The School for Good Mothers was one of the most intense stories I've read about autonomy, social judgement, and the value of motherhood since The Handmaid's Tale. Yes, I know that every near-future feminst dystopian novel makes that comparison, but all I can say is that this one hit me in the gut in a way I can't remember feeling since I read The Handmaid's Tale.

The main character, Frida is "not an alcoholic, not an addict, that she has no criminal record. She’s gainfully employed and a peaceful, committed co-parent. She has bachelor’s and master’s degrees in literature from Brown and Columbia, a 401(k) account, a college savings fund for [her daughter] Harriet." After a major lapse in judgement, Frida loses custody of her daughter and is sentenced to a year in a new type of rehabilitation program offering instruction and training to become a better mother. At the end of the year, "she must demonstrate her capacity for genuine maternal feeling and attachment, hone her maternal instincts, show she can be trusted." If she does not meet these standards, gets expelled, or quits, her parental rights will be terminated and her name will be added to the Negligent Parent Registry. At the school, the mothers are forced to perform various tasks that range from heartwrenching to downright disturbing--and the "tools" they use to perform these tasks are straight up the shit out of horror movies.

I found each of the characters very well written and even among the wildly different attitudes and reactions within the institution, I felt compassion for almost every student mother. This novel peels back the layers of judgement against mothers. What makes a "good mother" and what makes a "bad mother"? What is the hierarchy within each group? Must a woman who is a mother always act as a mother first and foremost? Who has harsher standards for mothers, society or mothers themselves? This novel had me clenching my jaw and on the verge of tears almost the entire time. Debut author Jessamine Chan deftly draws a picture of a near future where government overreach and the dark complexities of motherhood collide. I definitely recommend this book, especially to mothers, and I will be snapping up Chan's next release the moment it becomes available.

Thank you NetGalley and Simon & Schuster for providing the ARC of "The School for Good Mothers."

I really had high hopes for this book; I was attracted to the POC main character and it's input on what it's like to be a mother. The author brings up many good points; however, the way that it was executed seemed to have fallen short for me. It took me forever to read this book. Because of the heavy topic, not only was it dragging but also emotionally exhausting to read.

I feel like maybe I chose the wrong book to read at the wrong time, but I'm not sure if I would try to pick this book up again. Overall, I thought that even though the author brought up some intriguing topics, it ended up leaving me confused on what to focus on.

A young mother, Frida Liu, leaves her toddler alone for over two hours and is reported to CPS. In this new near future dystopian reality, mothers who have been reported by other people of child neglect, abuse, etc. have to attend a "school" for a year that "teaches" them how to be good mothers. During this year long school, they are unable to see their children and rarely are they able to talk to them on the phone or video chats. It's a new program developed by the state government and other states are taking notes and looking to set up these same type of "schools". Frida is a divorced, stressed out, overworked, insecure mother who loves her child but made a very bad mistake but this "school" doesn't truly help with rehabilitation or provide the proper counseling. Instead, these mothers are given fake children the same age as their own and through technology these children are programmed to mimic the needs and wants of real children. For example they can be programmed to cry for hours on end and the mothers have to try to get them to stop even as the people in charge are telling them what bad mothers they are instead of working with them and providing guidance and support. This is a disturbing book and incredibly sad and it reminds me of the helplessness of the handmaids in The Handmaid's Tale. There is also a "school" for fathers and what makes me furious is the double standard between the mothers and the fathers. The fathers have it much easier and have more freedoms in their school than the mothers do at their school and that is so totally wrong. This book is not an easy read but an important one. It would make for some great discussions in your book club . A cautionary tale about government interference.
Thank you NetGalley for providing me with an ARC of this book.

I found there was some beautiful writing here and it is certainly very timely. However, it felt very one-note to me. The character didn't seem to go through any changes whatsoever during the course of the story. Nothing happened that I didn't expect and there didn't seem to be much depth given to the main character either. That said, it's a scathing commentary on the way parents, in particular mothers, aren't supported even a bit by society and they're left to make often impossible choices and then are punished for doing so. An important story that I wished had been plumbed a bit more.

I couldn't put this down, it's disturbing and sad but I was riveted & truly couldn't stop reading. I will be thinking about this book for a long, long time. Did I love it? Maybe. I'm still processing but wow, there's a lot to unpack here. So well done but especially brutal to read if you're a parent.

Haunting. I couldn’t get through this book fast enough and it will stay with me a long time. The depiction of the expectations put on mothers in our society was fantastic.

"I am a bad mother but am learning to be good"

Frida Liu was having a very bad day. The type of day where you are walking around in a miserable haze, not really knowing what you are doing or why. During her very bad day, she leaves her young daughter, Harriet, home alone, resulting in one of the neighbours calling child welfare and Harriet being removed from Frida's care. This is a cautionary tale about a future in which the state has complete control over your parenting and relationship with your children. I found it very interesting, and terrifying, to imagine this type of future.

I loved the premise of the story, and the execution wasn't bad, but I didn't feel enough for the characters and I didn't love the ending. I am giving it a 3.5 rounded up to 4

dnf @30%

this sounded SO interesting but i have to admit i was discouraged from reading it after seeing lots of friends giving it middling reviews. and I unfortunately have to agree with them. great concept but it’s just wayyyy too slow paced and too much emphasis on relationship drama. I think i would enjoyed this concept a lot more if it was more of a thriller

Wow, this book just left me in a bit of a daze, unable to think of much else all day. This dystopian society was a little too close to how our society appears to be heading concerning motherhood.

This just wasn't for me. I love character-driven novels and have to have someone to follow even if they're despicable narrators. I just didn't like this one.

I received a free ARC from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

I was really looking forward to reading this since it’s gotten a lot of hype. I’m not sure how I feel about it.

There are many strong points to the book. In-depth characters a storyline that flows well and has an interesting and mostly believable premise. The couple of downfalls to me: overly vulgar at least once when it didn’t really enhance the story, somewhat predictable, and just overall annoyance with the main character.

Goodness me - if you do not like to feel stressed when reading, do not pick up this book. I think I read the whole thing with my jaw clenched and my teeth gritted.

Touted as a dystopian novel in the vein of The Handmaids Tale, this is the story of Frida who on a "very bad day" does something to her child that brings her under the strict and completely revamped gaze of Child Protective Services. As you can tell from the title, she then finds herself at a school for mothers that is pretty much every mums worst nightmare.

It is certainly a page turner - some parts in the middle dragged a bit and felt repetitive - but there was no way I was going to stop reading until I found out what would happen. It felt a bit Salem Witch Trially (not a real word) in some parts, and a bit like "The Natural Way of Things". It just made me feel mad whilst reading the whole thing. I think some parts are a bit if a stretch - but it is fiction - so suspend your reality if you are going in. Other parts are pretty spot on in their social commentary in regards to different expectations placed on mothers and fathers, racial discimintaion, and the pressure placed on some mums to be perfect.

Overall - I can't say it was "enjoyable" but it is definitely good!

This year one of my goals was to pick up titles from book clubs that I typically adore the picks from, and jump out of my comfort zone more to read books that I may not have otherwise picked up. One of the ones I was SUPER excited to read was THE SCHOOL OF GOOD MOTHERS, a #ReadWithJenna pick that I was lucky enough to get thanks to Simon & Schuster having it as a Book Club Favorites selection!

This debut novel was such a thought-provoking title, constantly making me really consider not only what was going on for each of the characters, but about my own thoughts and opinions, breaking points, parenting habits + techniques.

“I should have thought harder about that before coming here. The judge made it seem like I had a choice, but ‘choice’ and this place do not belong in the same sentence.”

Jessamine Chan uses Frida's story about one "bad day" and takes us on a journey almost as extreme as The Handmaid's Tale in how scarily easy it would be to go from point A to point B, how it only takes ONE seemingly small choice to impact something HUGE. It is not an easy to read book, but one that constantly makes you uncomfortable in a way that makes you wonder about who decides what makes a good parent, how consequences can be different based on sex, race, and interpretation. Not only does it make you question what is happening during Frida's timeline as it's written on the page, but will continue to make you think about the choices you make long after closing the last page.

Highly recommend this book for any mother who thinks she's alone, who's ever thought she could do better at parenting, or wondered "what if." Chan delivers a book full of powerful words, important characters, with an incredible message that will make this book memorable for anyone who reads it.

In this debut novel, one lapse in judgment lands a young mother in a government reform program where custody of her child hangs in the balance.

The School for Good Mothers by Jessamine Chan is a 2022 book I was very much looking forward to. I expected something along the lines of Handmaid's Tale and The Power. And yes, it's definitely along those lines and I think the concept is solid.

Unfortunately, it just didn't live up to the hype for me. I hardly DNF books but at 50%, I was still struggling to connect with characters and/or the writing style. Something about it felt very repetitive.

Overall, I loved the concept and the underlying messaging in the book but felt disconnected completely.

Okay, I actually finished this one awhile ago but I needed to sit with it. It is book club gold. You will need to talk to someone about it. As a parent, this one struck close to home. As an American, this one struck close to home.

I don't think that anyone will be able to make a good argument that what Frida does is okay. It is not. Even in depression, even in post-partum what she did should have had consequences. However, what happened and what she needed (therapy, a break, understanding and grace) were so far apart it is terrifying.

In this (hopefully) alternate-reality novel, The School for Good Mothers, Frida has a "bad" day. CPS is called and Frida is enrolled in their pilot program - The School for Good Mothers. It is a year long program with no contact with her child and at the end an all or nothing verdict - return to being a mom or complete loss of parental rights.

The swing of emotions throughout the book were wild. Outrage, understanding, disgust, more outrage, sadness, anger, dismay - the thesaurus is not enough. Particularly, once you learn how there is also a School for Good Fathers and then, of course, the disparity in expectations.

I know this novel will not be everyone's cup of tea all the way through - and the writing style sometimes was not my favorite. In fact, I had to reread the last three pages several times to make sure I understood how the story ended. But, on my review scale anything that is going to give me all the feels, leave me thinking about it long after the pages run out, and make me want to talk about all the parts is a five star book for me.

"The School for Good Mothers" is the kind of fiction infused with so much truth about our lives that it hurts, the kind of dystopia that we must admit is reality for some people already. Jessamine Chan demonstrates a deep understanding about the level of perfection America demands from mothers, an expectation that is too often unaccompanied by much in the way of structural support. We want women who parent like they don't have jobs and who work like they don't have children. But even that's not enough. We want women who are nurturing, who are talented cooks and intuitive healers, who have no desires or worries of their own. In Ward's near future, the state jumps in when women fall short. Mothers who left a young child alone for hours, who "allowed" a child to fall and hurt themselves, who punished a child too harshly are rounded up and sent off to a special school for a year. There they'll have an "opportunity" to overcome their shortcomings as parents and be reunited with their children. But who can survive a year of separation? What do people do when subjected to extreme surveillance? Chan asks these questions and more: Which mothers are likely to be caught up in such a system? Where do race and class enter into the equation? The book is disturbing and thought provoking on many levels.

Wow this book was a hard read. It was just so true that instead of being cathartic it was actually painful. I did come away happy I read it but it was strange to realize how differently I would have enjoyed it before being a mother myself.

The School for Good Mothers is a slightly-in-the-future dystopian novel following the events of Frida Liu's bad day, wherein she is sent to a bad mothers program in the hopes of regaining parental rights over her one-year-old daughter, Harriet. The School for Good Mothers also delves into the industrial prison complex, race, and age in relation to motherhood. However, the strongest point of the novel is its analysis of the impossibly high standards with which mothers are held and the unrelenting sacrifice and sense of self expected of mothers. The end of The School for Good Mothers will have you reflecting on your assumptions and biases of mothers and prompt you to hug the mothers in your life a bit tighter and longer than usual.

I had heard a lot of comparisons with this book to The Handmaid's Tale and I would honestly say that I see that as a bit of a reach. I can see where there are some parallels to that type of treatment of women, but nowhere in the same universe. I have to say that this book got me thinking about parents who do abuse and abandon their children and coming from the perspective of someone who was adopted, I wasn't completely mad at this idea. I think a school where parents go to learn to be better parents could be helpful. I think this situation was a bit extreme, but it is a work of fiction so it gets a pass. The book does make you think though which is often times the goal. I cannot say that I really loved the character of Frida. She seemed a bit hung up on her ex's new relationship, but I am also not a divorced single mother whose husband left her right after they had a baby together. I just did not find her character endearing. Overall, I would recommend the book, but with the comparison being made, as I listed above, I feel like others' expectations might be in a different space and lead to them not liking the book as much as they would if that preconceived notion wasn't there.

**2.5

This is an interesting book. I will say I found the writing highly accessible and, despite the issues I have with it, it was an entertaining read overall, albeit somewhat slow and unemotional. I do appreciate the commentary on the burdens/too high expectations placed on mothers, however, the combination of that with this dystopian society did not really work for me. I think most people can agree that mothers face unfair expectations every day, but they are believable expectations. Individually, they are expectations that can be met and ideally would be met, as everyone wants to do the best they can for their children. Obviously not every single one of those expectations can and should be met every single day, at all times, and that's where the expectations become unrealistic. The basic premise of the book and everything the mothers are expected to do in this society are completely unrealistic and not based on any kind of reality, at least in my opinion, and for that reason I had a hard time buying any aspect of the story. I think if the society in this book had some kind of basic reality attached to it, it would have packed more of a punch for me, but because I found it so unrealistic, it did pretty much nothing for me.