Jan 9

Jan 9 The School for Good Mothers

Author: Jessamine Chan
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Goodreads | The StoryGraph

Click above to buy this book from my Bookshop.org shop, which supports independent bookstores (not Amazon). You can also find it via your favorite indie bookstore here.

Note: Content and trigger warnings are provided for those who need them at the bottom of this page. If you don’t need them and don’t want to risk spoilers, don’t scroll past the full review.

Cover Description

In this taut and explosive debut novel, one lapse in judgement lands a young mother in a government reform program where custody of her child hangs in the balance.

Frida Liu is struggling. She doesn’t have a career worthy of her Chinese immigrant parents’ sacrifices. What’s worse is she can’t persuade her husband, Gust, to give up his wellness-obsessed younger mistress. Only with their angelic daughter Harriet does Frida finally feel she’s attained the perfection expected of her. Harriet may be all she has, but she’s just enough.

Until Frida has a horrible day.

The state has its eyes on mothers like Frida — ones who check their phones while their kids are on the playground; who let their children walk home alone; in other words, mothers who only have one lapse of judgement. Now, a host of government officials will determine if Frida is a candidate for a Big Brother-like institution that measures the success or failure of a mother’s devotion. Faced with the possibility of losing Harriet, Frida must prove that she can live up to the standards set for mothers — that she can learn to be good.

This propulsive, witty page-turner explores the perils of “perfect” upper-middle-class parenting, the violence enacted upon women by the state and each other, and the boundless love a mother has for her daughter.

TL;DR Review

The School for Good Mothers is a wild ride of a novel. It’s not comfortable, but it’s extremely effective and absolutely does what it meant to do. I was so impressed.

For you if: You’re okay with books that aren’t always FUN to read, when it’s worth it.

Full Review

“A mother can handle anything. A mother is always patient. A mother is always kind. A mother is always giving. A mother never falls apart. A mother is the buffer between her child and the cruel world.”

First, big thanks to Simon & Schuster for the electronic advanced copy of this book! What a way to start the year. This book is an absolutely wild ride.

The story is about a woman named Frida, a struggling single mom of a toddler who makes a terrible decision that costs her custody. In order to earn her daughter back, she must agree to an experimental new CPS program. It’s hard to say much more than that without giving things away, but suffice to say that the whole thing has a feeling of dystopia that’s just far enough inside the realm of possibility to be disturbing.

It’s been a long time since I read a book that stirred me up so much. I could have thrown it at the wall. There were several side characters that I desperately wanted to punch. Think like, Umbridge-level rage and frustration. That alone is an impressive feat. And yet the greatest triumph of the book, I think, is Frida as a character. She’s both sympathetic and unsympathetic. She forces us to confront our own ideas of what a mother should be, as we both recognize the absurdity of the standards she’s being held to and decide how we feel about the past decisions she’s made.

This book is a masterful look at the conflicting and absurd societal pressures and expectations of motherhood. If you can push your way through an uncomfortable book for the sake of the craft and impact of the story, pick it up.