Reviews tagging 'Domestic abuse'

The School for Good Mothers by Jessamine Chan

21 reviews

laurenlee2158's review against another edition

dark emotional sad slow-paced

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

4.5

---

Content Warnings

Moderate: Emotional abuse, Addiction, Alcohol, Classism, Confinement, Domestic abuse, Injury/Injury detail, Death, Abandonment, Adult/minor relationship, Child abuse, Racism, Alcoholism, Blood, Bullying, Self harm, Sexism, Suicidal thoughts, Forced institutionalization, Kidnapping, Misogyny, Mental illness, Miscarriage, Suicide, and Suicide attempt

pjwanders's review against another edition

dark emotional sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Death of parent, Forced institutionalization, Abandonment, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Child death, Confinement, Grief, Suicidal thoughts, Child abuse, Death, Mental illness, Suicide, Suicide attempt, Misogyny, Self harm, Violence, Addiction, Gaslighting, and Medical trauma

daniellenelson's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional reflective sad tense medium-paced

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

4.0

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Miscarriage, Suicide attempt, Self harm, Racism, Pregnancy, Abandonment, Child death, Cursing, Death, Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Infidelity, Injury/Injury detail, Suicidal thoughts, Forced institutionalization, Grief, Vomit, Suicide, Blood, Gaslighting, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Addiction, Alcohol, Bullying, Cancer, Child abuse, Confinement, and Emotional abuse

stailysh1's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional sad medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

This is a hard book to review because it is written well but it's also horrifying.  Nothing good happens in this book and it put me in a funk while reading it.  I considered not finishing it.  That being said, I did want to know how it ended and where it was going.  It criticizes how mothers are constantly shamed and criticized by society in the hyperbolic way a dystopian novel can.  The characters were not lovable, but they're not supposed to be.  The author succeeds in sending her message, although it did begin to get repetitive.  The hopelessness in the book was fully captured and conveyed.  The ending wasn't altogether a bad choice, but it wasn't satisfying either.  I wish the author had spent more time building the world outside of the main character.  The main character is consistently a doormat, and she is supposed to be, but I did not find it enjoyable to read from her perspective because she barely grows beyond it.  In the end, it feels like the book has made a point but gone nowhere with it.

I plan to read something lighter after this because this is the kind of book that gives you a bad "book hangover".

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Forced institutionalization, Misogyny, Suicidal thoughts, Child abuse, and Emotional abuse

Moderate: Grief, Self harm, Child death, Domestic abuse, Sexual violence, Infidelity, Mental illness, Racism, Confinement, Suicide, Torture, and Violence

kelisabeth's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional reflective tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Lesbophobia, Alcoholism, Antisemitism, Cancer, Child abuse, Child death, Homophobia, Infertility, Abandonment, Addiction, Adult/minor relationship, Alcohol, Body shaming, Confinement, Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Drug use, Fatphobia, Forced institutionalization, Grief, Mental illness, Miscarriage, Misogyny, Panic attacks/disorders, Physical abuse, Racial slurs, Racism, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Biphobia, Blood, Death, Emotional abuse, Injury/Injury detail, Infidelity, Kidnapping, Pedophilia, Pregnancy, Self harm, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, and Suicide attempt

ottercorg's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective sad tense slow-paced

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

4.0

A heavy read with a slow first half, I did enjoy this one. An interesting premise full of antagonists that made me want to pull my hair out for their ignorance, but not enough to make me want to stop reading. 

I appreciated Chan's writing style and characters, and for once also appreciated the open ending. 

Spoiler

I think a true happy ending wouldn't have been appropriate, but a true sad/negative ending would've been overkill or too much to take.

---

Content Warnings

Moderate: Pregnancy, Self harm, Suicidal thoughts, Abandonment, Alcohol, Child abuse, Child death, Confinement, Cursing, Death, Domestic abuse, Drug use, Eating disorder, Emotional abuse, Forced institutionalization, Grief, Infidelity, Mental illness, Miscarriage, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, and Suicide

taysbooktalk's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

1.0

There are not words for this book, and not in a good way. I like to think if a book had me sobbing, nearly to a panic attack, and I will never forget- that it was an amazing book. It’s not. It’s intentionally meant to rip you apart and trigger you. It’s sold as a dystopian. It’s not. It’s weird and uncomfortable and gut wrenching. This not a Nicholas Sparks or Kristen Hannah book. This is not sad book that tells a story. This is not made to entertain you. It’s not made to make a difference or touch lives. This is made to hurt people. I don’t know that I will ever recover from this book. PLEASE DON’T READ THIS.

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Abandonment, Domestic abuse, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Addiction, Bullying, Child death, Confinement, Hate crime, Mental illness, Forced institutionalization, Pregnancy, Racial slurs, Self harm, Sexism, Suicide attempt, Alcohol, Body shaming, Car accident, Eating disorder, Medical content, Medical trauma, Racism, Rape, Suicide, Torture, Cursing, Death, Death of parent, Panic attacks/disorders, Sexual content, Suicidal thoughts, Cultural appropriation, Toxic relationship, Fatphobia, Grief, Physical abuse, Drug abuse, Homophobia, Violence, Kidnapping, Miscarriage, and Vomit

apollinares's review against another edition

dark emotional reflective sad tense slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.75

This book made me deeply uncomfortable, sad, furious, exhausted. It takes a lot of skill for an author to evoke that much in a reader all at once. I like how raw and honest the portrayal of Frida's ordeal was, and how processing grief and one's own mistakes is presented as a non-linear, messy process. 

Frida isn't a likeable character. She's convinced us of it on page one, and she's convinced herself of it long before. As someone whose mother made mistakes she deeply regrets, and as someone who has had many conversations with her about what those mistakes did to both of us, I genuinely feel for Frida. I've seen other reviews condemn her, and it's really interesting to me where a reader would draw the line on what they find unacceptable in a parent, and how much they're willing to dehumanise a mother/discredit her emotional needs, when they learn the mother has made a mistake that caused her child harm. I'm not trying to excuse abuse, it's just fascinating how quickly someone's empathy for a person, and their sense of nuance, disappears when the person in the wrong is a parent. I mean, people are rating the book lower because the protagonist has done something wrong and that makes the book supposedly bad. The point is right there, guys, come on...

The way blame is placed in the book is interesting to me, too - how the women are treated as irredeemable, and how the state would rather interfere once harm has been caused (and arguably proceed to traumatise the child even more) than offer parents mental health support before mistakes like this can occur. It's infuriating to experience and to process, and when the fathers were introduced, I became so much angrier knowing how much easier they supposedly have it. 

The ending is tragic and inevitable. I don't know how else Chan could have ended this book. Frida's unravelling is addicting, and sad, and I couldn't look away the whole time.

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Suicide, Child abuse, Infidelity, and Suicidal thoughts

Moderate: Miscarriage, Misogyny, Xenophobia, Bullying, Medical content, Mental illness, Alcohol, Lesbophobia, Medical trauma, Domestic abuse, Pregnancy, Racial slurs, Sexism, Toxic relationship, Addiction, Emotional abuse, Kidnapping, Pedophilia, and Physical abuse

Minor: Sexual content, Sexual harassment, Self harm, Suicide attempt, Violence, and Vomit

sakisreads's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.5

Oof, this was a very intense and upsetting book 😦 Definitely not a light bedtime read (which is what I treated it as, and regretted almost immediately afterwards 😂)!

Frida starts out by having her ‘very bad day’. Whilst taking care of her daughter Harriet, she forgets a document at work and leaves Harriet sleeping in the house. As a child naturally may, Harriet starts crying a bit during her sleep to which neighbours call the police on Frida.

Frida ends up at the ‘School for Good Mothers’ (which, as said beautifully by The Telegraph, is ‘The Handmaid’s Tale for the Squid Games generation’).

 

Spoiler

I was about to be disappointed by the ending, thinking Frida was going to let her termination of parental rights slide, so I let out a little gasp when she planned her getaway with Will as an unknowing accomplice! I’m not going to lie, I really revelled in that part 😳 What a twist!

I would highly recommend to anyone who enjoyed The Handmaid’s Tale and need a feminist text 🔥 So so interesting!

---

Content Warnings

Moderate: Biphobia, Domestic abuse, Alcoholism, Drug use, Suicide, Suicide attempt, Violence, Adult/minor relationship, Forced institutionalization, Child abuse, Confinement, Misogyny, Toxic friendship, Toxic relationship, Mental illness, Gaslighting, Homophobia, and Physical abuse

yhteunice's review against another edition

challenging dark tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.5

I just finished reading "The School for Good Mothers" by Jessamine Chan, her debut novel, and I am discombobulated about the book. 

This is a heavily plot-driven story about a mother, Frida Liu, who has a terrible day and made a mistake that led her to be separated from her child, later be part of a system the government made for bad mothers.  The main themes of the story is the struggle of motherhood and her "coming-to-be" of her Chinese roots.  The way society created a structured and constrictive system of the high standards and expectations of how mothers should be.  Creating an unjust perspective that mothers have to be a robot to their children.

It is frustrating to see the instances of it and reading it makes my blood boil (which means the book did a good job expressing the unethical & suffocating standards a mother should pursue).  However, the pacing of the book is unnecessarily long.  The point has been stated, and it keeps being repeated, making the growth seems rushed and difficult to understand.  The transitioning of one scenario to another is not smooth and does not give the reader (or me lol) time to take in a particular arc or chapter. 

Over all, the premise of the book and the theme are interesting and great for today's society.  It's just that the execution was confusing, and it does not sit right with me.  However, since it is the first book Ms. Chan has even written.  I give more understanding towards it. 

I rated this book 2.5/5 stars (2/5 stars since it's the only option lol). Would I recommend it to someone? Yes, /only/ if they'd want to understand the difficulties of motherhood.  And it is also great for group readings to have many discussions.  But other than that, this book does not give me the spark to necessarily recommend it directly. Do I think it could be written better?  Absolutely.

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Domestic abuse and Child abuse

Moderate: Cursing, Gaslighting, Sexual content, Suicidal thoughts, Misogyny, Mental illness, Forced institutionalization, and Violence

Minor: Abandonment, Fire/Fire injury, Suicide, Domestic abuse, Pedophilia, Rape, Child abuse, Toxic relationship, Bullying, Grief, Kidnapping, Eating disorder, Mass/school shootings, Physical abuse, Racial slurs, Racism, Alcoholism, Animal cruelty, Classism, Death, Dementia, Dysphoria, Infidelity, and Injury/Injury detail