Cover Image: Mother Tongue

Mother Tongue

Pub Date:   |   Archive Date:

Member Reviews

I’m not sure how I feel about this one still. I liked it while I was reading it but I found it very forgettable. I did really like the characters and the story line.

Was this review helpful?

Candlewick Press and NetGalley provided me with an electronic copy of Mother Tongue. I voluntarily chose to review this book and my opinion is freely given.

Mother Tongue is a fictional account of the Beslan school siege in 2004, where Russian separatists held a school population hostage and killed over 300. This is the story of eighteen year old Darya, a young woman who brought her little sister to school that fateful day.

Mother Tongue chronicles the family's struggles in the aftermath, though the focus is on Darya. The book feels like it begins with a few pages missing, as there is not a lot of context given in the actual story. The pain, anguish, anxiety, and terror of not knowing what is happening is clearly felt at the beginning, but most of the book evokes little or no emotion. The author may have been trying to keep the reader off balance, mimicking the feelings of the townspeople, but it does not come through successfully. After the siege, as the police investigate, there is an opportunity for explanation that is squandered. I appreciate the fact that the author allows for some discovery on the reader's part, but not enough is told to make the whole story come to fruition. For these reasons, I hesitate to recommend Mother Tongue to other readers.

Was this review helpful?

This was a long dense read and, honestly, a little hard for me to grasp culturally. I struggled to finish this one for months and while I liked it overall, it was hard to stretch a book out that long and not feel a little.. over it.

Was this review helpful?

Thank you NetGalley.

I just couldn't get into this book. :(. I hate to say this was a DNF for me.

Was this review helpful?

Be prepared going into this book: it's a long, dense read. And culturally hard to grasp. Russian culture feels especially foreign. Layer on grief and the youthful desire for change and it's a busy plot. Darya is just post high school. She's at a natural transition point. Tragedy derails her attempts to figure out her future. All of her life redefines itself as viewed through a changed lens. Its at this point that the plot shifts, taking her to the city. So the plot is not only about grief, it's about a relative innocent faced with the cruelty and impersonal nature of life in the city. She's used and manipulated, all the while trying to figure out the kind of person she wants to become. These transitions between location and focus were a bit jarring. Foreknowledge of Russian culture and/or the patience for repeat reading would go a long way to understanding the full depth of this book.

Was this review helpful?

Mother Tongue is a heartbreaking story inspired by The Beslan siege that happened in 2004. I was unfamiliar with this event before reading the book, however after I finished it I fell down a bit of a hole and read a whole lot.
This is a coming of age story about Darya, who survived the siege, but lost her little sister in it. I thought is was written well and that Mayhew managed to capture survivor's guilt and PTSD perfectly. The book had it's frustrating moments too, but I think it was intentional to show what dealing with mental illness really is like.
I think this is a wonderful read, definitely a roller coaster of emotion. I enjoyed it a lot.

Was this review helpful?

It's funny, in the last Julie Mayhew book I read (The Big Lie), I freaking loved the first half of the book. I'm talking five-stars, mind blown, all the feelings loved. And that is exactly what happened here. The beginning is awful and raw and I found myself wholly immersed. I will admit, it was hard for me to read (since I had my own kids, reading about kids dying guts me, but that isn't a complaint, I knew this going in of course!) so it took me some time, but I was hooked. Darya had practically raised Nika, as her mother was largely unable to due to mental illness. Darya feels like she not only lost a sister, but her whole purpose. And the family, as you can imagine, struggles to handle it too. It seems horrifyingly honest and when the media circus comes to town, terribly realistic.

This part of the story was well crafted and full of emotion. Darya trying to reach out to find where she would fit was of course believable. And her need to escape her small town to seek opportunity in Moscow made tons of sense. But this leads me to...

What I Didn't:

Here's the thing: the second half of the story wasn't necessarily even bad, it was just... different. A whole different tone, really. It became a lot more about Darya trying to navigate the big city, but I just wasn't as invested. I liked Darya, and I was rooting for her, but as the story turned from one about family and picking up the pieces after tragedy, I had trouble caring about Darya's new friend, or her crushes, or what have you. Which is perhaps unfair, but I simply didn't find this part of her journey compelling. It lacked the emotion of the first half. Where I had cared about Darya's grief, and her bond with her family, and even her trying to move on after the unthinkable, in this second half, I just felt... nothing, really.

Bottom Line: A stunning first half based on an unimaginable tragedy and a family trying to stay afloat, the second half was a bit underwhelming, especially by comparison.

Was this review helpful?

Mother Tongue is a heart-wrenchingly beautiful novel about loss and identity and I love it a lot. The premise seems almost too disappointing, you push through pages and pages of darkness for the blink-and-you’ll-miss-it glimmer of hope that dwindles in the final pages of the book. At its worst, Julia Mayhew’s writing is too pessimistic, but it works. This book taught me about a tragedy I had no idea existed in a country I know hardly anything about, but Mayhew wrote our eighteen-year-old protagonist’s words so realistically and raw, I was crying about it even when I wasn’t reading. So, if you can stomach an almost depressingly dark novel, read this. It’s really very good.

Was this review helpful?

I was unfamiliar with the Beslan school massacre of 2004 until I read the summary of this book. I requested a copy because I wanted to know more, and I also thought this might be a book to really move me.

In the end, I was a bit disappointed. The writing style made me feel very disconnected from the main character, Darya, and what was going on in her life. I think this was probably a deliberate stylistic choice. For one, the idea of it is that the story has been translated from Darya’s Russian recount of the story. And secondly, she is heavily broken by the events that take place. But ultimately it meant I didn’t feel truly connected and when I wasn’t reading, I didn’t feel the need to pick up the book again (hence taking so long to finish).

Having said that, the writing is consistent and tight. It probably would appeal to other readers. The story doesn’t… really go anywhere? It is really about Darya as a character, rather than any plot, which is not my favourite style. The Beslan siege didn’t actually play that big a part in the story, either. I think the story could have progressed from any number of personal tragedies.

The story comes full circle in the end, which I think some readers will find satisfying, but I found it a bit pointless. Actually, “pointless” sounds a bit harsh, but I did sort of feel that I was back where I started.

Was this review helpful?

Mother Tongue by Julie Mayhew is an emotional and hard hitting book about grief and survival. It follows Darya, who at 18 is much older than her years. She has helped to raise her younger siblings since her mother essentially shut down after the birth of her last child, Nika who is just about to start school. This will be a new beginning for both Darya and Nika, and Darya dreams of moving to Moscow and becoming someone, getting a job in an office and being able to wear the kinds of clothes that would look ridiculous in the small town she comes from. Nika is excited to finally be a big girl,and skips to the school carrying balloons and the traditional gift for her new teacher. It is the last time the two girls will see each other. The school in question is in Beslan and later that day it was attacked by armed Islamic militants. For three days the hostage situation went on, the children and teachers trapped inside, until the Russian security forces eventually stormed the building. The tragic situation resulted in the deaths of 334 people including 186 children, In this fictionalized account Nika is one of the children tragically killed, and while the shock is enough to rouse her mother from her stupor, the loss is also devastating to Darya. and the two women deal with that grief in very different ways which soon puts them at odds with each other. The entire town in reeling in grief and heartbreak. and soon becomes the focal point of global media. An American journalist strikes up a friendship with Darya and helps her to move to Moscow, but the small town girl is not cut out for city life and soon finds herself caught up in the dangerous underbelly of the city , but her grief and guilt convince her it is all she deserves.
Basing a book on such a huge tragedy takes a lot of guts and even the author herself admits that she had reservations about telling this story, but it is clear that she had gone to great lengths to be both accurate and respectful , while at the same time doing her best to portray the absolute devastation and desolation experienced in the community after the siege. Have no doubts about it , this book will break your heart, but it is one that is sure to stay with you long after you turn the final page.
I read and reviewed an ARC courtesy of NetGalley and the publisher, all opinions are my own.

Was this review helpful?

This novel is based on an actual event in Russia, the Beslan School siege of 2004 which makes it even more interesting.
I cannot say I remember much about the Beslan situation, but I do remember something on the news about it. What happened back then and what happened in this book connects in a horrific way.
I enjoyed the book because it seems like it is heart-written. It is the hand of someone who lives through those horrors, directly or indirectly and had a major impact on one's life.

Was this review helpful?

I usually devour these types of reads, but this one left me feeling kind of bored, which is saying something considering the subject matter.

I needed this to be way better than it was. The writing style was the problem as was the fact that this needed to be edited to remove the minutia that was, at times, described.

Was this review helpful?

I'm not entirely sure what to say about this book. It is a heartwrenching story and full of lots of small and large disasters that people, unfortunately, have to face in the real world. However, I felt little to no connection to the main character. The writing was fine, it was a short and easy read, and as I said the story itself was quite well done. Yet it felt unremarkable, and not very memorable.

With all that said maybe I'm just the wrong audience for this book, or read it with the wrong mindset. It jumped between so many different things in the main characters life and yet none fully hit home for me, despite obviously being something that would for others. So I'm going to leave this review short, and say that I would recommend it to others but maybe those with more connection to the story.

Was this review helpful?

Thank you to the publisher for an ARC of this book in exchange for an honest opinion.

I only have a vague memory of the crisis in Beslan taking place so it was interesting to read a novel about it, although really this is a coming-of-age novel which discusses what childhood and adulthood are, and the effects of trauma. The infamous event itself actually takes up very little of the book.

I began by finding Darya quite a frustrating character. She blamed herself for a lot of things that it was clear were not her fault (survivor's guilt?) and I was sad that none of the sympathetic characters told her "This was not your fault." The quite detached voice at times made other characters' behaviour seem odd and upsetting (particularly her mother's, and Jonathan's). I actually found myself distrusting most of the characters myself, almost as though to protect Darya as she seemed to have very little way to protect herself. However the story, and Darya's odyssey to Moscow, did eventually draw me in, even if I couldn't believe how naive she was!

The emotional journey Darya went on, and her ability to forgive and love despite disappointment and grief, was very moving and I'm glad I read this book.

Was this review helpful?

Heart-wrenching account of the older sister of a young school girl who was killed in the terrorist attack of a Russian school in Beslan in 2004. The beginning of the book is so sad and just heart-breaking. As the story continues, Darya, older sister to the now deceased Nika moves to Moscow wanting desperately to get away from her parents and her hometown and start a new life away from where she was born. She encounters many changes in her new life, looking for a new a home and a new future for herself after suffering a terrible tragedy. a beautiful coming-of-age story based on a terrible real life incident. Sad but well-written and definitely worth reading.

Was this review helpful?

This book will rip out your heart and then stomp on it.
The Beslan school siege that happen in 2004 was so tragic i think Julie Mayhew did an amazing job capturing the heartache and sorrow (you can feel it through the pages and in the words of these characters)
The only way i can describe this story is the basicly the 5 stages of grief every character you come in contact with threw Darya’s eyes is going through these stages including Darya herself.

1.Denial & Isolation
2.Anger
3.Bargaining
4.Depression
5.Acceptance

Was this review helpful?