A COVID story…

Yes, the author gives you a bit of a warning re: Covid but she makes it seem like it’s all just happening in the background. Nope, not the case. Every scene of the book is either 100% Covid or something that seems somewhat interesting but ends in “and that was all a dream!”

It’s too soon for me to read Covid books and I absolutely hate when someone tells me about their dreams (Oh what a great story that never happened). If you love these two things then you’ll love this book.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

4 people found this helpful

It makes sense…

Despite most reviews I read prior to diving into this book, I enjoyed. It’s definitely not for everyone’s taste but definitely mine. I think the narrator did a good job with Grace’s, Hope’s and Jackie’s voices. They were distinguished from each other. It kept me entertained and sad for Grace’s end. Well written story!

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

2 people found this helpful

Not terrible, not great

It was “ok”. Slow at times, A little over done. One of those books that’s not so bad you would stop reading before you finished, But not good enough that you’re glad you read it after you finished it.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

1 person found this helpful

Compelling

First, I'm glad I didn't read reviews before I listened to this book. Those leaving 1-2 stars and the ones saying it doesn't make sense must only read formulaic light reads.
I will agree that parts were a little confusing. You do have to focus on what is happening in each chapter and the story as a whole. The entire book is layered with bits of important details. I had to rewind a couple of times if I let my mind wander off.
I especially liked the twin aspect, and that one had CP. Also, I really like the author wasn't afraid to give the disabled twin some unpleasant, even downright nasty, characteristics.
if you love a truly disturbing psychological domestic thriller, can focus on a multilayered story, and appreciate the depths of it.....you will love it. ❤️

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

1 person found this helpful

Huh

It wasn’t bad for being so uneventful. There was a low level suspense the entire time which helped.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

1 person found this helpful

TERRIBLE!

May be one of the dumbest books I’ve ever encountered (and I got thru about 100 a year). I can’t believe this is the same author of Baby Teeth. Baby Teeth was so good. Mothered was AWFUL! Dumb, cheesy, stupid, weird, random, so bad!

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

1 person found this helpful

It’s ok

I have read another book by this author. So I thought I would like this one as well. It was ok. I expected more. It did keep my attention. Willing to try another book by her. Baby Teeth was an awesome read I recommend that book she wrote over this one personally

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

I liked it but...

I loved it halfway through, and then I felt it got a bit long until the end. I agree, thank goodness for the epilog! Not exactly sure how I feel about it though. if this was a storyline from Supernatural, it would be great, but without that frame of mind, not sure.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

Terrible

I wasted hours of my life that I will not get back. It was close to being a story. But yet, it wasn’t

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

twisted lyrics good

I really like it... I like the idea of watching the pandemic fuel insanity. It was well done and well timed! I'm about 3/4 done. The backdrop of the reality of how covid affected people's mental health is a part of the events that wasn't given near as much attention as it should have. This is a great twisted way to shine a light on that.
Those are some of my favorite kinds of books, the ones that shine a light on a bit of reality in a "safer" form to view it in... a bit of the same idea was mixed into the creature feature Amazon originals series. Something that maybe was the idea to be done in Holly by Stephen King, but it ended up a preachy political discourse, using literary fame as a medium for a soap box.
"There are always truths submerged within stories, and her job is, if not to dredge them up, then to invite readers onto her own chartered boat, guiding them so that they may uncover those truths from the murky waters for themselves."
In Bloom by Paul Tremblay
“Fiction is the truth inside the lie.”
– Stephen King
"Fiction reveals truth that reality obscures.”
– Ralph Waldo Emerson
That’s what fiction is for. It’s for getting at the truth when the truth isn’t sufficient for the truth.”
― Tim O’Brien
“Fiction is the lie through which we tell the truth.”
― Albert Camus

"His job, as it often was, would be to filter the drop of truth from a waterfall of magical thinking."
Mothered by Zoje Stage

"They were all lied to. Maybe it hadn’t started as a lie—maybe it started as wishful thinking. That’s how easy it was to turn good intentions, uttered by powerful people, into absolute bullshit. It confirmed what Grace already knew: everyone lied, even if they started out telling the truth. It was easy for the truth to slip away. Two weeks of lockdown became three. One month became two."
Mothered by Zoje Stage

“You know what we all know? It’s hardest to be a parent in the moment, when things are happening. But when you look back . . . We all know what we would’ve done differently.”
Mothered by Zoje Stage

"If only she could pee on a stick to determine if she was losing her mind."
Mothered by Zoje Stage

"Grace mused that her predicament was like a very obscure version of Name That Tune. Miguel could usually guess a song from a handful of notes, but the whys of Grace’s nightmares needed a few more measures."

"It was some comfort to recognize that everyone was in the same boat. Even as she saw the boat taking on water. It wasn’t like the movies, where the world ended quickly in a maelstrom of explosions and special effects. This apocalypse was going to linger, tease them along with its slow-motion crises."
Mothered by Zoje Stage

"first the smiles, then the lies. Last comes gunfire."
Stephen King

"and so will the world end,
I think, a victim of love rather than hate. For love’s ever been the more destructive weapon, sure."
Stephen King

"Some say the world will end in fire,
Some say in ice.
From what I’ve tasted of desire
I hold with those who favor fire.
But if it had to perish twice,
I think I know enough of hate
To say that for destruction ice
Is also great
And would suffice."
Robert Frost

"'Do'ee say the world will end in fire or in ice, gunslinger?' Roland considered this. "Neither",he said at last. 'I think in darkness'"
Stephen King

"Some people believed that the world would end in fire; others said ice; both were testifying before Congress on behalf of competing legislative agendas designed to save the world."
Dark Rivers of the Heart by Dean Koontz

"A look like a bad word that she couldn’t be bothered to utter."
Mothered by Zoje Stage

"Every time she thought this year couldn’t get any worse, fate lumbered in like a tipsy Hold My Beer meme."
Mothered by Zoje Stage

"It’s hard to know what to do when the thing you’re afraid of is invisible. And you never saw it arrive, so how do you know when it’s gone?”
Mothered by Zoje Stage

"Grace held her breath and nodded, afraid to speak, afraid to do anything that would make her mother go back inside herself and shut the door."
Mothered by Zoje Stage

"all the neighborhood kids, struggling in their own ways to survive, had been one claw short of feral."
Mothered by Zoje Stage

"Whatever emotion she’d once called Panic was nothing compared to how she felt now, a turbulent churning of dread and desperation. Months of pandemic news hadn’t prepared her for this. She thought she’d been living it before, the #PandemicLife, but then it had only been near her, around her. And now it was gripping her heart, threatening to stop the muscle from beating."
Mothered by Zoje Stage

"The headache she’d awakened with was almost gone, thanks to the curative properties of Grace’s desired revenge. Like little Davy from her dream, she needed good ammunition. Her mother was treating her unfairly and deserved a dose of her own judgmental medicine."
Mothered by Zoje Stage

"the best strategy was to take the high road. It was rarely a difficult pathway to spot, even when she crossed it grudgingly."
Mothered by Zoje Stage

"More likely what she needed to do was never fall asleep again and see if reality sorted itself out while she kept a watchful eye on it."
Mothered by Zoje Stage

"Her body folded itself into something weightless as her consciousness detonated into the fragmented infinity of the unknown."
Mothered by Zoje Stage

"Wherever Mommy ambled through the house, Grace found wet footsteps: the temperature inside was too warm for someone made of ice."
Mothered by Zoje Stage

"feel like something that could never be adequately resolved. But Grace felt the closing of a drafty door that she hadn’t realized she’d left ajar."
Mothered by Zoje Stage

"she didn’t have the energy to fall apart."
Mothered by Zoje Stage

"she shut her eyes, luxuriating. But that proved to be a mistake—she saw bad things when she closed her eyes."
Mothered by Zoje Stage

"she shut her eyes, luxuriating. But that proved to be a mistake—she saw bad things when she closed her eyes."
Mothered by Zoje Stage

"As Grace sat there in the darkening gloom, she imagined other people in their houses and apartments, at a loss for what to do, sitting there in the lifeless husks of their technology-driven homes."
Mothered by Zoje Stage

"Grace accepted her mother’s deteriorating condition as only a person who subsisted on nightmares could."
Mothered by Zoje Stage

“Cat. Fat cat. Cat with a rat. Hickory dickory fuck, the mouse ran out of luck. The clock struck two, the mouse got the flu, hickory dickory fuck.”...
“Hickory dickory fuck, the mouse ran out of luck. The clock struck four, the mouse tried to roar . . .”
Mothered by Zoje Stage

"It’s so easy to make offers when there’s nothing to give.”
Mothered by Zoje Stage

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!