The School for Good Mothers is a chilling, horrific dystopian novel that centers on Frida, a middle-class mother of Chinese descent who loses her child Harriet to the system after a slip-up. It took me a while to fully figure out that the book depicts a dystopian world rather than the society we live in today because so many of its events were realistic and imaginable scenarios. Even the AI-driven dolls seemed like something that the U.S. government would start investing in and experimenting with. The terrifying surveillance of the state and its judgmental, arbitrary, and frigid evaluations void of any contextual understanding or forgiveness, perpetrated with equal callousness by police officers and CPS social workers as well as the judges that handled Frida's cases, all sounded frighteningly close to reality.

Chan's debut novel is a powerful challenge against normative conceptions of ideal motherhood, womanhood, family, and fertility and how deceivingly fluid and subjective they are against class- and race-based standards. Through Frida and the friends she meets at the school, we see how much of the burden of proof lies on women, proof that shows how worthy they are to take on the job of raising their own children. There's a manual, a methodology that the system cooks up to reform bad mothers into good mothers, and this gold standard is heavily based on a specific strain of motherhood, namely white upper-class motherhood. Susanna, Frida's ex-husband's new white girlfriend, is a horrifying and maddening reminder of just how presumptive these standards are as she is extolled as a beacon of successful parenting with her vegan diets and cheerful, high-pitched, verbose 'motherese.'

The complete erasure of Frida's identity as a daughter, Chinese-American, an educated woman, a writer, and a wife and lover was stifling and sad. Being a mother consumes all of who she is, almost to a point where she cannot imagine not being Harriet's mother (or even Emmanuelle's mother). It was frustrating to see her holding herself back every time she questioned or desired to redefine and complicate the system's definition of what a good mother is/does, especially as she ruminated on how her Chinese parents and grandmother raised her in a way that was particular to the culture that they grew up in.

Towards the end, the pace slackens as the chapters blur a bit together and become slightly redundant. The staccato sentences and matter-of-fact tone might've contributed to the flatness and gradual loss of steam. But the book is based on a fascinating premise and left me thinking a lot about its heavier themes and messages. Would definitely recommend to anyone who likes contemporary reads that focus on female characters and experiences!

Frida has "a very bad day" where she left her infant child home alone in order to get a break. The problem is, the neighbors heard her cry and reported it to child services. In an age where child services have been seen as too lenient, Frida is in for reprogramming when it is decided she is a danger to her child. She is sent away to a camp where she will learn to be a better mother strictly devoted to her daughter's care.

The premise of this book caught my eye and I had high hopes for it. In the beginning, the storyline held great promise, but the further I read, the more unbelievable the story became. While I understand the concept of Big Brother, this went overboard. Constant surveillance, brain scans to determine maternal instinct, robot children to practice "motherese" on. It was all a lot to swallow.

I received this arc in exchange for an honest review. The School for Good Mothers is a story about a woman (Frida) who makes a mistake with her young child. As a result of this mistake, child protective services step in and remove the child from her home. In order for Frida to get her daughter back she is required to attend The School for Good Mothers for one year. What follows is a year of hell for not only Frida, but all of the other mothers at the school as well.
This book has a bit of a dystopian feel to it, which is right up my alley. I loved this book. The only thing I would wish to be different/added is an epilogue following up on Frida and some of the other mothers, especially Lucretia. All in all, a great book!

I was really excited to read this book and had super high hopes. The book started off super interesting and then it just got too dark and creepy for me. The surveillance cameras to watch Frida in her home and then the school was just too over the top extreme for me. It was hard to read. I was satisfied with the ending however I had to push myself to finish the book to get there. This one was just not for me.

Thank you Net Galley and Simon & Schuster for the ARC of this book in return for my honest review.

The School for Good Mothers by Mezzanine Chan is a disturbing dystopian novel; sure to join The Handmaid's Tale and Brave New World. I could not put it down, the story is riveting.

Thank you NetGalley and Simon & Schuster for this searing novel by amazing author Jessamine Chan. Due to lack of sleep and exhaustion a very unfortunate thing happens to Frida at the beginning of this frightening novel. The consequences she faces because of one poor choice are devastating. I found this novel very hard to read because I was heartbroken for Frida. The writing is beautiful.

Title: The School for Good Mothers
Author: Jessamine Chan
Published: Coming January 2022!
Format: E-book from Net Galley
Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐

I was gifted a copy of this debut novel from Jessamine Chan in exchange for an honest review.

Can a mother who has done one bad thing ever learn to be good again? And who can define what good even is? How much control should the government have over one's parenting?
This debut novel from Jessamine Chan follows Frida as one seemingly small mistake gets her sent to the new state-run reformative School for Good Mothers in which they must spend a year learning to be good. Frida must fight with all she has for the possibility of keeping custody of her only child.
It was creepy, captivating, and kept me turning pages. It made me really think about all those people whose kids get taken away and whether or not the reasons are always justified.

Keep an eye out for this novel! You will want to snag yourself a copy!

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This was an incredibly uncomfortable book to read, and I suspect that anyone who has recently mothered a child will find it triggering as well. Frida Liu has a "very bad day" that upends her life and ability to parent her toddler, Harriet. She is sent to a reform school, or a Mommy Bootcamp of the non-fitness variety, in order to learn how to be a good mother. This experimental "treatment" for unfit parents is brand new and amounts to a shit ton of surveillance, creepy technology, and some serious indoctrination.

Jessamine Chan addresses racism, classism, and sexism in parenting expectations and how we view "good" mothers, but without it feeling contrived. It is modeled around white, upper middle class motherhood, and Chan doesn't sugarcoat this. Some of the mothers are in the school for precisely the kinds of cases we hear about in the news, like leaving a child in order to attend a job interview or letting them walk home a few blocks by themselves. I think that is what makes this book so terrifying. It is realistic enough for us to know the dangers, and yet outlandish enough to have us questioning, "This couldn't really happen, right? Right...?" On an emotional level, it also plays on the very insecurities our society places upon mothers, and the very real guilt that we all feel no matter what we do. For instance, the mothers are taught that they should never feel lonely (and that loneliness is selfish) because what other company could they possibly desire than that of their child's? I wish I could say it's easy to block those voices out, but Chan adroitly drives home these damaging messages and their impacts on the mothers. As painful as it was to read, this was a phenomenal book and one that I won't be forgetting anytime soon.

Book Review for The School for Good Mothers
Full review for this title will be posted at: @cattleboobooks on Instagram!

This was a great inverse to all these books I've read lately ("The Upstairs House", "The Push", "Baby Teeth") where mother's with newborns who don't latch on right or the mom can't provide enough milk (and really, what is this trend about? Reality? Don't tell me actually I chose ignorance) and in this case the mother is kinda bolstered by a group of women with commonalities and the baby isn't evil, except the communion with other moms comes at the expense of personal liberties and takes place at a decommissioned liberal arts colllege cum gulag for mothers deemed unfit but not irredeemable and even though everything that happens is there basically monstrous and makes the reader want to scream, one mom does teach another the Cupid Shuffle.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for the opportunity to review an advanced copy of The School for Good Mothers. This is a heartwrenching dystopian tale focusing on how society and the state measure women's worthiness to be good mothers. What really stood out to me was how the author was able to create characters who had done awful things, things I cannot understand or condone, but I could still feel intense empathy for them. It focuses on gender, race, family, and government overreach, and highlights how different the standards are for mothers vs fathers. It also brings up the questions: Can a mother's worthiness to raise her child be measured by science? What is considered rehabilitation in a system that seems to set these mothers up for failure? How does one weigh what's best for a family unit as a whole vs an individual? How much trauma will the children have due to the actions of the system vs the mistakes of the mother? The scariest thing for me was that the events in this book don't seem unimaginable in our current time. I am a birthmom of children I did not have the opportunity to raise, as well as a mother of children who I am currently raising, so it gave me a lot to think about and reflect on, and some of the scenes were especially difficult to process emotionally. I would recommend this book to any parent or caregiver of children, as well as social workers, and anyone who is a fan of dystopian fiction such as Black Mirror or The Handmaid's Tale.

This was an intriguing premise. Dystopian happenings in what seemed to be very similar to the world we know. It wasn't just mothers who were monitored, but the consequences were lighter in a sense lighter for men. I thought it was interesting that they risked breaking the bond between parent and child in an effort to make that bond stronger. I wondered how successful such a plan could be. It did drive me nuts that the main character kept calling her transgression a "very bad day" in an effort to minimize it. The program made some kind of twisted sense, but how can you determine if a parent has the capability to be a good parent? It kept me up last night, and I find myself wanting to start over now that I've finished it.

Jessamine Chan has envisioned a world where mothers are tightly monitored for even the smallest infractions and sent off for training on how to be a good mother. This dystopian story is close enough to our present reality to chill the reader and feel the similarities and possibilities of mothering in the future. Chan amply addresses white privilege as well and enables the reader to see how that affects each mother.
And the dolls... could they be any scarier?

The characters shine in their imperfections and any mother can identify. This would be a great selection for a book club of mothers or one of mothers and daughters.

Thank you to NetGalley for an advance copy of this book

I received an advanced reader’s copy in exchange for an honest review

As a mother and a social worker, I really hope this book finds an audience. It’s a very engaging read, but his message really needs to be heard. I devoured this book but I cried my way through it. The author’s dystopian setting seems right around the corner. I can’t wait to read more from Ms Chan.

First of all, A HUGE thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for this early release in exchange for my honest review.
This book really dealt with white privilege,mass surveillance, loneliness, and the impossible measurements of motherhood. This book deeply touched me.
The fact that this is Jessamine Chan first novel is pretty amazing to me. Her writing will break you, move you, and heal you -all at once and she offers no regrets only explanations of why, how, and when she decided to choose such subjects to tackle with the upmost of respect, dignity, and courage.