Maeve and Andrea are cousins who were raised in the Mother Collective, until Maeve escaped and lost touch with Andrea for 20 years. After a DNA ancestry site reunites them, Andrea re-enters Maeve's life, in a blaze of wealth and privilege and creepy AF infant robot dolls that threatens to consume Maeve's entire identity.

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I loved the cover of this book. I love a cult story. I love DNA sites reuniting long-lost family members (especially after escaping a cult)! This book had a lot of potential, but Maeve was just so very, very, very dumb that the way the plot unfolded felt forced and super predictable. I think a lot of people will enjoy this book, but I didn't love it.

I finished this book in less than 24 hours. I found it hard to put down at times. Maeve escaped a cult when she was 8 years old, and she’s troubled as an adult. She can’t trust anyone or let anyone in. She reconnects with her cousin and it’s a fun ride from there.

This book was amazing, creepy, it even had my heart racing at times. There could be triggers in here for sensitive readers. This book isn’t for the faint of heart. I was so happy to get an advanced copy of it. The cover drew me into it. It’s very creepy, yet eye catching.

The dolls in the book creeped me out. I wish there was a bit more about them in the book, even though the freaked me out and dolls don’t freak me out, but these fictional dolls were something else…

The book goes between the past when Maeve was in the cult and the present as she is a 33 year old woman. I did relate to her a lot as I have anxiety too. So I liked her character. This book made me think and made me not want to trust anyone. There are twists in this book and that ending… I didn’t see it coming. I really enjoyed it and I will be buying a hard copy of it when it releases!

I would recommend it to anyone who likes books that are creepy. Thank you #netgalley for the advanced copy #justlikemother

I knew that I had to read this book the moment I saw the creepy doll on the cover. This book definitely delivers on all things creepy. Crazy cult. Check. Creepy dolls. Check. Psychobitches. Check.

Maeve hasn’t seen her cousin Andrea since the night she escaped the all-female cult The Mother Collective. Whilst Maeve is still dealing with the aftermath of the cult, Andrea seems to be doing amazing and has a multi-million dollar home and enterprise.

Throughout the book, you can’t help but feel this increasing sense of dread and you begin to notice that the book is a cross between Rosemary’s Baby and The Stepford Wives. Personally, this book is one wild ride and I enjoyed every crazy second of it.

I recommend this book to anyone who loves twisty cult stories that don’t focus on a cult led by a man and if motherhood has ever terrified you. You will find this read absolutely unsettling!

*Thank you so much to NetGalley and Tor Nightfire for the digital copy of this book in exchange for an honest review!

Received this book I’m exchange for review!

Wow. I devoured this one In a matter of hours. A psychological thriller where both you and the main character know something isn’t quite right but you can’t really piece it together until the end. It was SO good. The distorted feminist horror just kept me on the hook from the start

I loved the writing. The author did an amazing job of keeping you almost exclusively in the main characters brain, while providing just enough other tidbits where you think “oh no…don’t do that…”

I’ve already recommended this to multiple friends.

by far one of the most unsettling books I've read this year! I literally could not put it down and read it cover to cover in a few hours. the plot unfolds in the creepiest way and I think horror fans will LOVE this.

This book was amazing! It was creepy and kept you turning the page, in the most delightful way.

It was about a womens cult and the power that drags you back into it, even after Maeve got out

A chilling read, well on the creepy side. Maeve and her cousin, Andrea, were both raised in a matriarchal cult. After being rescued, the girls are split up. Maeve goes on to lead a wonderful life. She is married and is a successful editor but she longs to find Andrea. A DNA test brings the cousins together again but Maeve finds out that Andrea isn’t quite what she seems. Just Like Mother takes the reader on a wild ride from start to finish. It’s a book that will stay with you long after the last creepy words.

Many thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for providing me with the opportunity to read and review this book.

5/5 Stars

This review is spoiler free!

Wow. This book was amazing.

Creepy, horrifying, twisted. Anne Heltzel is an author to watch for sure. This novel is just as creepy as it's cover. Know going into it that this is not a book to read lightly. It is a graphic, terrifying, and gripping read. But wow is it good.

Just Like Mother tells the story of Maeve, who spent her earliest years raised in a compound of the cult the Mother Collective, a terrifying Matriarchal cult. Now in her early thirties, Maeve has spent her years trying to find her cousin, Andrea, who she hasn't seen since she was rescued from the cult as a young child. When she finds Andrea through a DNA test, she seems to have her whole life together. She's married, a successful CEO, and all around seems to have made an amazing life for herself despite the horrible situation they both grew up in.

However, Maeve quickly realizes there's something off with her cousin, her cousin's friends, and her charmed life. And yes. Yes there are lots and lots of creepy baby dolls.

I cannot recommend this book enough, and I can't wait for Anne Heltzel's next novels!

*I received an ARC from the publisher and Netgalley in exchange for an honest review. All opinions and views in this review are my own.

What a wild ride this book was. It was absolutely fantastic. From the opening scene to the end, it was riveting. Ominous and creepy, the story definitely matches the cover perfectly. I didn’t know much going into the book and I found that was the best way to read this. Maeve and Andrea, long separated cousins, meet again and Maeve is slowly pulled into Andrea’s world with dark and creepy ramifications. This book pulled me in from the very creepy opening and left me reeling at the end. Absolutely well done. Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for this ARC in exchange for my honest review.

An all woman cult, the Mothers, that focuses on women empowerment and teaches that men are lesser than. And getting pregnant is your main purpose in live. But Maeve escaped when she got adopted by Patty and Tom. Maeve never stopped looking for her cousin who was like her best friend. Now two decades later, Maeve is a editor in New York and meets her cousin on a ancestry site. But seeing her cousin bring up bad memories of their childhood. After spending time with her, she asks Maeve for a huge favor, and Maeve slowly becomes disconnected to her New York life. Little does she know- her nightmare had her to come

I loved this novel! It was so well written and I loved the plot. I had my husband speechless after I told him to give me a minute because this books too intriguing. The characters were so well thought out, just like the plot. The only reason I gave it a four is because I did see part of what went down with Andrea (the cousin), coming from very early on. But overall this was a phenomenal book!

This is a disturbing book, a creepy book mixed in with a story of the healing of a young girl who escaped the cult of Mothers that she grew up in. She is thrilled to find the cousin, her best friend from the cult that she grew up with. Getting immersed in her newly discovered family, she starts realizing things are not right .Very absorbing, thought provoking story

I will round this to more of a 3.5 star. It was a 2.5 star book until the last few pages. Talk about a spine chilling twist. The pace of this book was just a little slow. The premise and the idea was so clever, I think execution could of been better. I didn’t love the characters as well, and found them boring a lackluster. This was my first novel from this author. I wanted to love the more, just wish the start was as good as the finish.

I received this book from the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

Maeve grew up in a cult with her cousin where she lived with lots of Mothers. She finally got away, and now been living a dull uninspired life in her mid age. She suddenly reunited with her cousin who's all empowered, rich, and glamourous. She is so happy to be basking in her cousin's attention, but then tragic started happening around her. Who is her cousin and does she even know her anymore?

The last epilogue is downright chilling.

Thank you, NetGalley for allowing me to read this.
I am not even sure how to start this.

Just like mother is a decent ride.

When it comes to books like this I do not get easily rattled and most times I can guess what happens next. I did know what will happen next in this book because, well It reminded me of a few movies combined. Books like this have been done before, same with movies and due to my age. It gets repetitive and cliche.

It is a "fast" read, but for me, it was predictable including the ending.

Although often heavy-handed and too obvious to be considered nuanced or even unpredictable, this horror novel about forced motherhood, rape, and torture is still plenty disturbing.

So good I feel reduced to cliches. Roller coaster ride. Thrill a minute. Compulsively readable. Twisty. Just so good. The narrative asks a lot of questions and questions a lot; about motherhood, agency, family, trust. Just really fantastic. Creepy. Chilling. Kept me up late and I couldn’t put it down. Just adding cliches, can’t stop.

Just Like Mother by Anne Heltzel is somewhere between thriller and horror genres and a wildly entertaining ride that does a fantastic job slowly building tension from slightly creepy to WTF horrific. The protagonist, Maeve, was raised in an all woman cult that is aggressively anti-men until she's 7 and they are raided by the police and Maeve rescued and eventually adopted. As an adult she's lonely and full of guilt for causing the cult to fall apart, when an online genetic database reconnects her with her cousin, Andrea and she's swept up into her glamorous new life. It features creepy baby dolls, domineering girlbosses with stepford husbands, and a cult eager to reclaim Maeve whether she wants to be or not.

I read this on my lunch break over the course of three days. When I finished I eyed every woman with suspicion - this book gave me the heebie geebies (in a good way). The plot was a slow boil with an eruption at the end that sent a chill down my spine. This is how a good thriller should be. VERY appreciative of Netgalley and the publisher for the ARC.

Special thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for a free, electronic ARC of this novel received in exchange for an honest review.
Expected publication date: May 17, 2022
*infertility, child loss, S&M sex and rape featured*
Anne Heltzel’s new novel, “Just Like Mother” is creepy and twisted, and reminded me of “The Handmaid’s Tale” (in reverse).
Maeve hasn’t seen her cousin Andrea in years, ever since she fled the matriarchal cult they were both living in. Now, many years later, Andrea reaches out and, desperate for reconnection and to make amends, Maeve agrees to meet. Andrea is now the super successful head of a tech company, married to her doting husband, Rob, and living in a huge mansion. When Maeve’s life starts to fall apart, Andrea takes her in, no questions asked. However, Maeve quickly realizes that Andrea is not the person she claims to be, and that she is keeping deep, dark, perverse secrets that she will go to any length to protect.
“Mother” is told from the perspective of Maeve, both in present day and in the past, when she was living with Andrea, in fear and wary of men, being raised entirely by a group of females who identified themselves as “Mothers”. Maeve’s childhood recollection of her time spent in the cult was eerie, and when she casually referred to the females in her life based on their identifying marks (“Mother with the blond hair”, “mother with the lazy eye”), it sent chills up my spine. Immediately, I empathized with young Maeve and her compatriots, who lived a life so far from normal it was both disturbing and terrifying.
I could not put this novel down, and each page was more engaging than the last. When Andrea and Maeve reconnected as adults, it was bittersweet and emotional, and yet there were hints that something was “off” about the successful Andrea and her followers. “Mothers” builds the tension from the first page, and when the ending comes, it is unexpected and tense, leaving the reader in a state of shock.
“Mother” is Heltzel’s third novel, but it is the first novel I’ve read by her. If this is any indication of her level of creativity and writing prowess, I am not going to let another one of her novels slip by. I loved everything about this utterly haunting, cult novel, which turns the idea of feminism on its head, revealing a deeply disturbing dark side to femininity and reproduction.

This story switches from past and present timelines and follows Maeve who at 8 years old escaped a cult known as "Mother Collective." Now at 33, she lives a mundane life in NYC and is looking to reconnect with her cousin Andrea whom she lost in the raid bust 25 years ago. When she finds her cousin she discovers she's a successful CEO of a business devoted to the importance of motherhood. After Maeve starts to experience a streak of bad luck, she seeks refuge in Andrea's isolated gothic mansion where she begins to question her cousin and her friends behavior...

I love the premise of a creepy motherhood cult and the use of realistic robotic baby dolls. It's a fascinating idea but unfortunately, nothing came as a suprise. I already knew where the story was leading based on how it was set up and because of that every reveal was predictable. It was just a matter of waiting until our MC figures it out. That's not to say there weren't some creepy and strange moments that had me shudder. I just wish we got more of a background on what the cult was like instead of just vague flashbacks, it would have answered so many questions for me. While this may not be a favorite of 2022, it was still decent enough to enjoy.

If you're looking for a psychological thriller that features a naive main character with some suspense, and light descriptions of a cult, then you may enjoy this. Bonus if you like creepy doll head covers!

CW: Child death, miscarriage, graphic sex, self-harm, rape, delivery room trauma.

Thank you to Macmillan-Tor/Forge, and the author for an e-arc of this book in exchange for an honest review.