Reviews with content warning for Suicide - The School for Good Mothers

Reviews tagging 'Suicide'

The School for Good Mothers by Jessamine Chan

304 reviews

smisaacs's review against another edition

challenging dark reflective medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? It's complicated

4.25

I really enjoyed this book! It gave me so much righteous anger. I felt so deeply for these mothers and what they were forced to go through. I couldn't go all the way to 5 stars because it did get a little repetitive and I wasn't a huge fan of the vagueness of the ending. But overall, I would definitely recommend it!

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literallylaura's review against another edition

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dark emotional sad medium-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? Yes

4.0

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ohheytaylorrae's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional sad tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
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

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tiredenglishteacher's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional mysterious 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

5.0

Heartbreaking, haunting, scathing assessment of the ways in which mothers and fathers are held to different standards. A story that will stay with me for a long time.

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groovy_boovy's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional sad medium-paced

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

4.5

Definitely a sad girl book. Very powerful narrative about surveillance and our expectations of mothers and women. Highly recommend if you are a fan of 1984 or One Flew over the Cuckoo's Nest

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savannah98's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional reflective sad tense medium-paced

Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

Four stars instead of five because I feel like there should’ve been one more chapter at the end. It felt like the book ended right at the climax of the story.

CPS is already almost to this point in America, and that’s what makes this story so haunting. Aside from the reeducation camps, CPS can do any of the things shown in this book. They can rip children out of homes with little to no evidence of abuse or neglect. They can place children in foster care for differences in opinions on parenting tactics. For clutter in a home, for a parent failing a drug test for marijuana, for getting a second doctors opinion on a medical issue. You thought SIDS was scary enough as is? What if I told you that CPS can use that as an excuse to take your other children out of your custody as well, even though the cause of SIDS is still undetermined and is not in any way linked to parental failure?

This novel is not haunting because it tells of some dystopian world that could never exist where lives can be ruined and families ripped apart over any reason the government picks. It’s haunting because it is so adjacent to reality and the horror that many families are currently facing due to government overreach.

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friendofdorothea's review against another edition

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hopeful 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

2.5

I think the premise was a lot better than the execution. The book could have been a lot shorter and many parts dragged on. Also since the mothers in the book did do some pretty bad stuff that kind of went against the point that mothers are overly punished for how they parent. Of course it was to the extreme but I think the point of the book could have been stronger if the main character didn’t really do anything and was punished for it. I do think the book made its point but I would recommend the handmaids tale before this.

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