A review by izzyvb023
The Unmothers by Leslie J. Anderson

adventurous challenging dark emotional funny hopeful mysterious tense medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

“The Unmothers” was a fantastic feminist take on the folk horror genre. 
While reading this book, I was reminded that a lot of horror movies in the past few years have incorporated pregnancy/body horror surrounding the female body (Immaculate, The Substance, The First Omen, and even Beetlejuice2). There is certainly something to be said about the media we create and consume during different times, and how that relates to the world around us.
Under the current American administration, it is certainly terrifying to be a woman pregnant or not- and especially in rural America. “The Unmothers” tackles this horror beautifully. 

On the surface, “The Unmothers” is a story about a small town and the supernatural going-ons that lurk beneath it— a common folk horror setup. But the book takes this common framework and brilliantly uses it to touch on themes of sexual violence, abortion, addiction, religion, and access to reproductive healthcare.

Read if:
  • you’re a horse girl or former horse girl and you hate men
  • you love weird and disturbing stories, gothic horror, and/or folk horror

An excerpt I especially loved: 

“The whole town seemed to do a strange waltz around women like this, being ashamed of them, doing violence to them, using them as a lesson, and then also loving them deeply. What was happening here, exactly—or even vaguely? Could she believe that an entire town could tangle themselves so deeply in a dark story, in a superstition, while going to the white church and bowing their heads in prayer to a god who would not recognize their true religion, their songs, their nameless rituals?”
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