2.5 ⭐ rounded down.

I really wanted to like this one.

The cult aspect of the book is what drew me in and it wasn't nearly as fleshed out as I wanted it to be. The book itself was a quick read but I felt that the first half dragged a lot with Maeve's life as well as her and Andrea's newly rekindled relationship.

There were flashback chapters every other chapter or so that gave some insight into the Mother Collective, but we never really saw what their motives or goals were beyond hating men. It sure made the ending predictable.

Maeve was pretty naïve and seemed to take everything at face value. Even some moments where she seemed to question certain situations, she pretty much ignored the several red flags she was presented with and kept going on. Her relationships with Ryan and Tyler were almost interchangeable. Also the weird timing of several events throughout this book. At one point I stopped trying to make sense of it.

There was not a single character in this book that was likeable to me (not that there needs to be). The book needed you to suspend your beliefs a little too often, and with a cult having such simplistic albeit malicious goals, it makes for a very predictable book.

Wow! This book is completely bonkers. Maeve and her cousin, Andrea, were raised in a coommune/cult by a group of "mothers". After escaping, Maeve eventually reconnects with Andrea as an adult. Andrea makes some very unusual request of Maeve and this book takes off. While I love a good cult story and yes, some creepy dolls, this story was a bit predictable in the end and left me wanting more. It's a good book for if you want a quick fun read and are ready to suspend belief.

4.5/5 stars
I audibly shrieked by the end of this book! I saw the ending coming but it was done so well and just gave me the creeps. I knew most if not all of what would happen throughout the book and it was easy to piece it all together, but it was still so shocking to actually read it. It's like watching a murder documentary. It's grotesque and uncomfortable but you can't stop the feeling of sick fascination. Maeve is an amazing, strong, and personally, very relatable character. The concept is seriously wild and crazy but feels so believable. A thrilling and weird fast paced read, although it does have some heavy/dark content so please be advised. (TWs: sexual assault, rape, drugging, and death of loved ones and children) There are also some pretty explicit, consensual and non-consensual, intimate scenes I wasn't fully expecting and a lot of the book revolves around pregnancy, intimacy and especially rough intimacy. If you are ok with that and enjoy anything eerie, odd or to do with cults, this books might be for you! Thank you to NetGalley, the publisher, and the author for providing me with an e-arc in exchange for an honest review.

Loved this one! I’m obsessed with cult books right now and this one definitely secret he’s that itch! Predictable but still enjoyable!

Slightly creepy plot about a girl who manages to escape a cult run by women. In her thirties she decides to connect with her cousin from the cult. After some strange accidents happen she ends up moving in with her cousin and her husband in upstate NY. But all is not what it seems and things start to go horribly wrong for her. Kept me hooked despite the creepiness.

Just Like Mother is a fantastically creepy horror story! One look at the cover lets the reader know that they're in for an eerie tale. This book uses a matriarchal cult to set the stage for a twisty and suspenseful read. Cousins Maeve and Andrea find each other years after being taken from their families at a cult compound. Now, reuniting as adults, they are trying to see how they can fit into each other's lives again. Right off the bat, the reader can tell that something isn't right.

This story has a lot of gore and graphic violence and isn't for reader who aren't ready for a heavier story. Readers may want to look up content warnings before beginning the story. Overall a great and enthralling twist on a cult story. I would love to read a prequel about how the Mothers got started!

I wanted to like this book, the premise was there and at first I was very curious about Andrea and Meave but then it just sort of dragged on and stalled out

Maeve and her cousin, Andrea, escape a cult as children. They were separated and haven't seen each other since then. So when Andrea finally tracks Maeve down, they pick up where they left off. Andrea invites Maeve to spend time with her at her sprawling mansion and exposes her to her fertility business, which involves lifelike baby dolls. The more time Maeve spends with Andrea, the more disconnected she begins to feel with her real life. Until the unthinkable happens.

All I can say is – What the heck did I just read?! I tend to be drawn to books about cults, even though they really freak me out. Having a cult as the backstory in the lives of these characters made me question the motives of everyone involved. But even in my wildest imagination, I could not have guessed where this one would go. It was horrifying. Beware of Mother!

2.5 stars rounded up
As soon as a situation is set up you can probably figure out where the story is going, but it’ll still manage to sneak in a few surprises. Even if you know what is going to happen the writing manages to keep you engaged. Although the story is quite cliché the book uses the devotion to motherhood to create fear in an interesting way. It gets a bit heavy handed with the message, but the atmosphere of the scenes manages to balance it out.
The concept of motherhood carries all the tension so if you don’t find it scary you will be bored; it brings back the old argument that being a mother is the sole objective of a woman, but this time is disguised as progressive and empowering.
I didn’t like the ending, I already expected a cliché ending but the way it was delivered lacked a certain punch, it felt kind of lame and really soured the rest of the book for me.
Thanks to Net Galley for providing me an E-ARC in exchange for an honest review

This book is absolutely chilling, in an “it’s scary because it really could happen” type of way. Creepy dolls, a house with hidden passageways, alterior motives, and a little gore all feature. I’ve really been in a “love it or hate it” reading mood lately and I loved this one. This book examines all aspects of motherhood, and I thought it was brilliant how that was brought into the story.

DNF, I was intrigued by the concept, but the execution was underwhelming and I struggled to keep going.

The cover alone is freaky, never mind the content! I was wrapped up in this book from the get-go. The dual timelines were well written and kept me engaged with the teasers. The cult aspect was interesting and the ending was SO GOOD! I got a bit bored halfway though but the conclusion was worth the wait. It was dark, twisty, and fabulous!

An utterly terrifying adult debut from Anne Heltzel. JUST LIKE MOTHER touches on many of my favorite horror themes: cults, repressed trauma, difficult family relationships, the dark side of the wellness industry, and confronting the terrors of childhood. Maeve is a thoughtful and engaging perspective character, and the dynamic established between her and Andrea is complex and interesting and unsettling. I could not put this one down.

The ultra creepy cover draws you in and the wild ride of a story keeps you reading . After many years Maeve reconnects with her identical cousin Andrea .They share a terrible past after growing up in a cult . Maeve runs into a bit if bad luck concerning her job and boyfriend and moves in with Andrea a successful business woman that manufactures life like babies. Creepy and twisty , this is an excellent tale

So it took me a little bit to get into this book but I’m happy I finished. I started it in audio and finished it in ebook. It’s somewhere between a slow burn and normal pacing. I’d say for the first 60 percent the book was uneventful aside from one or two things. But, once you get past that mark, events unfold quickly and the book becomes creepier and creepier.

I will say the beginning of this book was also captivating. It held my interest enough to push through and I’m happy I did. Super creepy story. I’ll be thinking of this one for a while.

Writing is good, characters are strong. I love the concept and the overall plot. The ending was satisfying, but the book was predictable for the most part. Still, a fun, creepy read.

This is one of those books that gets in there and stays with you. I thought about this book a lot. It has all the elements of a good thriller, keeping with some especially creepy plotlines which I still think about now even a month after reading it. Some of the twists I could see coming, but I wasn't put off by that. I enjoyed the twisted tale being weaved, even if I had a vague sense I knew what was going on before it happened. If you like the creepy, twisted, and shocking situations, I'd say give this a chance.

Just Like Mother, by Anne Heltzel, is one part thriller and one-part horror. In other words, it's the perfect combination of the two for readers that love a bit of thrill and chills! So obviously, I had to read it.

Maeve's cousin managed to do the impossible: she ran away from the cult that raised her. Andrea cut herself off from nearly everything, and everyone – Maeve included- to protect herself. Or rather, that used to be the case.

Now Andrea is welcoming Maeve back into her life. Rather than finding this suspicious, Maeve jumps at the chance to have her best friend and cousin back in her life. Things quickly begin to take a strange turn, forcing Maeve to confront the ghosts of her past.

To say that Just Like Mother is a lot would be an understatement. This is not a book for everyone, as it has A LOT of trigger warnings (Warnings include: rape, child abuse, drugging, attempted suicide, forced impregnation, infant death, and infertility).

I know that horror novels aren't always bright and sunny – they're meant to have a darker side. Still, there were times that Just Like Mother felt like too much to me. Perhaps that is human, and thus Anne Heltzel did a fantastic job portraying this side of things? It's hard to say.

What I can say is that the writing is solid. Heltzel does a fantastic job of building suspense, creating a situation that feels subtly off right from the start. With each scene, it became clearer that something was wrong. Why it was wrong took more work to suss out.

Wow, Just Like Mother was a wild ride and a very quick read. I will say that there are about a dozen trigger warnings throughout the book, so reader beware - childhood trauma, cults, birth trauma, rape, etc etc etc. I did enjoy the ride it was filled with surprises and turns, however unbelievable they may be. You spend the first half of the book in the state of mind of the protagonist, wondering to yourself - should she be paranoid or should she be working through her childhood trauma and learning to trust people again. Little things will happen within her interactions that will make the reader nervous something is about to happen but it takes a while for the action to unfold but boy when it unfolds it is nuts. My jaw dropped a couple of times, I had to re-read lines, I read most of this in public so I'm sure I put on a good pantomime show for whoever glanced my way.

Bottom line - if you are looking for a ludicrous story with huge twists and turns, cult-themes, and some gore-y details this book is for you. IT is also a very quick read so if you are in a reading slump this may get you back into reading.

This book is intensely creepy. The cover is enough to give you nightmares. It;s interesting to see the different ways the cousins reacted to their past trauma,

3.5 stars

My favorite aspect of this book was the flashback chapters. In fact, if I had an entire book of just Maeve and Andrea during their childhood with the Mother Collective, I think it would be such a fantastic read. I found Maeve’s interactions with the Mothers much more unsettling than any other part of the story. There is a part where Maeve gets locked in a closet as punishment, and even though it doesn’t take up much of the chapter, the way it is described was so suffocating that I felt like I was right next to her. The banging from the basement, the little boy under the table hoping for scraps… all of it worked so well. It worked so well that I feel like it lessened the impact of the rest of the story. I’m still dying to know more about the cult. How did it get started? How did the mothers not get caught? How did all of that work? This book definitely isn’t about the cult, even though I wish it had been. Anne Heltzel, if you read this: please write a prequel novella or full-length dive into the Mother Collective. I will buy it immediately.

Maeve, as an adult, was a little too naive for my liking. The red flags started piling up and she just kept waltzing past them like nothing was wrong. Like what? I know that her naivety is part of her character, especially since it’s paired with such deep-rooted trauma… But for someone who keeps the world at arm’s length, she was way too welcoming to Andrea and her friends. After a certain incident that propels the story early on, I would have slowly ghosted that long-lost cousin and moved on with my life.

I personally wouldn’t label this as horror. It read much more like a thriller with some creepy aspects. With that said, it was easy to read and hard to put down. Even though I guessed pretty much every plot twist fairly early on, the story was paced appropriately and the writing sucked me in. This would make a great mini-series or movie. It would have me on the edge of my seat as soon as one of the dolls came on screen. The comparison of The Handmaid’s Tale meets The Stepford Wives really rings true. If you’re a fan of cults, preachy motherhood lifestyles, and quick/easy reads, then this is the book for you!