ariesbookshelf's review against another edition
adventurous
emotional
mysterious
reflective
sad
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.5
Content Warnings
Moderate: Adult/minor relationship, Suicide attempt, Death of parent, Death, and Sexual content
zachwerb's review against another edition
4.0
More like a 4.5. This book combines tenderness and violence. It crawls under your skin only to pet you. A full world, one that makes no sense but never question. There is no need to question only to the see the world as reactions to ideas and the word Mammother. This word is made up, thats good as I imagine everything in this is made up.
philipkenner's review against another edition
5.0
This book is beyond. Absolutely bonkers. I just finished it. I’m raw, y’all.
The poetry in this book is mind-blowingly gorgeous. The quiet poignancy of every word whacks you in the face. The characters in this book are singular, expertly crafted, and deeply memorable.
This book is sad: so, so sad - but even with the melancholy, it remains defiantly hopeful. I love a good sad book. Remember A Little Life? Mammother isn’t anything like A Little Life except for the fact that I left the book feeling the power inside of loss and pain.
Mano Medium is one of the greatest protagonists I have had the pleasure of following. Rooting for Mano feels like rooting for myself, and this wasn’t just because Mano was struggling with his sexuality and grief. Mano held on to his mourning out of fear. He was afraid of letting go of the love when he let go the grief.
The world in Mammother boasts a level of simultaneous poetic detail and social critique unlike so much modern fiction I’ve read recently. Severance and Mammother were two pieces of fiction that blew my mind 2019. Mammother might be one of my favorite books I’ve ever read.
What Schomburg has created is a landscape of magic and sadness. It’s gorgeous. Read this!
The poetry in this book is mind-blowingly gorgeous. The quiet poignancy of every word whacks you in the face. The characters in this book are singular, expertly crafted, and deeply memorable.
This book is sad: so, so sad - but even with the melancholy, it remains defiantly hopeful. I love a good sad book. Remember A Little Life? Mammother isn’t anything like A Little Life except for the fact that I left the book feeling the power inside of loss and pain.
Mano Medium is one of the greatest protagonists I have had the pleasure of following. Rooting for Mano feels like rooting for myself, and this wasn’t just because Mano was struggling with his sexuality and grief. Mano held on to his mourning out of fear. He was afraid of letting go of the love when he let go the grief.
The world in Mammother boasts a level of simultaneous poetic detail and social critique unlike so much modern fiction I’ve read recently. Severance and Mammother were two pieces of fiction that blew my mind 2019. Mammother might be one of my favorite books I’ve ever read.
What Schomburg has created is a landscape of magic and sadness. It’s gorgeous. Read this!
joshaverykelly's review against another edition
5.0
What an insanely bonkers book. What a raw, poetic, magical, and beautiful book that covers a lot of themes, including: sexuality, gender, love, capitalism, and (of course) death. A singular book.
gn606's review against another edition
5.0
Probably the weirdest thing I've ever read, but I loved every second of it. The writing was deeply poetic, magical and just flat out beautiful. The reoccurring themes of death, love, sexuality, gender, religion, and consumerism were profoundly explored in a subtle way; nothing felt forced or out of place. I really hope Schomburg will write another novel in the near future. And i will definitely re read this in the future.
bhavini's review against another edition
4.0
completely surreal. reading felt like being embraced by a warm bath: tender & dreamlike, soothing the holes inside
julia_louise's review against another edition
3.0
I really struggled on what to rate this book. It's so bizarre, so unique, so much it's own thing that it feels almost unfair to give it a star rating? But here are the thoughts that I've sat with during the last hour of so of meditation upon finishing:
The world of Pie Time is remarkably developed. Despite being utterly strange, it feels familiar after the first ten pages which is of MAJOR credit to its author. Similarly, the characters feel developed and familiar after only a brief time spent with them. Even though the character list is long, I never lost track of the characters or forgot them because of how well they were written.
I appreciated the writing style as well. Certainly poetic, but simultaneously matter-of-fact, which might seem oxymoronic, but all I can say is you know what I mean if you read it. The book touched on so many topics - love, death, capitalism, gentrification, sexuality, grief, community, family, and life's meaning - but never felt contrived or overbearing.
Onto some of things I didn't like. Some of the sexual and violent elements of the book were uncomfortable and made it unpleasant to read, which I wouldn't have minded so much had they served a worthwhile purpose. A few instances seemed there for shock value alone. (This is more a personal preference, I understand others may feel differently).
Also, the book struggled with consistency issues, in both tone and plot. For example, it's proclaimed that Zuzu said her first word & cried for the first time at a fair when only a few chapters earlier she was calling "Milk!" repeatedly to her mother. (I wondered if this was some artistic choice, to put "Milk!" in quotes when really the baby was just fussing, but we know she couldn't have been crying, and if it was an artistic choice than it certainly broke away from the storytelling style that had been established.) I felt that the book shifted tones randomly and unexpectedly. It's hard for me to come of with concrete examples of this, but some jarring events and dialogue would throw me out of the world completely.
All and all, I enjoyed the book and am looking forward to seeing more of Schomberg's work. He has beautiful writing and world-creating abilities, but was clearly a novice novelist during the writing of Mammother. I recommend reading this book if you enjoy absurdity and like when books make you feel a range of emotions - from disturbed, to happy, to uncomfortable, to sad, to tickled, to confused.
The world of Pie Time is remarkably developed. Despite being utterly strange, it feels familiar after the first ten pages which is of MAJOR credit to its author. Similarly, the characters feel developed and familiar after only a brief time spent with them. Even though the character list is long, I never lost track of the characters or forgot them because of how well they were written.
I appreciated the writing style as well. Certainly poetic, but simultaneously matter-of-fact, which might seem oxymoronic, but all I can say is you know what I mean if you read it. The book touched on so many topics - love, death, capitalism, gentrification, sexuality, grief, community, family, and life's meaning - but never felt contrived or overbearing.
Onto some of things I didn't like. Some of the sexual and violent elements of the book were uncomfortable and made it unpleasant to read, which I wouldn't have minded so much had they served a worthwhile purpose. A few instances seemed there for shock value alone. (This is more a personal preference, I understand others may feel differently).
Also, the book struggled with consistency issues, in both tone and plot. For example, it's proclaimed that Zuzu said her first word & cried for the first time at a fair when only a few chapters earlier she was calling "Milk!" repeatedly to her mother. (I wondered if this was some artistic choice, to put "Milk!" in quotes when really the baby was just fussing, but we know she couldn't have been crying, and if it was an artistic choice than it certainly broke away from the storytelling style that had been established.) I felt that the book shifted tones randomly and unexpectedly. It's hard for me to come of with concrete examples of this, but some jarring events and dialogue would throw me out of the world completely.
All and all, I enjoyed the book and am looking forward to seeing more of Schomberg's work. He has beautiful writing and world-creating abilities, but was clearly a novice novelist during the writing of Mammother. I recommend reading this book if you enjoy absurdity and like when books make you feel a range of emotions - from disturbed, to happy, to uncomfortable, to sad, to tickled, to confused.
blakeadler95's review against another edition
challenging
emotional
funny
reflective
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
5.0
This is my favorite book. I don't have anything to say except give it a try.
akaybarlow's review
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
funny
inspiring
mysterious
reflective
sad
medium-paced
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
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