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3.7 AVERAGE
3.7 AVERAGE
A subtly dystopian novel that leaves you mourning for mothers and their children. The novel was well written, making you feel exactly what Frida was feeling. I hope to never live in a world like this one.
dark
emotional
sad
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
dark
emotional
sad
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
I really wanted to “enjoy” this book—even if that meant doing lots of work to find nuggets of fresh insight amidst a bunch of sad, really salient and difficult, themes. I came to it expecting to be challenged but also to see my/others’ real world experiences as mothers reflected in a real yet supportive way. Or even to have my privileges and advantages as a mother checked so I could become better at supporting other moms. But by the end I have to say none of those things really happened for me; I kept thinking the story would touch back or end in a way that would bring it together, and but unfortunately I have to agree with other reviews that the book missed the mark. It’s useful to have commentary on the challenges of mothering and parenting in our culture, but where’s the opportunity for kinship or empowerment for us real world mama readers? What are we supposed to take from this book besides emphasis on fears that we already feel intimately? These aren’t the kinds of fears you wanna just sit and meditate on without some kind of constructive angle or opportunity to analyze how we can empower each other and make a world better than this… In order to get that kind of depth out this book I think it needed to give us more on key questions in the storyline like: Why didn’t anyone defend Frida? How did the state get so much control and why couldn’t it be questioned even by lawyers? I get that the school was heartless, but was *was* their rationale for why they could train the dolls like humans, yet also abuse them in ways they would never abuse humans? The coldness for the sake of coldness felt too simple and left lots of opportunities on the table for a richer story.
This could have been both dystopian and “hopeless” but also indirectly empowering by posing deeper questions and ideas for us to trade and support each other as mothers and women out here in the real world.
This could have been both dystopian and “hopeless” but also indirectly empowering by posing deeper questions and ideas for us to trade and support each other as mothers and women out here in the real world.
emotional
sad
tense
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
I really liked this book! I liked the pacing and the subject material. A lot of very interesting commentary on parenting, race, gender roles, and state authority.
challenging
dark
emotional
sad
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Devastating.
It’s more of a 4.5 I think. I really loved this book and a lot of the feelings of being Asian in North America rang true to me so I was crying like a little baby in the last 50 pages. I suppose the drawback with dystopian for me is that some of the behaviour was beyond understanding. Especially since this seems to be a near future dystopian novel which I think would need to make a little more sense to me for it to reach the full five stars. Since it is so similar to reality, the people working at the school did seem heartless to an extreme degree. It has the same vibes as the people working at the institute in the institute by Stephen King. Additionally, the need for perfection also rings somewhat hallow as It didn’t make sense to me that if her ex and his girlfriend both want Frida back in their lives and she has shown great improvement in the program, why would they not give even visitation rights? With this criteria, it would honestly shock me that any of the mothers got custody of their child back. Given these drawbacks, I still felt that the relationships established and the reactions from the mothers were realistic and thought provoking and I liked the intersectionality of race, gender, class and motherhood. I wished that she did a little more with the fact that these little robot doll children felt and thought like real children and yet were basically being tortured for no one’s benefit. They were clearly developing personalities and attachments and emotions even if they were robots and I wish that there was just a little more closure. I guess what I really wish was for the state to get some form of repercussion or even the slight sense that they understand what they did was wrong to the mothers, the families, the children and the robot children.
Anyways, I guess I feel kind of conflicted about the premise as well as the end (though I do lean towards liking it but I wish there was a bit more of a set up for that because it was a tad rushed) but the way I weeped has me ranking it as a low 5 rather than a high 4.
Edit: upon reflection (and now that it’s not 3 in the morning) it’s more of a four stars because of just how cartoonishly bad the government is. I am not pro government and of course the courts are not just but the injustice in this book was very extreme to the point of unbelievability. But I do like the clear writing and it’s a pretty good debut book.
Edit: i am still thinking about it after all this time so it’s definitely 4 stars but I guess the ending was pretty weird. It was like it took a turn from dystopian to psychological thriller vibes which is kinda strange.
Anyways, I guess I feel kind of conflicted about the premise as well as the end (though I do lean towards liking it but I wish there was a bit more of a set up for that because it was a tad rushed) but the way I weeped has me ranking it as a low 5 rather than a high 4.
Edit: upon reflection (and now that it’s not 3 in the morning) it’s more of a four stars because of just how cartoonishly bad the government is. I am not pro government and of course the courts are not just but the injustice in this book was very extreme to the point of unbelievability. But I do like the clear writing and it’s a pretty good debut book.
Edit: i am still thinking about it after all this time so it’s definitely 4 stars but I guess the ending was pretty weird. It was like it took a turn from dystopian to psychological thriller vibes which is kinda strange.
The School for Good Mothers begins as a fairly straightforward exploration of responsibility and expectations of motherhood and eventually becomes more dystopian as the narrative moves on. "The School" Frida finds herself at — after her very bad day in which she makes a mistake that endangers the safety of her daughter — is a Big Brother-like prison in which she and other mothers are meant to learn how to become not only good mothers but perfect mothers while being constantly surveilled and goalposts constantly moving. The offences committed by the mothers that find themselves there range from innocuous to violent, yet the curriculum is the same and the expectations they are to meet are often impossible by even the most devoted parents. Following Frida's perspective throughout is powerful and you feel her frustration and bouts of hopelessness. Somewhat slow to build, but a cleverly developed narrative.
challenging
dark
emotional
sad
tense
medium-paced
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
This book was so hard to read and hurt my soul. I hated every second of this book but I couldn't put it down.