A review by alyssackim
The School for Good Mothers by Jessamine Chan

dark sad tense slow-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.0

There was a lot to like about this book, but some things that stopped it from being a successful read, in my opinion.

Overall I had a fine time reading the book, though the middle was slow and the ending sub-par. It is worth the read for the thought experiment, but I felt such dread whenever I would pick it up, it was relentless in that way. I just wanted much, much more.

Pros:
  • Talks about several not oft discussed subjects:
    • Model Minority discomfort
    • Class and racial profiling for parents, especially mothers
    • White western standards of parenting and how that affects people self-image, particularly if those people are immigrants. Frida's relationship with her parents and how people see the lack of physical affection as a bad thing, for example. I loved the contention between Susanna and Frida, the crunchy granola mom that Susanna was was a nice touch.
  • I loved the voice of the character, how you see her gaslighting herself and truly convincing herself that she is a bad mother, that she deserves this punishment is fascinating and well-illustrated.
  • Great concept.
  • Well built characters and relationships (mostly) 

Cons:
  • Lack of worldbuilding. The world seemed identical to our own except for this new program. Without the benefit of worldbuilding or really any look at other parts of society outside of the small family unit and the school itself made the severity - and therefore the premise - unbelievable in an otherwise realistic setting.
    the perfect robot children furthered my suspension of disbelief, we got no build up, no mentions of even close to this level of technology. For the record, I enjoyed the robot children and their place in the story. But
    the cruelty shown to them by the teachers, the teachers cartoonish bad-ness and other things about the school made it so much harder to immerse myself in the world and therefore believe the predicament our main character finds herself in.
    • I can't help but thinking nothing about this school would fly under our judicial system, almost every aspect of it seemed to fit "cruel and unusual punishment." But I suppose the US has had dozens of prisoners in solitary confinement for 20+ years with no coherent reason, so, who knows what counts as cruel and unusual nowadays.
  • Did not follow through on the concept to a satisfying degree, it just ended up falling flat. It would have been great to see more of
    the dolls and the moral ramifications that they present. What if she stole the doll instead? Or got her daughter back and yearned, not for Harriet, but for the doll?
  • The commentary about motherhood and the standards that pedestal affords was too sharp for me, too on the nose. The whole book was trying to make a point that I think would have benefitted from more subtlety. I didn't need the book to ram the fact that "mothers are held to higher standards than fathers" down my throat the whole time, and in such a brutalist fashion.


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