Reviews with content warning for Pregnancy - The Mothers

The characters were all awful people. The book kept building and building, weaving a beautiful, complicated tapestry of these peoples lives in a black community in California and the repercussions Nadia and Luke must deal with after Nadia gets pregnant at 17 years old and has an abortion.

The author’s observations and commentary on race, culture, age, youth, I really enjoyed and for the first half of the book, I was highlighting a quote on almost every other page. There were several that made me take a step back and really thing about our world and how it treats the black community.

But after the 50% mark, the main characters development is utterly wasted and they stay stagnant for the rest of the book. Neither of them grow, they only become more toxic and worse people. Everyone lies, no one is faithful, everyone is selfish. Loved it until the 50% mark and then hated the rest of the book.

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zoebill96's review against another edition

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reflective slow-paced

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

3.0

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nothingforpomegranted's review

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emotional reflective sad tense medium-paced

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

4.25

Six months after the gruesome suicide of her mother, Nadia is processing her grief by isolating herself from her friends, her church, her father, instead finding comfort in the sensation of anonymous bodies pressing against hers and imbibing alcohol. Secretly, she develops a relationship with the pastor's son, Luke, who was recently forced to abandon his college football career due to a debilitating injury. When Nadia becomes pregnant, she is wrenched back into reality, considering her conceptions of motherhood and what it means to love and be loved. Nadia slowly develops a friendship with born-again church girl Aubrey, and it is fascinating to watch her deliberate her actions and exhibit greater empathy over the course of the novel.

The first-person plural narration by "the mothers," the female church elders, establishes a sense of nostalgia and spirituality in the novel, and I loved all of their gossipy interjections. Bennett demonstrates a mastery of description, adding details about each character without getting bogged down in adjectives, and every character comes to life on the page. The development of the plot was predictable, yet still engaging with an overarching intrigue that propelled the story forward even when not much was happening at all.

Content Warnings

laurataylor's review against another edition

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challenging emotional 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

4.0

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