A review by _readwithash
Beast Mom by Kim Imas
3.0
Beast Mom is a book that tries to do a lot. The protagonist Harry is an overworked, under appreciated, mom who is struggling. As things begin to enrage her, she notices incredible physical changes, until eventually she becomes a literal beast romping around her town.
This book never went quite where I expected it to, and there are certainly enough open ends to make a compelling sequel. Ultimately it was a fun look at some very very real problems within our society. Harriet was relatable and interesting.
Ultimately, there were two major concerns for me. The first is that the science fiction aspects of this book were very weak. My most notable complaint is that Harry as the monster goes through a series of inconsistent ideas about what her thoughts are capable of..? Like sometimes its beast mind, a really instinctive response to the world, that human Harriet is unable to control, and other times she considering moral dilemmas as the beast? Like the "rules" of her abilities felt all over the place. <spoiler? Also, there was every implication that Soob could read minds, and then she ended up just being able to multiply?
Additionally, this book was written as a case file, and like almost every book meant to be written this way, it doesn't work. No body puts their internal thoughts into case files, they're not diaries. This book would have been so much stronger without that structure. (As an aside, Sleeping Giants is the best case file type of book that I've read, even if that one isn't perfect either).
Additionally, I think Imas was extremely concerned about her character being canceled. At every opportunity, and I mean every opportunity the protagonist would correct her thoughts to make sure the reader knew that she acknowledges the systemic oppression of POC. I think I was fewer than 50 pages into the book before I started predicting her inner turmoil about whether she was addressing Black women's problems with enough seriousness. This isn't necessarily a problem, and it is certainly infinitely better than the opposite, but it did just feel weird.
Overall, if you like contemporary fiction about mom's and their problems, and aren't super into SFF (so you won't be as distracted by the discrepancies as I was) this was a good, fun book.
Thank you to the author and the publisher for sending me an ARC copy in exchange for an honest review.
This book never went quite where I expected it to, and there are certainly enough open ends to make a compelling sequel. Ultimately it was a fun look at some very very real problems within our society. Harriet was relatable and interesting.
Ultimately, there were two major concerns for me. The first is that the science fiction aspects of this book were very weak. My most notable complaint is that Harry as the monster goes through a series of inconsistent ideas about what her thoughts are capable of..? Like sometimes its beast mind, a really instinctive response to the world, that human Harriet is unable to control, and other times she considering moral dilemmas as the beast? Like the "rules" of her abilities felt all over the place. <spoiler? Also, there was every implication that Soob could read minds, and then she ended up just being able to multiply?
Additionally, this book was written as a case file, and like almost every book meant to be written this way, it doesn't work. No body puts their internal thoughts into case files, they're not diaries. This book would have been so much stronger without that structure. (As an aside, Sleeping Giants is the best case file type of book that I've read, even if that one isn't perfect either).
Additionally, I think Imas was extremely concerned about her character being canceled. At every opportunity, and I mean every opportunity the protagonist would correct her thoughts to make sure the reader knew that she acknowledges the systemic oppression of POC. I think I was fewer than 50 pages into the book before I started predicting her inner turmoil about whether she was addressing Black women's problems with enough seriousness. This isn't necessarily a problem, and it is certainly infinitely better than the opposite, but it did just feel weird.
Overall, if you like contemporary fiction about mom's and their problems, and aren't super into SFF (so you won't be as distracted by the discrepancies as I was) this was a good, fun book.
Thank you to the author and the publisher for sending me an ARC copy in exchange for an honest review.