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meowkira's review against another edition
challenging
dark
emotional
sad
tense
- 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
4.75
Content Warnings
Graphic: Drug abuse, Forced institutionalization, Injury/Injury detail, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Abandonment, Child abuse, Classism, Pregnancy, Racial slurs, Suicide attempt, Death, Mental illness, Racism, Kidnapping, Panic attacks/disorders, Bullying, Grief, and Sexism
eve_reads's review against another edition
challenging
dark
emotional
mysterious
reflective
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
4.5
Overall Thoughts:
⁕ The sci-fi, dystopian bits don't really develop until about 25% into the book. It will feel like a contemporary piece at first, but give it time and things get wild.
⁕ Chan peels back all the layers of motherhood and explores how it is impacted by not only one's identities (including sexual orientation, culture, race, etc.), but also systemic sexism and white supremacy.
⁕ Moments that I thought were emotionally important to the story were completely skipped over and explained after the fact, such as Frida's final court ruling. It was frustrating to miss out on those key plot points that had been built up to throughout the story.
⁕ There are SO many characters of different ages and genders in this book. Catherine Ho's narration distinguishes each of them without detracting from the overall story
To read my full review, visit: https://evereads.online/
For regular book-related content, follow my Instagram account: @eve_reads
⁕ The sci-fi, dystopian bits don't really develop until about 25% into the book. It will feel like a contemporary piece at first, but give it time and things get wild.
⁕ Chan peels back all the layers of motherhood and explores how it is impacted by not only one's identities (including sexual orientation, culture, race, etc.), but also systemic sexism and white supremacy.
⁕ Moments that I thought were emotionally important to the story were completely skipped over and explained after the fact, such as Frida's final court ruling. It was frustrating to miss out on those key plot points that had been built up to throughout the story.
⁕ There are SO many characters of different ages and genders in this book. Catherine Ho's narration distinguishes each of them without detracting from the overall story
To read my full review, visit: https://evereads.online/
For regular book-related content, follow my Instagram account: @eve_reads
Content Warnings
Graphic: Homophobia, Suicide, Cursing, Forced institutionalization, Misogyny, Self harm, Child abuse, Death, Emotional abuse, Lesbophobia, Racism, Sexual harassment, Alcohol, Body horror, Classism, Confinement, Abandonment, Grief, Medical content, Suicide attempt, Gore, Infidelity, Physical abuse, Sexism, and Sexual content
hannahbailey's review against another edition
challenging
dark
emotional
reflective
sad
tense
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
I flew through this one, it's very readable with a strong narrative (and that's really saying something, as I normally hate 3rd person narratives)! Overall I really enjoyed the plot, characters and themes. I always enjoy reading about motherhood as I find it really interesting topic to explore, especially within the confines of a dystopian society, as this book does.
Some themes, if explored a bit deeper would have made this an impressive 5-star read. That being said, I enjoyed the moral dilemma of what a 'good' mother looks like - it links back to the work I did on my dissertation (there's no right answer).
Some themes, if explored a bit deeper would have made this an impressive 5-star read. That being said, I enjoyed the moral dilemma of what a 'good' mother looks like - it links back to the work I did on my dissertation (there's no right answer).
Content Warnings
Graphic: Pregnancy, Racial slurs, Sexism, Forced institutionalization, Bullying, Classism, Grief, and Misogyny
bethsbookshelf's review against another edition
challenging
dark
emotional
reflective
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
4.25
Gosh, this book broke me a little. It highlights one of my biggest fears as a mother, any mother's biggest fear: having their child taken away from them.
Frida loses custody of her daughter and has to go to a government reform programme called The School for Good Mothers (unsure if that's the official title!). She loses Harriet because she left her in a walker for 2+ hours while she got a coffee and picked up some papers from work. At the start, I didn't have a lot of sympathy for Frida because it's very obvious that what she did was SO wrong. She left Harriet with snacks; she could have choked. She could have fallen asleep in an upright position; that's not safe. She could have been injured, stolen, had a panic attack - so many things could have gone wrong.
However, as the pages went past, I grew to love Frida, to understand her, to root for her. She wasn't a bad mother. She had a bad day. Yes, there needed to be consequences, but what she went through was horrific and heartbreaking. And as the author did fantastically, it was also clear that Frida was a symbol of all good mothers that have bad days. To further prove that point, you meet other mothers who didn't do anything nearly as wrong as Frida and still lost their child. One mother was in for coddling her child; one was in for posting a tantrum on Instagram; one was in for letting her child play in their gated yard by himself.
This book is a speculative alternate reality where if you're not a perfect mother, then you're a bad mother.
In a sense, it's a commentary on our current society where we're stuck in a horrible world of "mom-shaming", mostly online. A mother posts about her child sleeping through the night, and suddenly, you have hundreds of comments about how the child is too young, how they'll become malnourished, etc. A mother posts a video of her breastfeeding in public; she's now disgusting, attention-seeking. A mother lets her son have screen time: she's lazy. A mother's partner helps with night feeds: she has him whipped. A mother goes back to work after two months: she's abandoning her child. A mother never returns to work: doesn't she have a life of her own?
There's no winning as a mother in this society. We're surrounded by judgment all the time.
As a new mum myself, this book hurt me because I could see myself in it. I'm not perfect. If I had CCTV up in my house, like Frida did for a portion of the book, what would CPS think of me? In this world, I'm sure I'd be in the school, too. I co-sleep sometimes. My son sleeps with a blanket. I let him have garlic bread a couple of times. I sometimes scroll on Instagram while he's playing with his toys. My house isn't tidy. I give him his pacifier even if it's fallen onto the ground. I let the dog lick his face. Am I a bad mother? Maybe people think I am.
But I, like Frida, have deep unconditional love for my son. It's the craziest, most chaotic, and beautiful love I've ever known. Frida loves Harriet. She tries everything she can to avoid going to the school for good mothers. Those scenes were the most heartbreaking. She was instructed to treat Harriet a certain way, even though it was clearly making Harriet uncomfortable. And the worst part for me - Harriet wanted her mum. She needed her mother. She begged for her mother. And that wasn't taken into consideration at all.
Ugh. This book will stay with me for a long time.
The only thing I didn't really love about it was it felt like there was a lot clipped and cut out. The author actually said herself in interviews that she cut a lot. I felt that. It often jumped from one scene to another, or one month to another, and it didn't run deep enough sometimes. I think the author did this stylistically and intentionally because she wanted the novel to read matter-of-factly, but there were times it didn't really work for me.
Overall, this was one of my most hyped reads of the year, and it blew me away, softly and sadly. I wouldn't recommend it to everyone. It's not a massive page-turner. It's a bit slow and reflective; there are some brutal scenes; there's horror; there's love; there's desperation; there's devotion. There's a mother. A mother who isn't perfect, but isn't bad, but will do anything - anything at all - to hold her daughter, just one more time.
Frida loses custody of her daughter and has to go to a government reform programme called The School for Good Mothers (unsure if that's the official title!). She loses Harriet because she left her in a walker for 2+ hours while she got a coffee and picked up some papers from work. At the start, I didn't have a lot of sympathy for Frida because it's very obvious that what she did was SO wrong. She left Harriet with snacks; she could have choked. She could have fallen asleep in an upright position; that's not safe. She could have been injured, stolen, had a panic attack - so many things could have gone wrong.
However, as the pages went past, I grew to love Frida, to understand her, to root for her. She wasn't a bad mother. She had a bad day. Yes, there needed to be consequences, but what she went through was horrific and heartbreaking. And as the author did fantastically, it was also clear that Frida was a symbol of all good mothers that have bad days. To further prove that point, you meet other mothers who didn't do anything nearly as wrong as Frida and still lost their child. One mother was in for coddling her child; one was in for posting a tantrum on Instagram; one was in for letting her child play in their gated yard by himself.
This book is a speculative alternate reality where if you're not a perfect mother, then you're a bad mother.
In a sense, it's a commentary on our current society where we're stuck in a horrible world of "mom-shaming", mostly online. A mother posts about her child sleeping through the night, and suddenly, you have hundreds of comments about how the child is too young, how they'll become malnourished, etc. A mother posts a video of her breastfeeding in public; she's now disgusting, attention-seeking. A mother lets her son have screen time: she's lazy. A mother's partner helps with night feeds: she has him whipped. A mother goes back to work after two months: she's abandoning her child. A mother never returns to work: doesn't she have a life of her own?
There's no winning as a mother in this society. We're surrounded by judgment all the time.
As a new mum myself, this book hurt me because I could see myself in it. I'm not perfect. If I had CCTV up in my house, like Frida did for a portion of the book, what would CPS think of me? In this world, I'm sure I'd be in the school, too. I co-sleep sometimes. My son sleeps with a blanket. I let him have garlic bread a couple of times. I sometimes scroll on Instagram while he's playing with his toys. My house isn't tidy. I give him his pacifier even if it's fallen onto the ground. I let the dog lick his face. Am I a bad mother? Maybe people think I am.
But I, like Frida, have deep unconditional love for my son. It's the craziest, most chaotic, and beautiful love I've ever known. Frida loves Harriet. She tries everything she can to avoid going to the school for good mothers. Those scenes were the most heartbreaking. She was instructed to treat Harriet a certain way, even though it was clearly making Harriet uncomfortable. And the worst part for me - Harriet wanted her mum. She needed her mother. She begged for her mother. And that wasn't taken into consideration at all.
Ugh. This book will stay with me for a long time.
The only thing I didn't really love about it was it felt like there was a lot clipped and cut out. The author actually said herself in interviews that she cut a lot. I felt that. It often jumped from one scene to another, or one month to another, and it didn't run deep enough sometimes. I think the author did this stylistically and intentionally because she wanted the novel to read matter-of-factly, but there were times it didn't really work for me.
Overall, this was one of my most hyped reads of the year, and it blew me away, softly and sadly. I wouldn't recommend it to everyone. It's not a massive page-turner. It's a bit slow and reflective; there are some brutal scenes; there's horror; there's love; there's desperation; there's devotion. There's a mother. A mother who isn't perfect, but isn't bad, but will do anything - anything at all - to hold her daughter, just one more time.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Child abuse, Classism, Confinement, Suicidal thoughts, Infidelity, Abandonment, Racism, and Suicide
faduma's review against another edition
challenging
dark
emotional
sad
tense
slow-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
Content Warnings
Graphic: Classism, Misogyny, Sexism, Torture, Police brutality, Gaslighting, Emotional abuse, Confinement, and Forced institutionalization
amys_book_corner's review against another edition
challenging
dark
emotional
sad
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? N/A
4.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Abandonment, Racism, Suicide, Child abuse, and Classism
Minor: Miscarriage
sarahd0825's review against another edition
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.
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 against another edition
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
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
carolynlovesbooks's review against another edition
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
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
theskyboi's review against another edition
dark
emotional
reflective
sad
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
Thank you to Book Club Favorites at Simon & Schuster for the free book for review!
At the novel's outset, Frida Liu has had a lapse in judgment on a hectic day, and she has decided to leave her daughter, Harriet, at home alone. From this point forward, Frida is forced to prove her worth as a mother, as a woman, and as an American citizen at the eponymous School for Good Mothers.
In this stunning debut, Jessamine Chan interweaves the fabrics of literary and speculative fiction by telling a tale that some may call paranoid while others may feel is more aptly deemed prescient. Amid the tools of modern-day surveillance, these so-called bad mothers are given the chance to regain the lost custody of their children upon completing an experimental curriculum within the fenced-in confines of a dystopian learning center. Faced with the disappointment of watching her ex-husband and his new girlfriend raising her daughter, Frida is more determined than ever to put her whole heart into learning how to become the ideal caregiver.
Without spoiling too much, I'll say that the ways in which Chan dives into the genre of speculative fiction through The School for Good Mothers took me by surprise. Equal parts commentary on race, class, mental health, prejudice, and misogyny, this story is thoughtful in the way it draws and redraws lines between good parenting and unfair sentencing within the American justice system. Even given the dense and emotional themes, Chan still finds a way to capture a reader's imagination with a near-future feel to the mechanisms at play in Frida's life. By far, this was the perfect way to start my first read of 2022, and I can't recommend it enough!
At the novel's outset, Frida Liu has had a lapse in judgment on a hectic day, and she has decided to leave her daughter, Harriet, at home alone. From this point forward, Frida is forced to prove her worth as a mother, as a woman, and as an American citizen at the eponymous School for Good Mothers.
In this stunning debut, Jessamine Chan interweaves the fabrics of literary and speculative fiction by telling a tale that some may call paranoid while others may feel is more aptly deemed prescient. Amid the tools of modern-day surveillance, these so-called bad mothers are given the chance to regain the lost custody of their children upon completing an experimental curriculum within the fenced-in confines of a dystopian learning center. Faced with the disappointment of watching her ex-husband and his new girlfriend raising her daughter, Frida is more determined than ever to put her whole heart into learning how to become the ideal caregiver.
Without spoiling too much, I'll say that the ways in which Chan dives into the genre of speculative fiction through The School for Good Mothers took me by surprise. Equal parts commentary on race, class, mental health, prejudice, and misogyny, this story is thoughtful in the way it draws and redraws lines between good parenting and unfair sentencing within the American justice system. Even given the dense and emotional themes, Chan still finds a way to capture a reader's imagination with a near-future feel to the mechanisms at play in Frida's life. By far, this was the perfect way to start my first read of 2022, and I can't recommend it enough!
Content Warnings
Graphic: Abandonment, Body horror, Confinement, Suicidal thoughts, Sexual content, Sexism, Pregnancy, and Misogyny
Moderate: Child death, Suicide, Torture, Mental illness, Infidelity, and Child abuse
Minor: Classism, Domestic abuse, Eating disorder, and Gaslighting
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