A review by thatjamiea
Motherest by Kristen Iskandrian
4.0
I’m not sure how I want to begin on describing the book.
Agnes is a new college student in the early 1990s. Her brother, Simon, is dead and her mother has disappeared. Literally. Agnes has no idea where she is. Agnes and her dad are locked into this awkward, familiar, place where they’re hiding their emotions and pain from each other. Stunned into silence whenever the other of them finally reacts to something.
Agnes is blowing in the wind. She works. Hangs out with her roomie and develops a crush on a guy she calls Tea Rose. The relationship between a Agnes and Tea Rose continues to develop and right at the pint when Agnes discovers she is pregnant, Tea Rose breaks up with her. He’s in love with someone else.
Agnes goes home, to her Dad, to have her baby which she is in serious denial about. She misses her mother and doesn’t understand her absence in her life. She continues to be totally unprepared for the baby, ends up with preeclampsia and ends up delivering the baby early.
She returns home from the hospital to find her mother waiting. Agnes feels betrayed as her father has known her mothers location for the entire year plus she was gone. He tries to explain why he kept the secret, but that coupled with her mothers overbearing, aggressive, narcissistic behavior is too much for Agnes and she leaves home with the baby to build what will be her life.
I think the only things that kept this from being a five star book is 1) the lack of likable characters 2) the lack of development around Agnes’ mother.
Agnes is a new college student in the early 1990s. Her brother, Simon, is dead and her mother has disappeared. Literally. Agnes has no idea where she is. Agnes and her dad are locked into this awkward, familiar, place where they’re hiding their emotions and pain from each other. Stunned into silence whenever the other of them finally reacts to something.
Agnes is blowing in the wind. She works. Hangs out with her roomie and develops a crush on a guy she calls Tea Rose. The relationship between a Agnes and Tea Rose continues to develop and right at the pint when Agnes discovers she is pregnant, Tea Rose breaks up with her. He’s in love with someone else.
Agnes goes home, to her Dad, to have her baby which she is in serious denial about. She misses her mother and doesn’t understand her absence in her life. She continues to be totally unprepared for the baby, ends up with preeclampsia and ends up delivering the baby early.
She returns home from the hospital to find her mother waiting. Agnes feels betrayed as her father has known her mothers location for the entire year plus she was gone. He tries to explain why he kept the secret, but that coupled with her mothers overbearing, aggressive, narcissistic behavior is too much for Agnes and she leaves home with the baby to build what will be her life.
I think the only things that kept this from being a five star book is 1) the lack of likable characters 2) the lack of development around Agnes’ mother.