion. The world is very cleverly and well built. The language is creative and poignant. I was uncomfortable for much of my time reading, but in the way that I was so deeply immersed in Frida's story and the school. Truly brilliant.

My only criticism is how slow the beginning of the story is. I felt it took up too large of a chunk of the entire story. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Suicidal thoughts, and Misogyny

Moderate: Suicide and Child death

libswagmenter's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional sad slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.5

I am furious at everyone who told me to read this book, including Barack Obama. This was 300 pages of a mother's worst nightmare (maybe like top 5 worst nightmares.) I will give her this, it was a well-written horror, and I hated it very much.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Suicide

Minor: Sexual assault, Child death, Racism, and Violence

lordmomo17's review against another edition

dark emotional sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Child death, Grief, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Suicide attempt, Xenophobia, and Forced institutionalization

katiearcher's review against another edition

dark emotional sad tense slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.25

Frida Liu is a bad mother learning to be good.

In this dystopian story, Frida has a bad day and loses custody of her 18month old daughter. In hopes of earning back her custody she is sentenced to one year in the school for good mothers. What’s scary about this book is that if our government could get away with this, I believe they would. While some might believe Frida’s time at the school is too exaggerated or unrealistic, I think it perfectly depicts the unrealistic expectations placed on mothers. It’s a system designed for failure, because no one can ever be a “perfect” mother.

I think the author does a wonderful job entrenching us in Frida’s pov, her anxiety, helplessness, and agonizing hope. I took some points off for the ending and some (imo) gratuitous sexual portions.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Forced institutionalization, and Racial slurs

Moderate: Suicide attempt, Self harm, Child abuse, Racism, Sexual assault, Child death, and Suicide

Minor: Adult/minor relationship, Lesbophobia, Miscarriage, and Chronic illness

jess_eliza's review against another edition

dark emotional reflective tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Self harm, Abandonment, Suicide, Cursing, Child abuse, Death, Child death, Mental illness, Racial slurs, Physical abuse, Racism, and Medical trauma

Moderate: Confinement

Minor: Alcohol and Lesbophobia

natspat98's review against another edition

dark mysterious reflective sad medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Abandonment, Body shaming, Child abuse, Child death, Forced institutionalization, and Emotional abuse

Moderate: Classism, Racism, Suicide, Suicidal thoughts, Religious bigotry, Addiction, Panic attacks/disorders, Misogyny, Confinement, Violence, and Toxic relationship

nessreadsalot's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional reflective sad medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

Frida is a struggling mother who just had  a very bad day. Now the government has decided that she is not a fit parent and must be retrained. 

A dystopian novel that felt very much like an episode of black mirror. 

 

Frida and the other parents at the school must practice with robot dolls that look like their children to prove they are fit to have custody of them. 

I just felt really hopeless and uncomfortable throughout this book and desperately wanted Frida to have some redeeming factors. None of the characters were particularly likeable but I still felt devastated for them and their situation. 

This was a really interesting observation on the standards of perfection that mothers hold themselves to. While there were fathers there too they were outnumbered by the mothers 3:1. 

The fact that mothers were also only allowed talk about themselves in relation to their children really hit me! 

I went into this book blind and  would find it hard to say I enjoyed reading this book because of the content but it was well written.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Suicidal thoughts, Sexual content, Kidnapping, Suicide, Suicide attempt, Child death, Child abuse, Abandonment, Racial slurs, and Self harm

msbarnesela's review against another edition

dark emotional sad tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

This book is speculative fiction…for now. It’s a brutal representation of the ways that society expects motherhood to look, the ways that we add expectations and judgments but never real supports. The inequality of expectation and blame for mothers when compared to fathers. The way that a system that says it’s trying to do what’s best for children but so often doesn’t. There’s also some AI ethics issues in the background—surveillance, tech-driven diagnosis of human emotions, and the cruelty of creating robots with real human feelings. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Misogyny, Panic attacks/disorders, Forced institutionalization, Child abuse, Grief, Suicidal thoughts, Confinement, and Gaslighting

Moderate: Abandonment, Death, Self harm, Pregnancy, Suicide, Eating disorder, Emotional abuse, Alcoholism, Child death, and Infidelity

betsygrace's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional mysterious sad fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

I actually really enjoyed this book; it kept me on my toes from start to finish. It also gave me Handmaid’s Tale vibes. 

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Adult/minor relationship, Infidelity, Pregnancy, Suicide attempt, Self harm, Toxic friendship, Domestic abuse, Mental illness, Emotional abuse, Pedophilia, Suicide, Addiction, Stalking, Abandonment, Classism, Colonisation, Confinement, Racial slurs, Blood, Cancer, Child abuse, Death, Forced institutionalization, Grief, Sexual content, and Child death