Reviews tagging 'Vomit'

The School for Good Mothers by Jessamine Chan

14 reviews

sageysage'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

4.0

Fascinating and well thought out premise/plot. The experiences the women in the book have to go through are insane and made my jaw literally drop and share passages with my partner. I wish more was revealed in the ending.

I struggled to understand if I was meant to want Frida to reunite with Harriet as her mother though. Despite her progress, I do think she was unfit to parent. However, the decision for her not to be able to visit Harriet at all felt cruel and obviously her treatment in the centre was inhumane and psychologically damaging. I really wish they revealed how the days following her kidnap of Harriet went, and if the details of the program ever leaked or if those responsible faced any consequences for their treatment of the mothers and artificial children.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Physical abuse, Self harm, Rape, Police brutality, Misogyny, Suicide attempt, Pregnancy, Torture, Violence, Emotional abuse, Lesbophobia, Vomit, Suicide, Child abuse, Suicidal thoughts, Racial slurs, Medical trauma, Sexual content, Mental illness, Racism, and Miscarriage

clovetra's review against another edition

challenging dark sad tense medium-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

oh i want to be shot
fully i was reading this getting ready to give this 3 stars. literally the last chapter alone made this 4 stars.
im rarely a book crier but GOD the ending got me
this was so sad and for what
ngl i kind of didn't like frida? idk if i was supposed to like her or not. but by the end i defo was more. neutral. like she kind of was girlbossing too hard for me to hate her ngl
i'll be honest, it took a bit too long to get to the school part of this story. like we all know going into this book that she's going to the school. i get that it was necessary, but maybe pacing it with flashbacks would've been better? i don't know. it felt like a bit of a slog because i knew all efforts were in vain
also frida is so dumb my god. girlie really was trying to not get harriet back in that god damn school
i really enjoyed the commentary of expectations of motherhood vs fatherhood. it felt very relevant and was handled nicely.
all the characters were a bit insufferable, but i will say i did become interested in them. meryl had me in a chokehold by the end. 
this book was quite depressing, don't read this if you're a mother my god. if i had a kid and read this i would actually want to be like margaret.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Suicide, Suicide attempt, Suicidal thoughts, Forced institutionalization, Child abuse, Self harm, and Pregnancy

Moderate: Racism, Pedophilia, Child death, and Misogyny

Minor: Vomit

jourdanicus's review

Enraging and depressing. I get that Frida is probably not supposed to be a likeable character, and I usually like unlikeable/unreliable narrators, but she (and the other characters tbh) didn't even seem that well-developed either. I struggled to get through the story from her perspective. I wish the commentary on social inequity had more nuance and depth, that really could have saved the book for me.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Forced institutionalization, Sexual content, and Infidelity

Moderate: Classism and Racism

Minor: Pregnancy and Vomit

daniellenelson's review

adventurous dark emotional reflective sad tense 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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Miscarriage, Suicide attempt, Self harm, Racism, Pregnancy, Abandonment, Child death, Cursing, Death, Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Infidelity, Injury/Injury detail, Suicidal thoughts, Forced institutionalization, Grief, Vomit, Suicide, Blood, Gaslighting, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Addiction, Alcohol, Bullying, Cancer, Child abuse, Confinement, and Emotional abuse

lastokes61's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional sad tense medium-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

Frida Liu is an overworked,  exhausted, divorced Mom who has a very bad day. She leaves her 18 month old daughter alone for 2 hours, and gets caught. This reckless act causes her to lose custody of Harriett.  To regain custody Frida must attend a 12 month re-education program for mothers, where the mantra is " I am a bad mother, but I am learning to be good."  The "reform school" has the mothers under constant surveillance.  Their trainers are mostly childless women and the mothers are forced to bond with robot children and care for them under every conceivable situation.  The issues of race, gender imbalance in parenting, mental health, isolation, and the state dictating "perfect" parenting styles are all at play here. This is a very Orwellian.  So much to discuss about in this book. This is an intense and capivatiing debut novel. Definitely worth a read. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Bullying, Racial slurs, Confinement, Emotional abuse, Physical abuse, Sexism, Child abuse, Suicidal thoughts, Racism, Grief, and Mental illness

Moderate: Abandonment, Suicide attempt, Infidelity, Outing, Classism, Vomit, Self harm, Kidnapping, Sexual content, Pregnancy, Medical trauma, Body horror, Death, Miscarriage, Rape, Suicide, Medical content, Injury/Injury detail, and Blood

taysbooktalk's review

challenging dark emotional sad tense medium-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

1.0

There are not words for this book, and not in a good way. I like to think if a book had me sobbing, nearly to a panic attack, and I will never forget- that it was an amazing book. It’s not. It’s intentionally meant to rip you apart and trigger you. It’s sold as a dystopian. It’s not. It’s weird and uncomfortable and gut wrenching. This not a Nicholas Sparks or Kristen Hannah book. This is not sad book that tells a story. This is not made to entertain you. It’s not made to make a difference or touch lives. This is made to hurt people. I don’t know that I will ever recover from this book. PLEASE DON’T READ THIS.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Abandonment, Domestic abuse, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Addiction, Bullying, Child death, Confinement, Hate crime, Mental illness, Forced institutionalization, Pregnancy, Racial slurs, Self harm, Sexism, Suicide attempt, Alcohol, Body shaming, Car accident, Eating disorder, Medical content, Medical trauma, Racism, Rape, Suicide, Torture, Cursing, Death, Death of parent, Panic attacks/disorders, Sexual content, Suicidal thoughts, Cultural appropriation, Toxic relationship, Fatphobia, Grief, Physical abuse, Drug abuse, Homophobia, Violence, Kidnapping, Miscarriage, and Vomit

elwhits's review against another edition

challenging dark sad tense medium-paced

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

5.0

i sobbed. incredibly challenging book to finish and i hate to call books important but the way it examines the lose lose game mothers (esp mothers of color) are forced to play when the state decides to intervene feels pretty fucking important. like i’m close to believing this should be required reading for anyone who works with kids. the prose is also just gorgeous and the characters are real. probably going to get added to my all time favorites once i’ve sat with it a little longer. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Confinement, Child abuse, Racism, and Forced institutionalization

Moderate: Racial slurs, Misogyny, Child death, Suicide, Suicidal thoughts, Torture, and Sexism

Minor: Vomit, Violence, Physical abuse, Self harm, Miscarriage, and Lesbophobia

apollinares's review against another edition

dark emotional reflective sad tense slow-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

3.75

This book made me deeply uncomfortable, sad, furious, exhausted. It takes a lot of skill for an author to evoke that much in a reader all at once. I like how raw and honest the portrayal of Frida's ordeal was, and how processing grief and one's own mistakes is presented as a non-linear, messy process. 

Frida isn't a likeable character. She's convinced us of it on page one, and she's convinced herself of it long before. As someone whose mother made mistakes she deeply regrets, and as someone who has had many conversations with her about what those mistakes did to both of us, I genuinely feel for Frida. I've seen other reviews condemn her, and it's really interesting to me where a reader would draw the line on what they find unacceptable in a parent, and how much they're willing to dehumanise a mother/discredit her emotional needs, when they learn the mother has made a mistake that caused her child harm. I'm not trying to excuse abuse, it's just fascinating how quickly someone's empathy for a person, and their sense of nuance, disappears when the person in the wrong is a parent. I mean, people are rating the book lower because the protagonist has done something wrong and that makes the book supposedly bad. The point is right there, guys, come on...

The way blame is placed in the book is interesting to me, too - how the women are treated as irredeemable, and how the state would rather interfere once harm has been caused (and arguably proceed to traumatise the child even more) than offer parents mental health support before mistakes like this can occur. It's infuriating to experience and to process, and when the fathers were introduced, I became so much angrier knowing how much easier they supposedly have it. 

The ending is tragic and inevitable. I don't know how else Chan could have ended this book. Frida's unravelling is addicting, and sad, and I couldn't look away the whole time.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Suicide, Child abuse, Infidelity, and Suicidal thoughts

Moderate: Miscarriage, Misogyny, Xenophobia, Bullying, Medical content, Mental illness, Alcohol, Lesbophobia, Medical trauma, Domestic abuse, Pregnancy, Racial slurs, Sexism, Toxic relationship, Addiction, Emotional abuse, Kidnapping, Pedophilia, and Physical abuse

Minor: Sexual content, Sexual harassment, Self harm, Suicide attempt, Violence, and Vomit

islabjb's review

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? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Suicide, Suicide attempt, Child abuse, Domestic abuse, Abandonment, and Suicidal thoughts

Moderate: War, Cursing, Drug abuse, Forced institutionalization, and Emotional abuse

Minor: Chronic illness, Sexual content, Miscarriage, Mental illness, Classism, Vomit, Racial slurs, Pregnancy, Confinement, Cancer, Gaslighting, Lesbophobia, and Infidelity

disquiet's review against another edition

challenging emotional reflective sad medium-paced

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

2.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexism, Sexual content, Pregnancy, and Racial slurs

Moderate: Suicide, Suicidal thoughts, and Child death

Minor: Vomit and Rape