The School for Good Mothers
Ratings15
Average rating3.6
15
Ratings15
Average rating3.6
Frida Liu is struggling. She doesn’t have a career worthy of her Chinese immigrant parents’ sacrifices. What’s worse is she can’t persuade her husband, Gust, to give up his wellness-obsessed younger mistress. Only with their angelic daughter Harriet does Frida finally feel she’s attained the perfection expected of her. Harriet may be all she has, but she’s just enough.
Until Frida has a horrible day.
The state has its eyes on mothers like Frida — ones who check their phones while their kids are on the playground; who let their children walk home alone; in other words, mothers who only have one lapse of judgement. Now, a host of government officials will determine if Frida is a candidate for a Big Brother-like institution that measures the success or failure of a mother’s devotion. Faced with the possibility of losing Harriet, Frida must prove that she can live up to the standards set for mothers — that she can learn to be good.
This propulsive, witty page-turner explores the perils of “perfect” upper-middle-class parenting, the violence enacted upon women by the state and each other, and the boundless love a mother has for her daughter.
Reviews with the most likes.
It's like Frida was actively looking for ways to avoid receiving any kind of empathy from the reader.
If this were the best modern Science Fiction had to offer, we'd be properly fucked.
The premise drew me in, it's a chilling dystopia where mothers are held to impossible standards and judged for everything they do. There's so much tension, despair, and gaslighting that it makes you question your own perceptions of what being a good mother means. As much as that reeled me in, the book felt repeatitive and drawn out. There were also elements of world building that seemed unfinished. It was a good book, but had potential to better.
