Reviews with content warning for Suicide attempt - The School for Good Mothers

Save my girl Frida from these white men. This book made me feel so many emotions. I was going through it. Justice for my girl Frida, Emmanuelle, and Harriet.

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alex_heald's review against another edition

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3.5

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lordmomo17's review against another edition

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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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katiearcher's review against another edition

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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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crystalsparkles's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective sad tense fast-paced

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

5.0

Highly recommend checking out the trigger warnings first and only read if you can truly handle them. This book is soooo good. The story had me raging, and bawling, frustrated by injustice and hopeful… It is devastating. There were times when I didn’t know if I could finish the story, because it almost hits too hard. Especially in the global political climate, who’s to say this is too far of a stretch for North America sometime in the nearish future. It will surely make you question your own parenting.

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nessreadsalot's review against another edition

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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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