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pelevolcana's review against another edition
4.5
Graphic: Child abuse, Eating disorder, Emotional abuse, Physical abuse, Racial slurs, Self harm, Suicidal thoughts, Forced institutionalization, and Pregnancy
aliciareads's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.5
Graphic: Child abuse, Infidelity, Racism, and Abandonment
Moderate: Sexual assault
Minor: Alcoholism and Eating disorder
thebooklifeof_hannah's review against another edition
- 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
4.0
Chan gives us a messy protagonist who isn’t always easy to like. An imperfect mother juggling a career, a baby and a divorce. A woman with mental illness under pressure who cracks and ends up the subject of a nanny state experiment. She could be any one of us, really.
Whilst Frida is a complex and messy character, Emmanuelle BROKE my heart. The elements of AI gave me pause for reflection for the place advanced AI has in our society and what rights and protections they might need in return. An interesting concept that I’d like to read more of!
Most terrifying was reading the archaic one size fits all approach to mothering here that you would only expect to find in an dystopian world. Looking to the recent anti-trans policies in Texas had this feeling a little too close to a prediction rather than pretend.
Overall, I really enjoyed this. I’m stunned it’s a debut and can’t wait to read future work from Chan.
Moderate: Child abuse, Racial slurs, Racism, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, and Suicide attempt
Minor: Eating disorder
yomeggie's review against another edition
- 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
Graphic: Cursing, Eating disorder, Mental illness, Miscarriage, Self harm, Sexual assault, Suicidal thoughts, Grief, and Gaslighting
Trigger warning :theskyboi's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
At the novel's outset, Frida Liu has had a lapse in judgment on a hectic day, and she has decided to leave her daughter, Harriet, at home alone. From this point forward, Frida is forced to prove her worth as a mother, as a woman, and as an American citizen at the eponymous School for Good Mothers.
In this stunning debut, Jessamine Chan interweaves the fabrics of literary and speculative fiction by telling a tale that some may call paranoid while others may feel is more aptly deemed prescient. Amid the tools of modern-day surveillance, these so-called bad mothers are given the chance to regain the lost custody of their children upon completing an experimental curriculum within the fenced-in confines of a dystopian learning center. Faced with the disappointment of watching her ex-husband and his new girlfriend raising her daughter, Frida is more determined than ever to put her whole heart into learning how to become the ideal caregiver.
Without spoiling too much, I'll say that the ways in which Chan dives into the genre of speculative fiction through The School for Good Mothers took me by surprise. Equal parts commentary on race, class, mental health, prejudice, and misogyny, this story is thoughtful in the way it draws and redraws lines between good parenting and unfair sentencing within the American justice system. Even given the dense and emotional themes, Chan still finds a way to capture a reader's imagination with a near-future feel to the mechanisms at play in Frida's life. By far, this was the perfect way to start my first read of 2022, and I can't recommend it enough!
Graphic: Body horror, Confinement, Misogyny, Sexism, Sexual content, Suicidal thoughts, Pregnancy, and Abandonment
Moderate: Child abuse, Child death, Infidelity, Mental illness, Suicide, and Torture
Minor: Domestic abuse, Eating disorder, Gaslighting, and Classism
deandra_lalonde's review against another edition
- 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
5.0
Graphic: Bullying, Child abuse, Confinement, Cursing, Death, Eating disorder, Mental illness, Miscarriage, Misogyny, Racism, Self harm, Sexism, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Grief, Suicide attempt, Gaslighting, Abandonment, and Injury/Injury detail