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3.7 AVERAGE
3.7 AVERAGE
challenging
dark
emotional
sad
medium-paced
I couldn’t put down “The School for Good Mothers” by Jessamine Chan. It was riveting.
Frida says it was a bad day. She left her 18 month old daughter, Harriet, home alone to grab a coffee and get something at work. This bad choice has stunning repercussions. In an attempt to reform bad mothers, the state has created a school for them to attend for an entire year. It’s not a prison, but it’s a prison. If, at the end of the year, Frida is deemed a “good” mother she can get her parental rights back, if not she has to sign them away. Will Frida pass? What makes a good mother? How does an institution teach mothering? Is there a school for bad fathers?
This book raises so many interesting questions and themes. As we meet the mothers who have to go to the school, we see that their transgressions range from letting their 2 year old play in the backyard unattended to burning a child with a cigarette. Clearly one is criminal and one is not. Who decides what is worthy of the authorities attention? How does race and socioeconomics play into mothering? How does a father help or hurt the situation? The biggest frustration to me was that Frida’s ex husband’s life choices played a big role in her predicament and yet he was considered the good parent. It was infuriating!
It seems motherhood is always being scrutinized. If you want to see what that’s like to the nth degree, this story is for you.
Frida says it was a bad day. She left her 18 month old daughter, Harriet, home alone to grab a coffee and get something at work. This bad choice has stunning repercussions. In an attempt to reform bad mothers, the state has created a school for them to attend for an entire year. It’s not a prison, but it’s a prison. If, at the end of the year, Frida is deemed a “good” mother she can get her parental rights back, if not she has to sign them away. Will Frida pass? What makes a good mother? How does an institution teach mothering? Is there a school for bad fathers?
This book raises so many interesting questions and themes. As we meet the mothers who have to go to the school, we see that their transgressions range from letting their 2 year old play in the backyard unattended to burning a child with a cigarette. Clearly one is criminal and one is not. Who decides what is worthy of the authorities attention? How does race and socioeconomics play into mothering? How does a father help or hurt the situation? The biggest frustration to me was that Frida’s ex husband’s life choices played a big role in her predicament and yet he was considered the good parent. It was infuriating!
It seems motherhood is always being scrutinized. If you want to see what that’s like to the nth degree, this story is for you.
This book was powerful. The parallels this novel has to our current expectations of women as mothers and human beings is horrifying and true. Frida is just supposed to accept all the shitty things her life dealt her and have no emotional response. The fact that society expects women to do everything right as a mother and criticize them to death about their actions is present in this novel and in the world today. "Don't do this, feed them this, give them affection, but don't make them soft" etc. sums up what we currently see online and what everyone else expects from Frida. This novel is a beautiful narrative on the hyper fixation society has on women being perfect and that their only job is to be the perfect mother. It also echos the not so distant dystopian idea of the government focusing solely on a woman's right to just exist.
dark
emotional
reflective
sad
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
dark
emotional
hopeful
informative
mysterious
reflective
sad
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
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
While I don’t fully understand the theme of this book yet, I rather enjoyed it. It’s dark and dystopian, and all around unfair. Feels like a call to the societal standards around motherhood. Curious to read an explanation!
challenging
dark
emotional
sad
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
I know the author was trying to prove a point but I hated the way social workers were portrayed. Also felt like the writing did more telling than showing and dragged in the middle. Interesting concept though. Maybe I would have appreciated it more if I had kids.
i am this close to giving it five stars because the ending blew me out of the water. but the middle of this book was interminable.
emotional
funny
mysterious
fast-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