The School for Good Mothers

The School for Good Mothers by Jessamine Chan is a dystopian story about parenting, mothering, and the ways in which society judges. The story begins with Frida having a very bad day in which she left her baby alone while she went into the office. Though no harm came to baby Harriet, Frida gets caught and there her troubles begin. Frida is sent to a residential education program to learn to be a better parent, but the place is totally off-the-rails and each outrage is surpassed by the next. This is a really thought provoking book. Although what Frida did was dangerous and irresponsible, Chan does an excellent job highlighting how society (including its non-parent members) judges parents in general and mothers in particular. Several of Frida's classmates were there for things that either weren't actually abuse or weren't their fault. It was clear that in the world of the novel poverty, bad luck, or simply different parenting styles could be perceived as crimes equal to actual abuse. The expectation that women's dreams, needs, and identities will be wholly subsumed into raising their child was cast in stark relief as well as the ways in which society privileges some over others, and tries to quantify things that are, at least somewhat, subjective. The book seemed all too reflective of real attitudes toward parenting combined with a light sci-fi element to present an all to plausible dystopia. ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️