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

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The School for Good Mothers, by Jessamine Chan

39 reviews

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.

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janienejulia's review against another edition

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emotional sad medium-paced

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

4.0

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menacebibliotheque's review against another edition

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challenging dark reflective sad tense fast-paced

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

5.0

This book was very hard to get through, and I mean that in the best way, if you'll bear with me. I went into the book thinking it was a fun little dystopian sci-fi story, and it was absolutely not that at all. What this book is is a commentary on the trials of parenthood--particularly motherhood--as well as the deep flaws in the child welfare system in the United States. The dystopian horrors that the main character and her fellows are subjected to are frighteningly plausible, and it's in this plausibility and the rawness of events that make this book so hard to stomach while also being deeply moving.

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