Reviews tagging 'Toxic friendship'

The School for Good Mothers by Jessamine Chan

7 reviews

crystalsparkles's review against another edition

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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Content Warnings

Graphic: Self harm, Infidelity, Forced institutionalization, Confinement, Suicide, Emotional abuse, Domestic abuse, Child abuse, Suicidal thoughts, Abandonment, Racism, Suicide attempt, Mental illness, Grief, and Gaslighting

Moderate: Body shaming, Bullying, Drug abuse, Toxic relationship, Sexual content, Classism, Alcoholism, Violence, Pregnancy, Panic attacks/disorders, Addiction, Police brutality, Cultural appropriation, Colonisation, Drug use, Eating disorder, Homophobia, Alcohol, Car accident, Toxic friendship, Lesbophobia, Injury/Injury detail, Hate crime, and Blood

Minor: Pedophilia, Kidnapping, and Cancer

betsygrace's review

adventurous dark emotional mysterious 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

5.0

I actually really enjoyed this book; it kept me on my toes from start to finish. It also gave me Handmaid’s Tale vibes. 

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Adult/minor relationship, Infidelity, Pregnancy, Suicide attempt, Self harm, Toxic friendship, Domestic abuse, Mental illness, Emotional abuse, Pedophilia, Suicide, Addiction, Stalking, Abandonment, Classism, Colonisation, Confinement, Racial slurs, Blood, Cancer, Child abuse, Death, Forced institutionalization, Grief, Sexual content, and Child death

cryfest's review

challenging dark emotional mysterious 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? It's complicated

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Toxic friendship, Grief, Mental illness, Self harm, Eating disorder, Emotional abuse, Infidelity, Racism, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Suicide attempt, Torture, Toxic relationship, Violence, Abandonment, Child abuse, Confinement, Death, Injury/Injury detail, and Physical abuse

sakisreads's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional slow-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

4.5

Oof, this was a very intense and upsetting book 😦 Definitely not a light bedtime read (which is what I treated it as, and regretted almost immediately afterwards 😂)!

Frida starts out by having her ‘very bad day’. Whilst taking care of her daughter Harriet, she forgets a document at work and leaves Harriet sleeping in the house. As a child naturally may, Harriet starts crying a bit during her sleep to which neighbours call the police on Frida.

Frida ends up at the ‘School for Good Mothers’ (which, as said beautifully by The Telegraph, is ‘The Handmaid’s Tale for the Squid Games generation’).

 

I was about to be disappointed by the ending, thinking Frida was going to let her termination of parental rights slide, so I let out a little gasp when she planned her getaway with Will as an unknowing accomplice! I’m not going to lie, I really revelled in that part 😳 What a twist!

I would highly recommend to anyone who enjoyed The Handmaid’s Tale and need a feminist text 🔥 So so interesting!

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Biphobia, Domestic abuse, Alcoholism, Drug use, Suicide, Suicide attempt, Violence, Adult/minor relationship, Forced institutionalization, Child abuse, Confinement, Misogyny, Toxic friendship, Toxic relationship, Mental illness, Gaslighting, Homophobia, and Physical abuse

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

carolynlovesbooks's review

challenging dark emotional reflective sad

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Forced institutionalization, Grief, Dysphoria, Classism, Death, and Emotional abuse

Moderate: Suicide, Suicide attempt, and Racial slurs

Minor: Infidelity, Child abuse, Homophobia, Lesbophobia, and Toxic friendship

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