The summary of "Just Like Mother" caught my attention immediately. What is there not to love about a matriarchal cult thriller? Over all I enjoyed my time reading it. When I was actively paying attention, I was into it. but I found it hard to focus. I will say that this was very very predictable. I immediately knew what the 'twist' would be. I knew who the villain(s) would be. I knew why things were happening. It's still a good time but it's not anything new. I liked the writing and the plot was intriguing but it didn't have that extra something for me. Don't let me stop you though, "Just Like Mother" could be your next favorite thriller.

Thanks to Netgalley for an ARC of this book. To be honest, there were times when I found it difficult to read. It was disturbing, and I was afraid it might get graphic. Fortunately, it never veered into anything that was too much for me (and I have a vivid imagination, which means even the slightest hint of something gross will imbed itself in my brain for a long time). Still, it was disturbing and it’s tough to shake that. Even after sleeping on it, I’m still thinking about it far too much. It had a bit of a Stepford Wives feel to it.

I enjoyed the style of writing, switching between three different time periods—the present, the past, and the distant past. In this way, we learn about Maeve and how she interacts with the world, the struggles she faces because of her childhood, how it affected her life when she was removed from that environment, and how it faces her now. Maeve narrates in past tense first-person, but when she talks about the distant past, and even the more recent past, she switches to present tense, as if she’s experiencing it all over again. Even as I describe it, I think it’s confusing, but while reading the book, I found it was natural and barely even noticeable. Bit by bit, we learn about Maeve as she experiences the present by distancing herself from it and talking about it in the past, while at the same time immersing herself in the past (childhood) because she cannot escape from the memories.

What I found particularly interesting is that I probably wouldn’t have liked Maeve’s character very much, but by experiencing the pain of her past with her, I came to understand and have empathy for her. By the end, I wondered how she could have survived her early childhood at all. The scariest thing is that she never truly escaped it.

I don’t want to include any spoilers because I think this book is best read not knowing what to expect. The mystery is well-crafted, with details gradually revealed and too many surprise to recall all of them. If you’re looking for a light and breezy read, this isn’t it. If you’re looking for something to challenge your brain, and maybe even your perceptions of reality, I recommend this one.

This was a surprise read. It is a creepy, gothic, cult story that follows sisters who are separated. It is a story that is best gone into without a lot of previous detail. It captures the reader and doesn’t let go. I love a good cult story and this one has unique twists. I also adore the gothic atmosphere. I wish I had saved this for Halloween reading!
Highly recommend.
#JustLikeMother #NetGalley #MacmillanTorForge

I was so excited to read Just Like Mother as it is marketed as a horror novel surrounding a cult. This is not what I got from this one. It read as a typical thriller that touches on a cult with a MC who has past trauma and is trusting to a fault. I found the MC gullible and fairly dim, I was disappointed with how little we got to experience the cult, and was just overall upset with this one. The best part of this was being done with it since I felt like I was trudging through mud to finish it. This will not be one I recommend.

Omg this book!!! The cover is spectacular. And the story itself is so compelling and edge of your seat readable. Now granted i love a good cut novel, but they are no all 5 stars like Just Like Mother. Holy smokes was Maeve a devious character, and her creepy dolls, oh my! This was a one sit reading for me. Thank you Nightfire.

In this dark modern gothic novel, two adult survivors of childhood abuse are reunited after their cult was disbanded and they were separated by the foster care system. Maeve is adrift in New York City, unfulfilled at her job and single, while Andrea seems to be thriving with both a successful start-up in the fertility industry and a devoted husband. But the two women both seem to need the other and their relationship quickly deepens back to their childhood familial-like bond. The unsettling tone established at their initial reunion builds alongside power imbalance that is leftover from their shared trauma.

I may have found a new author! This book was so beautifully constructed. The plot, characters, twists, everything just absolutely marvelous! And what a perfect time of year to read it during spooky season.

This book gave me the creeps. The main character, Maeve, grew up in a women's only cult and witnessed horrible things. She was taken away at an early age and adopted. Years later she is reunited with her cousin (more like a sister) who also grew up in the cult. However her cousin and friends are obsessed with motherhood. As I'm reading the book, I kept wanted to yell to Maeve--"Don't do it!" "Run away!" It's a freaky, enjoyable book. Some of the plot is predictable--but it is fun watching what happens.

Thank you to Macmillan-Tor/Forge for providing me with an advance copy of Just Like Mother. This book was creepy! If you are drawn to stories about cults, plot twists, unsettling endings then this story is for you. The entire time I was reading this book, I kept thinking I had it all figured out. The author's ability to write in red herrings and distraction was fantastic. There are few books that make me cringe but this one was just cringy and creepy. I enjoyed seeing the main character develop throughout the story and the vignettes of the past were a wonderful creepy bonus. I thoroughly enjoyed Just Like Mother and highly recommend.

I waffle between giving this three and four stars. Our protagonist Maeve is a frustrating and overly flawed character whom it is difficult to feel for. Terrible choices are made over and over again to a frustrating g degree. What saves this novel is the overarching message about women and their relationship to the expected role of motherhood - whether they have children to look after or not.

A couple decent twists, some shock gore moments, a bit predictable in places, but ultimately a very readable, quick paced thriller.
The most interesting part is that, like me, the author is childless and nearing the end of (average) childbearing age. So to choose to write about a cult obsessed with motherhood, that reflects my frustrations with how childless women are often treated, represents (perhaps) the psychological struggle many women have these days about having children or not. I really respect Anne Heltzel for trying to find a very overt way of discussing the shunning feeling that many of us childless have had over the years. By adding in the horror and gore the way she has it makes it seem like being so elitist about Motherhood is wrong (which frankly it is). I hope that maybe a few people who have made statements as rudely put like "you aren't truly female until you've had a baby" or "you haven't lived until you've felt the love for your own child"; will have some reflection on how ignorant, elitist, and downright awful their statements are when said to a childless woman or someone transgender. Fertility is not a given for all humans and we should not covet it above all else (especially given that our world is over populated and children die starving each day). Just Like Mother could easily go hand-in-hand with A Handmaiden's Tale and make a wonderful comparison paper/essay about how different, and yet the same, being fertile is treasured over the last 30 years.

For those that had trouble with the gore or concepts in this book I have to say you should stick to your rom-com's then. I found it to be fairly mild in comparison to a lot of horror and fantasy/sci-fi novels I've read over the years. Also eating the placenta is a time honoured tradition in many cultures; so I just don't see that one as being as awful as others do. The forcefulness of the scene is torturous for sure; but the actual consuming (for me) not so much. The ending however... is very psychological and made me kind of want to put the book own like it was a plague that would infect me. Needless to say, the ending is absolutely brilliant. And it's not often I get to say that about a horror novel!

Overall Anne Heltzel has taken what society reveres as a magical treasure, Motherhood and fertility, and turned it on it's side. Showing the reader that anything put to the extreme is bad. That anything coveted above all else creates a cult. It doesn't matter if it starts with the best of intentions; it only matters that it ends with a distinct resolution that coercion and manipulation is truly at the root of all evil.

Finally, I'd like to point out that there are many women, like myself, who are perfectly comfortable with their infertility and happy for their friends to have babies over them. I do not begrudge any of my friends their lovely children, and treasure that they allow me to a part of each child's life. Occasionally I have moments of heartache or regret; but I believe those are more that I didn't meet societal expectations as a woman than anything. Hence why Just Like Mother speaks to me so clearly in it's condemnation of prizing Motherhood above all else. My only ask, of anyone but especially fellow women and mothers, is that you not degrade me (and others) for being unable (or choosing not) to be a mother ourselves. All women have value, all people have value; and we should never ever put one person's biological capacity above another's when it's the luck of the draw that ultimately determines your ability to bear a child or not.
Please note: I received an eARC of this book from the publisher via NetGalley. This is an honest and unbiased review.

This book had a fascinating premise, but the execution let it down. We never find out just how the Mother Collective got its start, and it isn't until about halfway through the book that we even know where it's located. While it's not necessary to include the origin story of the collective, there aren't enough details on its background to tell readers why the Mothers believe what they do (and, subsequently, why readers should be freaked out by them in Maeve's story present.) In fact, the principles of the collective really aren't even that clear. Do they flat-out hate men? Do they believe men are a means to an end? Do they want to eliminate men entirely? (And if so, how would they have more babies in the future?) Who started this cult and why? How did they keep it going when it went underground all those years ago?

While elements of the real-time story about Maeve are kind of creepy, without this essential background information the story doesn't quite level up in its creepiness factor. Knowing a few more details would have grounded the book that much more, made it even more compelling, and would have contributed to making it downright scary. As such, the way it reads now, it just seems like a bunch of crazy women have had it with men and are organized in their extreme, somewhat deranged maternal-empowerment cult.

Some of the character development, particularly where Emily and Micah are concerned, is uneven and confusing. Also, in the beginning it's easy to see what would draw Maeve into Rob and Andrea's home and what would keep her there. After a while, though, the story seems to stretch its own limits of disbelief. The end, too, was predictable and somewhat of a let-down. Even if Maeve didn't see it coming, most readers probably will.

There are several other questions I had that I won't ask due to spoilers, but all in all I think the plot needed some major bolstering. What started out keeping me up on the first night I read the book just made me shake my head by the end of it all.

Ah yes, creepy cult, we do love creepy. This book definitely left me feeling unsettled by the end and I was intrigued every step of the way, I have to agree with a lot of other readers this book was good but very predictable.

This is my first read from Anne Heltzel and I will be reading more from this author in the future and recommending this to friends and my library.

Hmmmm... Oh myyyyyyyyyyy. For those who don't know, I absolutely HATE dolls. Hate them. Like decapitated my Barbies and threw various body parts in trash cans across my neighborhood so they couldn't reassemble and come after me. Yes, yes... it's a wonder I've made it this far in life. But hey, you must FACE YOUR FEARS right? Not as if this cover watched me wherever I went. Nope. It DID NOT. *shiver*

Now, the cover is very apropos of this storyline and lemme just say... cult vibes with creepy lifelike dolls... how could I say no? All my happy horror nerves were all a tingle. But how, oh how, do I review this? Ok. Lemme give it a go. Maeve and Andrea grew up together in a nightmarish childhood and then were forced apart against their wills. Growing into adulthood, they took two drastically different paths. And what a bang their reunion ends up causing.

Uff. I loved this book but also had some tiny issues with it. I wasn't to shake Maeve so many times but if all characters made the best choices, where would all my entertainment go? I felt like things were pretty obvious and knew where the story was going to go chapter after chapter. But all of this also fascinated me so I was hungry to feed myself page after page. All the red herrings filling me up and pointing the way to the obvious conclusion. And surprisingly not *quite* as creepy as I expected it to be considering my attitude towards dolls though there are certainly a couple of scenes that will stick with me for quite some time.

While I wish this wasn't as predictable as it was for me (and had one pet peeve moment of mine....), I definitely had a fun time reading it and look forward to reading more by Heltzel. Suspend the belief and have yourself a good time. And keep an eye out... they're EVERYWHERE.

Weird? Felt unnecessarily slow but once it ramped up it was wild. Not the best but still fun. I wish there were more flashbacks.

Love me a cult book, especially one with a dystopian angle. Just like Mother is akin to The Stepford Wives but with mothers and infertility. This is a super skin-crawling read that hit the gas right from the beginning. There are a ton of creepy moments and eerie situations that had me squirming in my seat. Though it is horror, it's low on the gore scale and higher on in psychological just messed up category.

The plot moved at a steady clip with some good twists and some definitely unsettling moments. Creepy dolls will always be a winner as a trope device for me. There is some decent predictability, so I wasn't really exposed to any effective jump scares, but I was definitely disturbed by the characters and their weirdo actions and convictions.

Maeve was a good character and I appreciated how strong she was in her own beliefs, but there were a handful of times that she was just dumb. Seriously. She made some ridiculous choices and was totally oblivious to some strong "this is a trap" vibes.

But...I still had a good time with my read and enjoyed it overall. There were some things left unresolved and I definitely could have used more to the wrap up, but it was an effective novel with some good intrigue and some excellent ick character.

-I’m usually disappointed by thrillers and this surprisingly didn’t disappoint me
-Engaging
-Creepy
-Page turner

This one was a super fast - if a little bit predictable- read for me. I am fascinated by cults, and wish That it would have gone into a bit more detail Into the cult itself, but all in all I found it to be pretty good. Would definitely read more by this author!

First off I want to thank NetGalley for a copy of this book for an honest opinion.

A mystery novel build around a cult called “The Mother Collective,” the beginning really drew me in and that ending… on man, the ending was the ending that a book like this needed to really leave you with your jaw hanging to the floor.

But that’s just it though. The beginning and the ending. The middle just didn’t do it for me. I kept going hoping that it would pick up and suck me back in (thank goodness it did) but by the time it did, I wasn’t as invested as I was when I first started. The mood was ruined, and a great book was just ok by that point.

3 stars (raised from 2) for an amazing ending

Taking a star off because she didn't abort the hell-babies. I wish there had been more about the cult's origins, but the modern iteration was an interesting take.