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.

BY: WILLIAM SHAW
ISSUE: 27 JUNE 2022

January Fifteenth coverIt is an old chestnut among science fiction fans, coined by Isaac Asimov and distilled by Frederick Pohl, that “a good science-fiction story should be able to predict not the automobile but the traffic jam.” It's a cliché for a reason: at its best science fiction can explore both the unintended consequences of new systems and the ways in which they interact with society at large. So it is with January Fifteenth by Rachel Swirsky, a book which sets out to predict not the by now widely discussed idea of Universal Basic Income (UBI), but rather the expanded dole queue, and the cascade of social consequences it might unleash. Characteristically of Swirsky, the result is a spare, well-observed story about complex human beings, which does not concern itself with providing clean and simple answers.

http://strangehorizons.com/non-fiction/january-fifteenth-by-rachel-swirsky/

I loved this novel so much!
As someone who loves Rosemarys Baby this gave me everything i wanted and needed.
I loved the cult aspect also.
I could not put this down and had to get to the end !

One can't help but wonder just how many times Anne Heltzel and her partner fielded the age-old, awfully presumptuous, and always shrilly delivered question of "So, when are you having kids?!" before sitting down to pen this shockingly good work of cult horror revolving around motherhood.

Raised in a cult compound by women known only as Mother, Maeve eventually escaped and entered a foster home where she learned to reorient herself in society. Her cousin, Andrea, wasn't so fortunate, but eventually made a name for herself in the wake of the police raid that upended her life. She's now incredibly wealthy, having made a name for herself as a life coach to moms-to-be. Separated from each other for decades, the women reconnect via an Ancestry.com-like website and begin rebuilding their relationship. After tragedy befalls Maeve and she finds herself jobless and on the brink of homelessness, she moves in with Andrea and her husband in their palatial home in the Catskills, and discovers that her troubles are only just beginning.

Just Like Mother is a cunningly insidious slow-burn. Although it's unlikely to truly surprise readers who have read more than one book of horror featuring cults, Heltzel navigates the twists and turns with sure-footed confidence, keeping readers on the edge of their seats not with the question of what will happen, but rather when it will happen, and what depraved form it will take when the inevitable finally occurs. If you're a fan of cults in your fiction, you'll immediately know who the victims are, who the betrayers are, and will sniff out Heltzel's various red herrings right from the get-go. What it lacks in surprises, though, is more than made up for with its suspenseful games of cat-and-mouse, psychological (and eventually, physical) warfare against our narrator, and pointed, razor-sharp social commentary. Told in first-person POV, Maeve never seems to see the writing on the wall until it's too late, and readers who know the all the tricks of Heltzel's trade will be telling her to watch out, to get out, but what fun would it be if she could listen? And even though we know all too well what to expect, the fact that Heltzel still manages to make those reveals dreadfully chilling is truly impressive.

What makes this story unique, though, is the subject of cultish worship here, with pregnancy and motherhood itself the subject of fright. Heltzel aims her sights squarely on the fetishization and weaponization of motherhood, the cliquishness of procreation, the commodifying of pregnancy to the demands of capitalism (at one point, Andrea shows just how much of a rich capitalist she really is with her expectations that not only can anyone, and anything, be bought, but that it's even owed to her!), and the societal expectation of what a woman's body could and should be reduced to. Reading as women inch their way into Maeve's life proselytize child-bearing, one can't help but think of the fervor with which Jehovah's Witnesses go door to door Sunday mornings, or the zealousness of the right-wing conservatives spouting their pro-birth demands. In fact, reading this book in the wake of recent Supreme Court rulings and GOP victories to strip away women's abortion rights only make Just Like Mother all the more terrifyingly potent.

If published at any point prior over the last 20 years, this book would have been deemed horrifyingly prescient. Now, it's just another frightening look at what we should likely expect as America continues to backslide into the Dark Ages of religious zealotry and conservative authoritarianism. This is the future Republicans want, with women stripped away of careers and health care, forced into pregnancy against their will because of the demands of their cultish beliefs, and reduced to nothing more than vessels for childbirth. Just Like Mother may not pack many true narrative surprises, but it sure does offer up a hell of a lot in the way of warnings.

Just Like Mother was BANANAS and I mean that in the best way possible. They build-up was a little slow, but it gradually became creepier and creepier until the suspense and dramatic irony were making me want to yell at Maeve. A truly horrifying, unsettling, and vile read - I loved it.

Loved it! It was creepy, it was compelling, and the sense of dread was palpable. I loved the fixation on motherhood throughout, especially as I go through my own new journey in life as a mom. Important to check trigger warnings before reading, but altogether I thought it was a great story.

This was a great horror novel! I read it in one sitting! I couldn’t put it down! Highly recommend! 5 stars for sure!

Just Like Mother is horror story told by Maeve, the survivor of a cult ran by women. They felt that they had the divine power of motherhood and it was there sole duty to live up to this expectation.
Maeve has left all this behind but still misses her cousin Anne whom she was separated from when the cult was shattered by the police. A chance DNA ancestry alert reunites her with her cousin who is now a successful business woman.
I really enjoyed this book. I normally don't ready many thrillers but the plot intrigued me. Definitely could see some of how this story was gonna go down but there were many twists that kept me on the edge of my seat. Will definitely be recommending to friends and library patrons who enjoy a good thriller.

Thank you to Tor Nightfire for providing me with an e-ARC of Just Like Mother in exchange for an honest review!

Content Warnings: Rape, cult, child abuse, infertility, miscarriage, murder

Just Like Mother got me back to wanting to devour every horror book in the world & for that I must thank Anne Heltzel. I miss the ~horror~ life so much & am so glad to be back in the mood.

There's something about stories featuring cults that really pulls me in. The characters are absolutely intriguing & the way their minds think is... wow. Is this the Psychological Major in me talking?

Just Like Mother has you questioning what's going on up until the very end & even then it's like "WTF?!@!@!" Sure, I figured out some things a bit quicker than that, but it was still so neat watching it all unfold & seeing what our main character Maeve is going to do. Some of this book had me feeling absolutely Stressed and hopeless for Maeve; the whole time I was pleading for her to make it through.

This book is absolutely Messed Up & saying I enjoyed it feels weird? Buuuuuuut, Just Like Mother is well-done & I'd strongly recommend it to anyone who's also interested in cult books & want to feel very uncomfortable.

Just Like Mother was a surprising book that came into my life exactly when I needed it. I could not put this book down. What starts out as a cult story becomes a suspenseful tale of navigating a relationship with a long-lost sibling. Are there ulterior motives? This book kept me guessing in the best way. Recommended if you want something to devour this spooky season

This. Has. Everything. Cult + Rosemary’s Baby Vibes = Just Like Mother and that is how I have been describing it to friends. It’s probably going to be a favorite for the year. It’s going to be a future purchase for my personal library as well.

OMG, what did I just read. This book was creepy and at times stomach turning. The ending was one too be remembered. This won’t be for everyone. I liked it but the main character kind of drove me nuts with her extremely poor decision’s. Trigger warning for rape and child abuse.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for a early release in exchange for and honest opinion. 3.5⭐️