A review by bookreviewswithkb
The Mothers by Brit Bennett

challenging emotional reflective tense medium-paced

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

5.0

“he’d made her feel like love was something she had to claw her way into”

this novel is outstanding. i had to sit on it for a minute after i finished, contemplating the complexity of what i just read. for a second, i was angry at the way abortion was portrayed, i let it detract from my experience with the novel, but then i understood that my discomfort was the point. that the author was not writing about abortion to make a political point, or to wrap it up nicely for the reader, but to wrestle with all sides, the personal and emotional aspects of abortion. and for an author to be able to do that in a meaningful way? i mean isn’t that the point of literature - to make us uncomfortable, to lay bare the complexity of humans, to be honest 

and abortion isn’t the only difficult topic in this novel. Bennett gives us messy, difficult characters. she lays bare their imperfections, the way they hurt those they love, the way they seek connection with each other but don’t always know how to communicate, creating misunderstanding and distance and pain. she examines so many different aspects of motherhood, from different generations to different ways of leaving, different ways of loving

i could keep going but really i think this is a beautiful challenging novel that i’ve added to my favorites shelf