The School for Good Mothers

I want to preface this review by saying this was required reading for my major. I do not typically gravitate toward dystopian/general fiction often.

That being said, the premise if the novel seemed interesting. Frida, a divorced mother, has a “very bad day” in which she leaves her 18-month old daughter home alone for 2 hours. She is inevitably caught, and has to attend the school for good mothers to try to regain custody of her daughter.

The story started off strong and I was totally hooked. However, as soon as Frida arrived at the school, the story took a huge shift. It was beyond repetitive and could have been waaaaaay shorter. I don't feel like the in-depth detail of each day/unit is necessary after the first two months or so. Not to mention Frida's attitude toward the other parents. She kept referring to her “very bad day” as if she was justifying what she did while judging everyone else.

Also, the ending was extremely lack luster. It was inevitable, yet left on a cliffhanger which could have easily been resolved. It was as if it was trying to give us shock factor yet completely missed the mark. This book just didn't stand out for me.