Reviews with content warning for Child death - The School for Good Mothers

Reviews tagging 'Child death'

The School for Good Mothers by Jessamine Chan

59 reviews

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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tiffyb's review against another edition

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dark emotional mysterious reflective sad medium-paced

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

4.75

I am SHOCKED that this book only has 3.5 stars! The School For Good Mothers is probably the most horrifyingly good book I have read in a long time.

This was a harrowing, painful read since I am pregnant with my first baby (girl). This book made me FEEL THINGS, and maybe that’s why so many people disliked it- the absolute insanity and infuriating helplessness you felt as you read. I think that possibly, my personal connection to many concepts I’m this book elevated my feelings even more. Having gone through a divorce, now having a baby, and having a close friend whose children were taken away unfairly (and was mistreated and manipulated by the CPS system) all made me find this book to be incredibly relevant and ALMOST believable. I didn’t even realize it was a dystopian novel until probably 1/4 of the way through the book!

I only have a couple of small criticisms… i struggled with the way that Fridas “one bad day” seemed a little under-criticized by the author. Obviously her punishment went FAR beyond the crime, but it seemed as though the author thinks that many moms have a bad day like that and just leave their babies?? Also the book could have cut down probably 100 pages of her time in the school. I just read more quickly, but if someone disliked the book, I’d imagine that the extra focus on the school would be frustrating. And lastly (SPOILER ALERT) I was expecting for the school itself to be addressed; I actually thought that when they all got out, they would find out that the school was literally just a social/mental experiment on mothers. It was odd that the school was just allowed to do literally ANYTHING in spite of literal deaths?? There were many unanswered questions in regards to the school and CPS system overall (like who made any of these decisions).

This book brought up so many concepts within motherhood- ex’s, sex, what counts as selfishness, race, the ridiculous standards of society, and that no one would ever truly “pass” parenting school if we had to adhere to every piece of advice given on childcare. I’d 1000% read a sequel where the mothers join together and seek to understand what happened to them and find justice. A sequel of powerful, angry mothers lol. I’d read that in a heartbeat after this book

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smisaacs's review

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challenging dark reflective medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? It's complicated

4.25

I really enjoyed this book! It gave me so much righteous anger. I felt so deeply for these mothers and what they were forced to go through. I couldn't go all the way to 5 stars because it did get a little repetitive and I wasn't a huge fan of the vagueness of the ending. But overall, I would definitely recommend it!

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annagerman's review

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dark emotional sad medium-paced

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

4.5

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karmapen's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional sad tense fast-paced

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

5.0

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abhirupa's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional mysterious sad tense slow-paced

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

3.5

This was such a difficult read because it was so FRUSTRATING!!! Like there were moments when Frida’s interactions with The System made me so mad I had to take a break and I definitely contemplated DNF’ing several times. I’m glad I didn’t, just bc I had a feeling I knew how the book was going to end and I was right, so I felt vindicated. But it’s not like it was a super shocking or crazy or innovative ending. My main issue with this book was that the context just didn’t make sense to me. The plot, especially with the school, was giving Handmaid’s Tale, but there wasn’t a description of any societal upheaval that would have made these massive changes to CPS and child custody laws make sense. Like I didn’t get what had gone wrong with society for this plot to have been feasible. If you’re a mom, especially if you have joint custody of their kids with your ex, this will probably be a really really tough read, and I’m honestly not sure if it’s worth it.

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