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3.85 AVERAGE
3.85 AVERAGE
challenging
dark
sad
tense
medium-paced
This book follows an unnamed narrator who has just given birth to her baby and has a complex relationship with motherhood. Suffering from postpartum depression, we see her spiral in and out of control. Having lost her own mother at a young age, she tries to do the best she can without much help from her workaholic husband. Feeling alone and scared, she befriends Peter, her elderly neighbor, who brings some sort of comfort to her.
This book is quite similar to "The Yellow Wallpaper". It shows an unfiltered look at motherhood and PPD, but it reads like a very long monologue. At first, it was getting very repetitive, but then again, that's the whole point of the book, isn't it? It portrays how women new to motherhood are consumed by the same thoughts and actions, which can be very tiresome.
Although the book's repetitive nature may make it a challenging read, it effectively portrays the monotony and isolation experienced by women who suffer PPD.
This book is quite similar to "The Yellow Wallpaper". It shows an unfiltered look at motherhood and PPD, but it reads like a very long monologue. At first, it was getting very repetitive, but then again, that's the whole point of the book, isn't it? It portrays how women new to motherhood are consumed by the same thoughts and actions, which can be very tiresome.
Although the book's repetitive nature may make it a challenging read, it effectively portrays the monotony and isolation experienced by women who suffer PPD.
challenging
emotional
sad
slow-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
dark
emotional
reflective
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
In blistering August heat, a Mum brings home her new-born daughter, Button, to a tiny New York apartment. The narrator mother is nameless. She interweaves non-chronological episodes from her anti-natal life as a translator of literary fiction, with scenes from her post-natal life in the claustrophobic, lonely apartment.
This is a far cry from the fictional, saccharine-sweet world of baby formula adverts with serene mothers and napping, cherubic babies. Button cries. Lots. And needs to breast feed. Lots. Her partner is supportive, but absent and ineffectual, and she copes with the physical after-effects of the birth, and her helpless feelings of ignorance and inadequacy, alone. This novel perfectly captures the bone-weary, mind-numbing exhaustion of the new mother’s first weeks, and the enforced surrender of her own needs as she tends to those of your baby.
However, her overwhelming tiredness soon tips over into something far more serious as she begins to have obsessive and intrusive thoughts, including thoughts about harming the baby, and she displays other classic symptoms of post-partum depression too.
This novel is not an easy read – it is brutal, honest, visceral, and no holds barred - and if you’ve ever given birth yourself it vividly evokes memories of those sleep deprived early weeks where all you do is feed, carry and nurse your baby. Those stirred memories of your own extreme tiredness, combined with the depiction of the deteriorating mental state of the Mum, and her lack of help and support, make this an anxious, tense and extremely powerful read. For all that though, the narration is dreamlike, which reinforces the picture of the narrator’s mental state, and when her elderly neighbour from the floor above begins to visit her, you are never quite sure if he is real or perhaps an imaginary friend, conjured by her mental state.
Exploring themes of motherhood, identity, loneliness and mental health this is a novel with great impact, splashes of the darkest humour, and a note of hope at its end.
With thanks to Oneworld for the Proof in exchange for an honest review.
This is a far cry from the fictional, saccharine-sweet world of baby formula adverts with serene mothers and napping, cherubic babies. Button cries. Lots. And needs to breast feed. Lots. Her partner is supportive, but absent and ineffectual, and she copes with the physical after-effects of the birth, and her helpless feelings of ignorance and inadequacy, alone. This novel perfectly captures the bone-weary, mind-numbing exhaustion of the new mother’s first weeks, and the enforced surrender of her own needs as she tends to those of your baby.
However, her overwhelming tiredness soon tips over into something far more serious as she begins to have obsessive and intrusive thoughts, including thoughts about harming the baby, and she displays other classic symptoms of post-partum depression too.
This novel is not an easy read – it is brutal, honest, visceral, and no holds barred - and if you’ve ever given birth yourself it vividly evokes memories of those sleep deprived early weeks where all you do is feed, carry and nurse your baby. Those stirred memories of your own extreme tiredness, combined with the depiction of the deteriorating mental state of the Mum, and her lack of help and support, make this an anxious, tense and extremely powerful read. For all that though, the narration is dreamlike, which reinforces the picture of the narrator’s mental state, and when her elderly neighbour from the floor above begins to visit her, you are never quite sure if he is real or perhaps an imaginary friend, conjured by her mental state.
Exploring themes of motherhood, identity, loneliness and mental health this is a novel with great impact, splashes of the darkest humour, and a note of hope at its end.
With thanks to Oneworld for the Proof in exchange for an honest review.
dark
reflective
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
A woman’s descent into maternal madness and post-partum depression. Trapped within her apartment (and her mind), our narrator is torn between the instinct to protect and the urge to harm her baby as she struggles with the feeling of self being overtaken by her identity as a mother. Molnar make interesting parallels between this grief and the grief of losing a loved one, as our narrator forms a relationship with an ailing widower upstairs. While this book does touch on societal expectations of motherhood, it mainly focuses on self. Readers wanting ties to larger structures should look elsewhere.
[Thanks to the publisher for a gifted copy]
[Thanks to the publisher for a gifted copy]
emotional
reflective
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
this book lowkey made me never want to have children lmao
this was another sort of hazy fever dream novel, but in a really unsettling way. the descriptions of the narrator’s physical state, the postpartum emotional/mental stuff she’s going through… oh god it all sounded so awful to me
the writing was quite interesting, coming from a hungarian-swedish author whose main character is a translator. lots of language play, sometimes a bit hard for me to follow along with but overall a really interesting writing style
anyway catch me gobbling my birth control like candy after reading this lmao
this was another sort of hazy fever dream novel, but in a really unsettling way. the descriptions of the narrator’s physical state, the postpartum emotional/mental stuff she’s going through… oh god it all sounded so awful to me
the writing was quite interesting, coming from a hungarian-swedish author whose main character is a translator. lots of language play, sometimes a bit hard for me to follow along with but overall a really interesting writing style
anyway catch me gobbling my birth control like candy after reading this lmao
challenging
emotional
tense
fast-paced
challenging
emotional
sad
tense
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
I went in completely blind on this one...so I had the waves of doubt but also interest...and eventually I kept reading it because there was enough there to keep me going. I don't know that this is a book for everyone - trigger warnings abound! - but I found the meditative writing capturing. The journey to motherhood isn't always over-the-top happy for people and there are various reasons for that. But hormones are a weird thing and they have a wayof complicating our thoughts and feelings. In addition to all of that, Molnar wrote from a female perspective and she really nails some of those thoughts and feelings about being happy a new life is coming, but also reminiscient about the life that will be left behind. In my experience, women give up quite a bit, and Molnar also portrayed that quite well. After the baby is born ("Button"), the protagonist definitely gets thrown into postpartum depression and it's sad to watch her spiral. She gets some help from her husband, but the days feel endless as she has had to give up her job in order to care for her baby. I won't say this book is for everone and I don't see it being very popular, but it hit me at the right time. Now that my kids are 15 and 17, it reminded me of how hard those first few days and weeks really are - especially with the firstborn and you have no idea what parenthood is like. It's a slow novel even though it's only 200 pages, but it gave me so much to contemplate and appreciate about a time that feels so long ago in my own life.