Reviews tagging 'Toxic relationship'

The School for Good Mothers by Jessamine Chan

19 reviews

stephykay's review

dark tense slow-paced

• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gaslighting and Toxic relationship

hirachelhigh's review

challenging dark emotional sad tense medium-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

4.5

Black Mirror meets The Handmaid’s Tale

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Kidnapping and Child abuse

Moderate: Violence, Suicide, Suicide attempt, Suicidal thoughts, Abandonment, and Toxic relationship

Minor: Rape

hezajc's review

challenging dark sad tense slow-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

4.0

I  have no idea how to rate this book. It was a hard, relentless, troubling read; and this was exactly the point of the book. The author did a masterful job of mirroring the tragic situation of the main character with the reading experience. Brutal, relentless, infuriating, monotonous. I think the only reason I finished this book was because I was reading it for a book club, and it did bring about a lot of really rich discussion. And I also wanted to throw the book against the wall when I finished it. And I'm still thinking about this book.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Suicide and Suicidal thoughts

Moderate: Emotional abuse, Abandonment, Toxic relationship, and Child abuse

krissysbooked's review against another edition

challenging 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

3.5

I love myself some dystopian feminist fiction, so when this debut started popping up on my social feeds I just knew I had to read it. Low and behold the lovely peeps over at the Bit Crack Book Club decided to read it (I got sick so had to miss the buddy read!) and it came up on Netgalley so I was lucky enough to get to read it for free!

Let me set the scene. We are introduced to Frida: a recently separated single mother to a child who is under 2, trying to keep it all together. She is trying to work, trying to raise her child, contending with the emotional turmoil of being left for another woman (whilst postpartum!), and clearly fending off depression. Frida is isolated, her family live far away and she doesn’t really have a friends network. Then comes her bad day… she leaves her child alone after hours of screaming and she gets reported to the police.

In this not so distant future the issues can’t simply be rectified by time out, a break, cooperation between co-parents to work out a better system. No, Frida is monitored for months and then sent to a ‘school’ to relearn how to be a good mother by being taught by women who have never been mothers themselves.

Through the lessons and tests and relationships, this book really explored the pressures out on mothers todays to be perfect and the further pressure put on parents of different ethnicities, ages, and social classes. I think it also really highlighted the performative nature of parenting via social media today where perfect influencers make many feel ashamed and like they’re not good enough. In reality we know that almost no one really knows what they’re doing and everyone makes mistakes along the way. The biggest stand out for me was that those with lack of support and community are derided as bad parents whereas those with all the resources are hailed as the best when really they’re parenting for a place of extreme privilege. 

Overall I found the story quite slowly paced, and although interesting I didn’t feel there was anything driving me to get to the end. I also felt that there were a lot of unexplored avenues for the story including perspective switching that could of improved the pace and the feeling of jeopardy.

That being said it’s a really good debut, and a concept I could imagine being adapted as a series or movie. I’m looking forward to seeing the development of Chan’s storytelling in the future.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Physical abuse, Confinement, Child abuse, Abandonment, Misogyny, Bullying, Mental illness, Forced institutionalization, Emotional abuse, Grief, Toxic relationship, and Sexual content

Moderate: Classism, Drug use, Outing, Pregnancy, Addiction, Alcohol, Gaslighting, Injury/Injury detail, and Kidnapping

shanno_h0's review against another edition

dark emotional sad tense medium-paced

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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Suicidal thoughts, Mental illness, Kidnapping, Confinement, Child abuse, and Self harm

Moderate: Suicide and Toxic relationship

sarahd0825's review

challenging dark reflective sad tense slow-paced

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

2.0

I really wanted to like this book and thought the idea behind it was great, but the execution was not. :/ I did like exploring the topic of what it would look like if the aunts from the handmaid's tale met modern-day CPS. However, I never developed any opinions on any of the characters and found them all a bit 2-dimensional... Frida was supposed to have a morally gray character arc, but I never really saw her character change throughout the story. Perhaps this was intentional but was just not my cup of tea.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Drug abuse, Violence, Suicide attempt, Child abuse, Suicide, Suicidal thoughts, Child death, Emotional abuse, and Physical abuse

Moderate: Toxic relationship, Sexual content, Lesbophobia, Alcoholism, Abandonment, Homophobia, Toxic friendship, Mental illness, Injury/Injury detail, Infidelity, Torture, Self harm, Racism, Forced institutionalization, Death, Classism, and Alcohol

mondovertigo's review

dark sad tense fast-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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Suicide, Suicidal thoughts, Physical abuse, Grief, Misogyny, Pregnancy, Racism, Toxic relationship, Child abuse, Forced institutionalization, Gaslighting, Infidelity, and Mental illness

Moderate: Blood, Bullying, Confinement, Classism, Kidnapping, Abandonment, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Self harm, Xenophobia, Addiction, Drug abuse, and Alcohol

dreamdoughnut's review

tense medium-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

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Child death, Confinement, Forced institutionalization, Infidelity, and Suicidal thoughts

Moderate: Abandonment, Toxic relationship, Suicide, Miscarriage, and Grief

Minor: Infertility, Pregnancy, Racial slurs, Death, Self harm, Sexual content, and Racism

garlinds's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional sad tense slow-paced

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

4.0

Based in a not-so-far-away future, Frida, a sleep-deprived single mother with post-partum depression and a poor support system, has a "bad day" and leaves her toddler home alone in an exersaucer for 2 hours. After a concerned neighbor calls and a welfare check happens, the child is taken into custody and Frida is determined unfit to be a mother and sent to a new government program called "The School for Good Mothers" so that she can learn the skills needed to be a worthy parent.

This book was hard to digest, it made me uncomfortable and I'll be gathering my thoughts for a while. The whole time I was reading all I could think about was the long-lasting emotional and physical trauma that each character was going through at the hands of the "system" and those in power. As someone who works with teens who have varying levels of CPS involvement in their home lives, it was heartbreaking to think of the impact this program would have on Harriet's future, as well as her mom's

Most prominently this book critiques the unrealistically perfect standards that we put on mothers. But it also examines both race and class disparities and the stressors that come along with them. At the end of the day, many of the mothers in the "school" would have benefitted from a stronger support system from the get-go rather than a fascist system that waits for them to make a mistake and uproots their whole entire lives.

At the end of the day, this was a great debut that could have used a little bit more development to make it more of a page-turner. The pacing of the book was slower and more repetitive than I thought it needed to be, I would have loved for it to have explored some of the relationships between the characters a bit deeper. That being said, this is an amazing book for discussions and I look forward to hearing other people's thoughts.

Thanks to NetGalley and Simon & Schuster for sending me an ARC of The School for Good Mothers in exchange for an honest review.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Confinement, Death, Emotional abuse, Forced institutionalization, Infidelity, Medical content, Mental illness, Pregnancy, Racial slurs, Racism, Self harm, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Suicide attempt, and Violence

Moderate: Abandonment, Miscarriage, Panic attacks/disorders, Sexual harassment, Torture, Toxic friendship, Toxic relationship, and Infidelity

Minor: Child death, Homophobia, Lesbophobia, Infertility, Pedophilia, and Sexual content