A review by colleensreadingadventures
Just Like Mother by Anne Heltzel

challenging dark emotional mysterious sad tense medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? No
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

This is my second reread and tbh I wasn’t looking forward to it very much, but I wanted to finally give it a review so I figured I’d tough it out. But Just Like Mother is the perfect example of why you should sometimes try and revisit books later on that you might not have loved in the first place. I ended up enjoying it a lot more the second time around, I do have to say it’s still not a 5 star book for me but I do appreciate it more. 

Maeve is a 30 something year old single woman living in New York City working as an editor for a book publishing company. She likes her life fine but doesn’t have any real attachments, no friends outside of her work life and her relationship status is more of a casual ongoing hookup with a bartender named Ryan. 
As a child she did have an older cousin that was more like a sister that Maeve loved with all her heart. But Maeve and her cousin were separated when she was 8 because their household was actually part of a cult that authorities shut down. Maeve and Andrea were sent to different homes and they never saw each other again as children. 

When Maeve was an older teen she started looking for Andrea and when she left her adopted parents home as an adult she even sent in a DNA sample to see if she could find her that way. But no such luck and Maeve gave up on finding the only family she ever wanted to connect with. But right before her 33rd birthday Maeve gets a notification that her cousin has been located and she even lives in upstate New York only a couple of hours away, how coincidental is that! 

Maeve and Andrea renew their relationship and Maeve starts spending more and more time at Andrea’s Catskill Mansion than she even is at her own apartment. Maeve has come to rely on her as her life slowly takes a downward cycle she never would have imagined. Haunting memories from her childhood constantly invade her thoughts, and weird incidents start happening as she and her cousin continue to grow closer. Is her past catching up with the present and why does it feel like something is not exactly right with her cousins perfect life?

Characters:
Maeve is a mess but in this case that is good thing because it helps make the story more believable. But what did irk me was the fact she was another MC that had a problem with prescriptions. It’s either drugs or alcohol on repeat and that has been played out a little too much, but it wasn’t overly brought up so it wasn’t too bad. 

Andrea well I can’t go too much into detail but let’s just say she is a piece of work and so is her hubby. I personally didn’t feel the love vibe too much between her and Maeve either, that needed a little work. 

Story:
Obviously you have to suspend belief for the story to work but the way it was written I could actually see it happening. So kudos to Anne Heltzel for some good writing. And she did an excellent job with the creep factor, it was definitely a bit eerie. 
Omg and that ending shocked the crap out of me! Didn’t see it coming a mile away. 

Cult books are especially hard for me to read so I’m really glad I gave this another shot. There is just something so weird about them , I just don’t like reading books that center around fanatics. But I let that feeling go and just enjoyed the story for what it was, a well written book with an interesting and quite sinister plot. I look forward to checking out AH’s upcoming books. 
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