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A review by justxis
The Better Mother by Emily Shiner
4.0
You will love “The Better Mother” if you are a fan of creepy child characters!
The book starts with a night call that Zoe’s husband, Ethan, gets in the middle of the night. Nothing unusual, he is a doctor and works a lot. But soon after that call the young boy comes to their house claiming he is Ethan’s son.
They both realize the boy, Micah, is not lying — his appearance speaks for him. No doubt he is Ethan’s son.
The story is simple: Micah’s mother got pregnant at a young age, never told Ethan about the baby, and raised him herself. She is troubled, doing drugs, and always disappears for days. Now she has disappeared again.
So Zoe not only invites Micah to stay for a while but soon decides to be a better mother for him. And Micah is really happy about it, he is willing to have a good family so bad. But he is creepy, and day by day Zoe feels more weird and suspicious about his behavior. Also, she has a young daughter who become close to her new brother really soon. Zoe thinks she made a mistake inviting Micah to their house and starts to dig deeper.
The book is such a page-turner! Chapters are short and you can’t just put it down. The more creepier it gets the more you start to doubt everything is happening.
I started it with the thought “Just a couple of chapters” and soon realized it was the middle of the night and I was already halfway through it. So fast-paced and soooo good!
Was thinking about the main twist before it was revealed but it seemed just not true! Turned out I was right but still, it felt so unexpected. And in the end, another twist came, I was so horrified!
The only thing I didn’t like it’s the description of the book that reveals what happened to Micah’s mother. It's kinda of a twist (not a hard-guessed but still a twist) that came out only after almost 60% of the book. Think it’s ruined the suspense a little bit.
But still definitely will recommend "The Better Mother" to all domestic thriller lovers.
Thank you NetGalley and Inkubator Books for opportunity to read this book in exchange for an honest review.
The book starts with a night call that Zoe’s husband, Ethan, gets in the middle of the night. Nothing unusual, he is a doctor and works a lot. But soon after that call the young boy comes to their house claiming he is Ethan’s son.
They both realize the boy, Micah, is not lying — his appearance speaks for him. No doubt he is Ethan’s son.
The story is simple: Micah’s mother got pregnant at a young age, never told Ethan about the baby, and raised him herself. She is troubled, doing drugs, and always disappears for days. Now she has disappeared again.
So Zoe not only invites Micah to stay for a while but soon decides to be a better mother for him. And Micah is really happy about it, he is willing to have a good family so bad. But he is creepy, and day by day Zoe feels more weird and suspicious about his behavior. Also, she has a young daughter who become close to her new brother really soon. Zoe thinks she made a mistake inviting Micah to their house and starts to dig deeper.
The book is such a page-turner! Chapters are short and you can’t just put it down. The more creepier it gets the more you start to doubt everything is happening.
I started it with the thought “Just a couple of chapters” and soon realized it was the middle of the night and I was already halfway through it. So fast-paced and soooo good!
Was thinking about the main twist before it was revealed but it seemed just not true! Turned out I was right but still, it felt so unexpected. And in the end, another twist came, I was so horrified!
The only thing I didn’t like it’s the description of the book that reveals what happened to Micah’s mother. It's kinda of a twist (not a hard-guessed but still a twist) that came out only after almost 60% of the book. Think it’s ruined the suspense a little bit.
But still definitely will recommend "The Better Mother" to all domestic thriller lovers.
Thank you NetGalley and Inkubator Books for opportunity to read this book in exchange for an honest review.