As one of my favorite writers, Alice Hoffman never disappoints, and this short story is no exception. Adelines kind beloved father dies and she’s left with her nasty narcissistic mother who cares nothing for her. They move to a lighthouse island where her mother quickly starts an affair with Rowan, one of the light keepers. His wife is very kind to 12 year old Adeline who feels so very alone and unwanted.
A beautifully written story in Hoffman’s moving style.

I received this book from Netgalley for review and all thoughts and opinions are my own.
This is a short story about a young woman growing up in the shadow of her adulterous mother. When her beloved father dies, she stops speaking. Mother moves them to a lighthouse where hard work and want is her lot. Almost immediately, her mother takes on another affair, adding insult to injury. She learns to bear secrets and betrayals.
The story is gut wrenching, relentless as the sea itself, moving on to reveal the undercurrent of avarice, within her mother's heart. The story is also a mystery to be solved due to the disappearance of an island wife. It asks the question, what makes a mother?
Good story, perfect for a stormy night.

Everything My Mother Taught Me is now the fourth short story I have read to the in the Amazon Original Short Stories Inheritance Collection. It is my favourite one so far. Each has given me so much to think about and now, after reading four of them, I am starting to see the beauty here is that each has something different you can take from it and really think about. Now at only 28 pages, you have to do a little bit of work here but I am in awe with how little needs to be said to provoke such dept to the stories. I think the best part of these short stories is what you take from the story and how it makes you feel.

Everything My Mother Taught Me is an interesting beautiful, haunting and heartfelt story that explores the power of observing and listening and finding your voice. Talk can be cheap and listening can be enlightening and empowering. Alice Hoffman delivers an enlightening and empowering story here. I highly recommend it.

Many thanks to NetGalley, Amazon Original Stories, and Alice Hoffman for the opportunity to read and review this short story - spot on as all of her books are!

Adeline is devastated after her father's death, left with a mother who never put her first, and stops talking. But that doesn't mean that she can't change her world. In 28 pages, Hoffman manages to make you feel so much for these characters.

Brilliant!

"In the year when I turned twelve, our lives suddenly changed. My father became ill and was unable to work. He was kind-hearted and trusting...During the time of his illness, my mother went out every night and left us alone. When my father sent me to search for her, I would always discover her in a tavern down the street with other men. She acted as though I were a stranger when I appeared. "Did you want something?" she would ask. Yes, I felt like saying. A mother."
It is 1908. After her father's death, Adeline and her mother, Nora Ivie, have to leave their home in Boston -forty miles away- to live on island in Essex County at the very tip of Cape Ann. Having "abolished all language" on the day of her father's funeral, Adeline enters into her new life where, despite her muteness, she makes friends; "They prattled on to me, knowing that I was a good listener and that I never judged them. The truth of the matter was I was incapable of saying a cruel word."
Alice Hoffman wastes not a single word in this astute, almost claustrophobic, portrayal of a mother/ daughter relationship. Within her 28 pages, she builds an uncomfortable, stifling atmosphere as Adeline attempts, in the absence of any maternal kindness or guidance, to carve her own path. Though I baulk at the phrase...a must-read
My thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for sharing an advance copy with me in return for my honest opinion.

To her fans – yes I am one – the arrival of new Alice Hoffman short stories are always a treat. This book still fits that bill. In a simple tale, set in 1908, Adeline lives alone with her mother Nora Ivie after the death of her father when she is only twelve. Her mother has to earn a living for them both and takes a job as “housekeeper” in an isolated double lighthouse community. They will live in a small poor cottage and carry out chores cleaning the lighthouse properties and others (some semi farming) that the other three wives of the keepers cannot manage.
The tale tells of Adeline’s growing awareness that her mother is carrying out an affair with one of the married men- this will create tensions in the community until the wife finds out and sets off a series of actions that have major impact on both the families. Adeline realises that her mother is not a woman born with automatic love for her child – she really does not care. Nevertheless Adeline manages to build friendships and a quietly happy place for herself in the small community in spite of her mother’s neglect and then bile. But ultimately she will decide to take revenge for the abuses.
While this is not a short, short story Hoffman creates her suite of detailed characters with seeming ease, together with a small community being thrown into discord. All this shown largely through the eyes of a growing teenage girl. It shows Hoffman’s deep awareness of the complexities and subtleties of women coping with not particularly easy lives where financial independence is hard to achieve and where they rely on life with a man – any man – to cope with the bills. It is a good depiction of both its time and of a small isolated community - but with vibrant depictions of nature, weather and physical place. But it’s most significant point is to show how Adeline grows through her mother’s “teaching” – the lack of love and care - at a critical time of her life. What kind of woman will she grow to become?

Thank you to the publisher and to Net Galley . My review opinion is my own.
This is a haunting thought provoking short story based in early 1900's. I found it as rich and meaningful as the authors prior work. This is a sad story of a young girl who decides to be mute after trauma. Once her Mother takes a job in a lighthouse she begins to respond to the atmospheric setting and respond. This is a very short novella that is part of a series. A very well crafted story with richly defined characters.

Many thanks to NetGalley, Amazon Original Stories, and Alice Hoffman for an ARC in exchange for an honest book review of Everything My Mother Taught Me. My thoughts and opinions are 100% my own and independent of receiving an advance copy.

Life has become unbearable for Adeline who, after her father dies from an illness, decides to become mute. Her mother is horribly negligent and abusive. They move to an island where her mother gets a job in a lighthouse. Adeline starts to respond to life on the island but still chooses not to speak. This is the third story out of five that I have read from the collection “Inheritance”. I continue to be impressed with these little gems that pack so much into these short stories. Your heart breaks for this little girl who is forced to grow up too quickly. But she is strong and finds a way to form relationships with others. This story is descriptive, vivid, emotional and I become so invested in the story. My only complaint is that they are too short.

Looking forward to the next in the bunch…

This was a very interesting story, thanks to net galley for providing me with an advance copy. Adaline was able to communicate so well even though she did not speak. I really like Adaline's character and would love to see this novella expanded to a full novel continuing Adaline and Julia's stories.

The book is set in the early 1900s. The story revolves around young Adeline who is only 12 years old. Adeline often has to pull her mother out of the local tavern where she enjoys drinking and the company of men. Adeline is warned by her mother not to tell her father what she’s seen, telling her to keep her mouth shut.

Her father falls sick and passes away and leaves her with her mother who only has time to think of herself. After her father passes away Adeline chooses to never speak again and they move to a lighthouse on the rocky coast of Cape Ann, where the rest of the story takes place. It's an isolated setting, but Adeline enjoys it there, at least for a time.

This story pulled me in quickly and after I finished I felt like I had read a full-length book. This is an incredible short story by Alice Hoffman. It is my first Alice Hoffman book to read. Of course, I've heard of her, and I've heard people rave about her books, but sometimes when you haven't read an author before you don't feel obligated to have to add their books to your TBR list. Well, this book definitely broke the ice. Now I know that she is an incredible author, my TBR shelves will be full!!

Thank you to Netgalley for the Advanced Readers Copy in exchange for an honest review.

#EverythingMyMotherTaughtMe #NetGalley

This is the first time I have read an Alice Hoffman novel and I was really impressed. In only 28 pages Hoffman pulls us into this story right from page one and leaves the readers wanting so much more from the main character twelve year old Adeline, who was named after a soap. After her father passed away Adeline stopped talking, she wouldn't talk to anyone. Her mother lived an adulterous life pushing her own daughter to the side for a man. This was a heart-wrenching coming of age story that you will definitively read in one sitting as you wont want to put it down until the very last page. I was left with so much hope and love for young Adeline.

I am looking forward to reading other novels by Alice Hoffman in the future. I give this short story a 5 out of 5 stars.

Everything My Mother Taught Me is one of 5 short novellas in the Inheritance series. This one is by Alice Hoffman. Due out 19th Dec from Amazon, it's 28 pages and will be available in audio and ebook formats.

I've always had a particular fondness for short fiction because it's spare and technically challenging, so you get a better feel for an author's expertise with the form. The writing here is amazing. This is a flawless story technically. The prose is precise and lyrical and the story itself is poignant and perfectly told.

Worth noting for Kindle Unlimited subscribers, this book is included in the KU subscription library to borrow and read for free.

Five stars. This is a powerful story from a master storyteller at the top of her game.

This book shines on every level: sentence after sentence is beautiful and precise. The characters are complicated and sympathetic, the ideas are sweeping and profound, but are never too overt. It’s a rare novel that is as accomplished in its meaning as it is in its storytelling while also succeeding wildly on the language level as well! A novel to lose yourself in and then reflect upon again and again.

“She was the sort of person who saw only herself and her shadow, and the rest of us disappeared in the bright sunlight.”
Alice Hoffman writes beautifully and this is a good submission for the Inheritance Amazon Original Stories Series. I feel like it would be a little stronger if the main character, a selective mute, also chose not to communicate by writing as well as speech following the death of her father. I enjoyed how the main character chose the type of person she would become and who her family would be.
Thanks to NetGalley, Amazon Original Stories, and the author Alice Hoffman for an advanced digital review copy. This story will be published March 10, 2020.

I’m not usually a fan of short stories. It takes a rare writer who can produce a complex story in a very small space. As Alice Hoffman shows in Everything My Mother Taught Me, she is one of those rare writers. The characters are three-dimensional,the settings are fascinating, and the story is complete with no empty spaces requiring the reader to make huge leaps of faith to understand it. A definite high recommendation from me.

<i>Thanks to Netgalley and Amazon Original Stories for the opportunity to read this story in exchange for an honest review</i>

This is a thoughtful short story told by the 12-year-old daughter of a widow who married too young and was widowed too young. It is a coming of age story, but not just about Adeline but about her mother. It also chronicles the coming of age of Julia, the woman who is betrayed by Adeline’s mother even as she is mothering her daughter. Alice Hoffman is one of our national treasures. She packs so much into so few pages: a compelling story, well developed characters, descriptions of landscapes and settings that appear as if real, and questions about the lessons one learns in life. Everything My Mother Taught Me is yet another triumph. For Hoffman.

Great short story that managed to get me hooked and invested in such a short time - from a well known (and well renowned) author.

This was a well-written short story that has a good plot and is wrapped up neatly by the end. Even though it is short in pages, you get a very good sense of what the characters are like. I enjoyed it.

Everything My Mother Taught Me by Alice Hoffman is a short story that is part historical fiction part coming of age. It is impressive that Ms Hoffman was able to weave such an intricate tale within less then 30 pages.
Adeline, a 12 year old, experiences love, loss, betrayal, and finally hope and acceptance in this tale that happens on the coast of Massachusetts 1908.
This story draws so many emotions, and Adeline goes through so much, it is hard not to champion her corner. I am so glad she found her happy ending.
This is a story that could easily be expanded into a complete novel, and could even be given additional novels about her adventures after her “release”. I would truly love to read that.

5/5 stars
Ms Hoffman is always able to weave a wonderful tale, and this selection does not disappoint.

Thank you NetGalley and Amazon Original Stories for this ARC and in return I am submitting my unbiased and voluntary review and opinion.

I am posting this review to my GR account immediately and will post it to my Amazon, Bookbub, and B&N accounts upon publication.

Everything My Mother Taught Me was different from what I expected, as it's about a bad mother, someone who had had a child too young and was too selfish to care about anyone.

Edeline, the narrator of this short story, is twelve and grieving her father's death. Her unfaithful mother has to take a job as a cleaner in a lighthouse complex off the tip of Cape Ann, Massachusets.
Only three families live there, Edeline, who's become a selective mute, most helps with chores and looks after the children.
She may not talk but she's very observant.

This was another excellent short story from the Amazon Originals collection.