This one was really interesting and felt a little all over the place. I really enjoyed the perspective of the main character when he talked about his experience in school and self regulation. I enjoyed the friendship he developed with Sarah as the story took place. I was super intrigued by him not recognizing his mom and how it all resolved felt very anticlimactic.

This is a book about Michael’s hardships, of struggling with loss and keeping secrets. He has a lot of responsibility, and sometimes it’s too much for him. I appreciate that the author included so many real-life issues in the story, including bullying, suicide, and mental health. This was a heartfelt read that had me thinking about it for days after.

It's rare that a book features a protagonist that's so far away from my own personal experience and yet still makes me identify on a deep personal level with their pain, confusion, joy, and triumph. A good book makes you sympathize, but a great one makes you empathize, and this is definitely the latter.

A heartfelt, dramatic, smart story with a delicious twist!

Welcome to thirteen years old Michael’s world who is really angry, frustrated, and lost after losing his father two years ago, dealing with siblings who are making him want to jump out of the window, an irritating stepfather who always gets on his nerves, and a mother who is an intruder, body snatcher who is not his mother- she is definitely fake and he needs to know what happened to her real mother, did this woman kidnap her? Is she really all right? Can he save her by interrogating this doppelgänger and learning her whereabouts? -

How did you find the story so far? If it picks your interest, come in, and join this moving, surprising, well-written ride which is told from a young and troubled boy’s POV!

Michael misses his father, who is suffering from anger management issues, seeing a school therapist, standing up to school bullies, taking care of his siblings even though he hardly stands their quirky antics, and collecting money to pay his debt to his stepfather.

Let’s not forget his obsessive thoughts about his mother’s replacement. He truly believes the woman standing in their kitchen, cooking breakfast for them is not their mother!

He also keeps a big secret for two years from his family and as soon as he meets with his new neighbor, he feels like he finally finds somebody he can fully trust and share some of his secrets with.

This is a brilliantly written coming-of-age story from a young boy’s perspective. Some things bothered me a little: I wanted to know more about Michael’s father to understand his grief process and how his loss changed his family’s life completely. It could be a little longer so I can spend more time in Michael’s head to deeply connect with him.

There are so missing and some irrelevant pieces in the story but thankfully those irrelevant ones complete the puzzle in the end.

I mostly enjoyed my reading and giving my four young age, resentment, pain, loss, sadness, and family stars!

This is of the most unique, original, realistic, and moving readings I had lately!

This was a whirlwind! I wasn't sure what to expect reading from a child's perspective, but it blew me away! I found myself in tears multiple times, and didn't think I would make any sense of it, but it was brilliant!

The concept of this book is great. For some reason I just could not get into it though. I’m not sure if it’s the writing or if I just couldn’t connect with the MC.

This was really surprising and interesting. It often left me frustrated for our main character but I also couldn’t put it down because I needed to know the truth about mom. Pick it up!

A delightful premise, heartfelt and....quite honestly, a little unexpected? I wasn't expecting to be so moved by this book - just the title "The Other Mother" feels very Coraline-esque to me so I had to let go of that connection really quickly.

I picked this one up because I had read a previous novel by this author and thought it was interesting and particularly funny.

Michael wakes up one morning and knows the mother in the kitchen isn’t his mother. Sure, she looks like his mother, sounds like his mother, and knows the same stuff as his mother, but she’s actually the other mother. Thus begins Michael’s quest to discover what happened to his actual mother, and in the process, he learns quite a bit about himself.

I didn’t love this book until about the 90% mark. I liked it, wanted to finish it, found it cute and funny, but didn’t love it. And then. Then all the things happened and the truth comes out and Michael’s just a kid with problems and man, this is the closest I’ve come to crying in a book in a while.

Yes, there were lots of times when I wanted to shake Michael and found him repetitive to the point of being annoying, but I still really liked this story and his character arc. I also really enjoyed how readers learn about his mother through his observations and thoughts, and she has an interesting arc too.

I don’t think you’d be disappointed if you picked this one up. I really enjoyed it!

I think novels told from the child's perspective can be unique and especially interesting. However, for whatever reason, I could not get into this one and struggled to enjoy my reading experience all the way through!

'The Other Mother' tells the story of Michael, a boy with a lot on his plate, and how he views his mother in a different light and makes friends along the way.

The story in itself is exactly what I wanted when I requested this book. It is a raw and in a way beautiful coming of age-story. I do find that the writing style kept me from truly loving it though. While the short, child-like sentences fit a child, they distracted me from how raw and harsh Michael's life could be. I also think that in understanding and comprehension with words there is quite a difference between f.i. a 10-year-old and a 13-year-old, and with the shortness and simplicity of the text itself I regularly had to remind myself that I was reading Michael's story, and not f.i. his younger siblings' story.

I also found some parts lagging a bit, like the whole chapter about fishing at the start. Especially for someone who is not into fishing per sé, it was a chapter that made the story take too long to get going. On the other hand I do realise it did provide some useful information about Michael's life.

All in all I am struggling. I did like this book, I love reading stories like this, but I did not love this book. So it's somewhere in between: a 'good, but not amazing' three stars.

Matthew Dicks' The Other Mother takes readers into the mind of 13-year old Michael Parsons as he navigates life in the aftermath of his father's death and a psychological phenomena in which he believes that his mother has been replaced by a stranger. This book leans a bit more YA than adult, but it's still an intriguing tale.

Many thanks to the author, publisher, and NetGalley for sharing this book with me. All thoughts are my own.

This book is not what you think at all. I don’t really know how to feel. Right now I just feel tricked and cheated. I feel sad because the book was raw and real but it was not the book that I thought I was picking up and what the synopsis on the back pitched for me. Thankfully I don’t have any triggers but for people that do this book could be a big shock for them.

I was highly surprised and a trigger warning should be in the front of the book.

Also if you are in a pinch only read the last 20 pages and you get the whole plot of the book.

I feel like I wasted my time, the book was good but not what I signed up for.

The author gets the reader into the head of Michael, who I felt desperately sorry for, as he tries to navigate a world where he believes that his mother has been replaced by someone else. This book kept me interested and wanting to know more right until the end. Recommended.

This is a heartfelt but twisty coming-of-age story! Michael is 13, mourning his dad, hating his mother's new husband and acting as caretaker to his younger siblings. But besides that, he's also convinced that his mother has been replaced by an imposter and determined to prove it.

You can't help but fall in love with Michael - he tugs at your heartstrings and you want to give him a big hug! He's dealing with a lot and coping in the only way he knows. There's not a lot of action in this book but if you like quirky, character-driven stories, this is one you definitely wan to check out.

Thanks to St. Martin's Press and NetGalley for a copy to review.

After reading "Memories of an Imaginary Friends", Dicks was quickly a favorite author recommendation. The Other Mother did not disappoint. I actually bought a copy of the book for my collection as it was such a compelling story about Michael and that no matter what you replace for children they always know. As I was reading, I was thinking about the inability to trick kids, for example, when a beloved stuffed animal is replaced with a new one and the child see the dirty, matted, and torn version because it smells like home and no matter what is replaced the kids love and sense belonging beyond what adults think they are capable. I loved this book!

Capgras delusion is a psychiatric disorder in which a person believes that someone in their live has been replaced by an identical person. This becomes the premise for The Other Mother by Matthew Dicks. Given Michael's age, most of this book has a very middle grade / young adult feel. Part of me wants to reach in and give Michael a hug. Part of me wants to know what the adults in his life are doing.

Read my complete review at http://www.memoriesfrombooks.com/2021/03/the-other-mother.html

Reviewed for NetGalley.

The Other Mother is about Michael, a 13-year-old boy who believes his mother has been replaced by... another mother. She looks like his mom, acts like his mom, but something seems off, and he's the only one who sees it.⁠
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For some reason, I was hoping this would be a sci-fi-ish book with lots of tension and suspense, but it ended up being more of a coming-of-age story focused on Michael's issues and his grief after his dad's sudden death. I don't usually read books like this, but I was invested enough in Michael's life to keep reading, and I finished this one pretty quickly.⁠
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Overall, it was an interesting story that kept me invested, but I probably won't remember that I read this book by the end of the year. It just wasn't remarkable enough to be memorable.⁠
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There were also some cheesy moments I didn't like, and while I love list-making in books, Michael's lists seemed a bit forced at times, as if the author felt like that was something a teenager was supposed to do. That being said, I still enjoyed the book overall, and I'm glad I ended up reading something out of my comfort zone.

An intriguing tale of a young boy convinced his mother is not his real mother. What follows is a story of trauma and love, from a compelling narrator. I enjoyed this book.

Thirteen-year-old Michael Parsons is under a lot of stress. He cares for his younger brother and sister while his mother works double shifts to make up for the fact that his scheming, deadbeat step-dad contributes almost nothing financially to the household. Michael has anger problems that have gotten worse since his father died. It seems likes he’s always in trouble at school. Then, one day he wakes up to discover that his mother is missing. She has been replaced with an exact replica. No one else seems to notice that this woman is not his mother. Michael needs to find out what this other mother has done with his real mother. He can’t tell anyone because he knows they’ll think he’s crazy.

Michael clearly has some sort of behavior disorder, although a specific diagnosis is never given in the book. He meets with the school counselor daily to help develop coping mechanisms for his anger. Because he has outbursts at school, he doesn’t have any friends. His inner thoughts reveal some of the causes of his behavior but it confuses him almost as much as it confuses the people around him. Matthew Dicks has a real insight into the minds of troubled people and Michael’s inner thoughts are authentic and revealing. I felt such empathy for him, my heart hurt while reading this book.

There are bright spots for Michael. Sarah, the prettiest girl in school, happens to live next door. When Michael’s little sister invites her to go fishing with them, Sarah and Michael hit it off and become fast friends. She’s only the second friend Michael has ever had. Michael also meets a woman on his paper route who knew his dad when they were kids. He enjoys hearing stories about when his dad, who he misses terribly, was younger. Michael has to decide if he trusts either Sarah or the woman enough to tell them that his mother is missing.

Dicks wrote Memoirs of an Imaginary Friend, which is one of my all-time favorite books. I’m happy to say that The Other Mother is in league with that book. Highly recommended.