This was such a delightfully bizarre, and darkly humorous read, and I loved every moment of it.

When Abby and her husband, Ralph, move in with Ralph's mother, Abby views it as an opportunity to bond with her mother-in-law and to finally have a mother figure (a motherthing) who will love her, having had an unstable childhood and not much of a mother herself. Instead, what Abby gets is a cruel and manipulative mother-in-law, Laura, who will never approve of her or shy away from a chance to undermine her or cut her down, resentful of Abby and wanting to be the sole recipient of her son's attention.

After Laura commits suicide, Abby believes that it could be a fresh start for her and Ralph, but Laura haunts them both, sending Abby on a desperate quest to save her husband.

Abby was such an outrageous character, and I couldn't help but to feel for her, and I even found myself relating to her at times.

I really enjoyed the writing style of this book, and I thought that Abby and Ralph were brilliant together. Also, that cover! It might just be one of the greatest things I've ever seen.

✨𝘼𝙣 𝙚𝙡𝙙𝙚𝙧𝙡𝙮 𝙗𝙖𝙗𝙮 𝙖𝙣𝙙 𝙖 𝙩𝙤𝙧𝙢𝙚𝙣𝙩𝙚𝙙 𝙝𝙪𝙨𝙗𝙖𝙣𝙙 𝙖𝙣𝙙 𝙖𝙣 𝙪𝙣𝙙𝙚𝙖𝙙 𝙢𝙤𝙩𝙝𝙚𝙧-𝙞𝙣-𝙡𝙖𝙬, 𝙮𝙤𝙪 𝙧𝙚𝙖𝙡𝙡𝙮 𝙘𝙖𝙣 𝙝𝙖𝙫𝙚 𝙞𝙩 𝙖𝙡𝙡✨

𝗕𝗹𝘂𝗿𝗯.
When Abby's mother-in-law takes her life, her ghost haunts Abby and Ralph in different ways leading Ralph into depression. At the same time, Abby develops an unhealthy obsession with one of the residents at the nursing home where she works. And now Abby is fighting alone to save her husband and their relationship while struggling to control her obsession, even if it means doing the unthinkable...

𝗠𝘆 𝗧𝗵𝗼𝘂𝗴𝗵𝘁𝘀.
OMMG! What did I just read😱 Motherthing was such a unique experience.. I just want to say THIS BOOK WAS WEIRD.. VERY WEIRD!!!

To start with, the writing style had different phases. The first phase was incredible, a mix of OMGs and WTFs. I enjoyed the dark humour along with Abby's inner monologue, immensely.

As the plot progresses, the same inner monologue became too much to bear and many things just didn't make sense. The plot is dragged a lot around the mid, making it a bit boring. BUT, suddenly comes the twist turning the plot into a very captivating read. I was totally dumbstruck and still can't process the ending..

This book is a mix of dark humour and horror, but in my opinion, the horror part was not that prominent. Though there were moments veryy creepy and unsettling, and Laura can go-to-hell before she comes and haunts Abby hiding behind a shower curtain.

The way this book tackles depression, motherhood issues, and the descent into madness was terrific. It aptly portrays the phases and emotions one goes through after losing someone and when you have to save others before you lose them forever too..

𝗖𝗼𝗻𝗰𝗹𝘂𝘀𝗶𝗼𝗻.
Overall, it is a captivating read with a tendency to be weird. Filled with dark humour, supernatural and creepy circumstances, this one gives you an unusual adventure of looking into the mind of someone struggling to remain sane amidst all the chaos.

𝗧𝗪: Motherhood issues, Depression, Death of a loved one, Grief, Self-harm, Suicide, Graphic Scenes.

𝘛𝘩𝘢𝘯𝘬𝘴 𝘵𝘰 𝘈𝘪𝘯𝘴𝘭𝘪𝘦 𝘏𝘰𝘨𝘢𝘳𝘵𝘩, 𝘕𝘦𝘵𝘎𝘢𝘭𝘭𝘦𝘺 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘒𝘯𝘰𝘱𝘧 𝘋𝘰𝘶𝘣𝘭𝘦𝘥𝘢𝘺 𝘗𝘶𝘣𝘭𝘪𝘴𝘩𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘎𝘳𝘰𝘶𝘱 𝘧𝘰𝘳 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘦-𝘢𝘳𝘤 𝘪𝘯 𝘦𝘹𝘤𝘩𝘢𝘯𝘨𝘦 𝘧𝘰𝘳 𝘢𝘯 𝘩𝘰𝘯𝘦𝘴𝘵 𝘳𝘦𝘷𝘪𝘦𝘸.

P.S. I looove the cover.. It's so cool and totally apt for the book👌🏼

I could barely make it through this. The main character is selfish and whiny, lying to her husband from the start. Why not just tell him about the ring? It was like she wished her mother in law dead then faked caring to her husband. The whole thing made me uncomfortable and not in an entertaining way.

When Abby’s mother-in-law commits suicide, her world starts to fall apart.

As Abby desperately tries to pull her husband Ralph out of his depression, her grip on reality loosens and she shows how far she’ll go to keep her family together.

While there are some darkly funny moments, this book is permeated with despair. Everyone here is struggling, and the relentless heaviness of the characters becomes uncomfortable to sit with.

As we watch Abby and Ralph spiral in their respective mental illnesses, the story takes a bizarre and horrifying turn.

I’m not really sure how I felt about this book. It’s not what I was expecting; it was horrific, but I’m not sure if I’d classify it as “horror.” I was left feeling conflicted about the ending, and the story as a whole.

I will say, the author does an excellent job creating a tense, desperate atmosphere. I’m going to be thinking about this one for awhile.

Check out this book if you’re looking for a weird, unsettling story where the horror is (mostly) psychological.

Motherthing comes out on Sept. 27, 2022.

Thanks to @netgalley and @vintagebooks for the eARC in exchange for an honest review.

Content warning for suicide and self harm:

What a wild ride! This book tells the story of Abby and Ralph, a married couple who have moved in with Ralph's mother Laura to help her deal with her deteriorating mental health. Laura dies by suicide at the opening of the book, but the couple quickly realize she hasn't truly left them. Unfortunately, in life, as in death, she is cruel and manipulative to both her son and daughter in law. As Ralph's mental health deteriorates, Abby is desperate to save him from the same fate as his mother. She is not without her own demons, and her own unhealthy, and just odd, coping mechanisms. This description makes it sound like a garden variety, sad book about mental health and generational curses but this book is so weird, it's just impossible to put into a review without ruining it. There are so many components and bizarre twists and turns. It's about the damage that we do to each other without trying, and the damage we do in the name of saving each other, and how one person's villain is another's hero. I really enjoyed it, even if it made me a little sick at times. Would highly recommend to anyone with a taste for the macabre and the strange.

Thanks to NetGalley and Knopf Doubleday Publishing for the free ARC in exchange for an honest review.

DNF at 54%. Idk what the heck is going on in this book and I’m so bored I don’t even care. Going into this I expected more of a horror/creep factor and up until this point I have gotten neither.


Abby is excited when her mother in law Laura moves in with her and her husband Ralph. In her mind this is the perfect opportunity to build their relationship. However, Laura is very critical, judgmental and down right mean to Abby making Abby’s home life a nightmare. Abby escapes to her job spending her days caring for Mrs. Bondy her favorite patient at the nursing home she works at. Mrs. Bondy has become a mother figure for her and the two have formed a strong bond.

Laura takes her own life and Abby and Ralph take her loss very differently. Ralph sinks into a deep depression and Abby is growing paranoid someone or something is trying to destroy her happy home. When Abby hears that her beloved Mrs. Bondy may be moving it completely shatters her. Abby comes up with a plan to help her husband, keep Mrs. Bondy close and get rid of Laura once and for all.

Thank you to Netgalley and Knopf Doubleday Publishing group for this arc in exchange for my honest review.

A scary, domestic horror that is also weirdly funny in some places. A Mother-in-Law from hell gets even worse upon her death and has her daughter-in-law, Abby, fighting for her family. Weirdly creepy and extremely entertaining. Also, that cover!

*Special thanks to NetGalley and Vintage for an e-arc of this novel.*

Ralph and Abby Lamb decide to move in with Ralph's mother, Laura, now that she is old and needs help around the house. Laura has always been a manipulative and selfish woman, she loves her son but she wants to be the only woman in his life: Abby will never be good enough for her Ralphie.
When Laura takes her own life, her ghost haunts them in different ways: Ralph feels the symptoms of a depression relapse, while Abby is scared that this will be the ending of her relationship... but she is determined to do anything to save her marriage.

Motherthing is such a unique story of love, pain, trauma and... weird food (what the hell is jelly salmon??). It's hilarious, intriguing, WEIRD and hard to put down. This is not a ghost story, there's no haunted house here, but we do have two very complicated main characters, with a traumatic past and witty sense of humor, that you'll fall in love with.
Abby Lamb's stream of consciousness is fascinating, dark, very funny and very scary at the same time: is she a victim or a perpetrator? At a certain point she even shocked me (no, not during her last tasty recipe) when I suddenly noticed that I did have some of her same thoughts in the past - still do at times. Mmm maybe I need therapy again...

Ainslie Hogarth's writing style is interesting and fresh, it reminded me of Chuck Palahniuk and Jen Beagin and it's weirdly charming. I wouldn't necessarily label this book as horror, but it does have its dark moments (please check TWs): it may not be for everyone, but it was certainly for me! I absolutely loved every single page, every single weird joke and odd recipe in this book!
Also: can we just appreciate that amazing cover for a moment? I want to hang that on my wall.
5 stars.

* I'd like to thank Ainslie Hogarth, Knopf Doubleday and NetGalley for providing a copy of this book in exchange for my honest review.

I was expecting a spooky, horror book based on the description, but that’s not really what this book is. After Abby’s difficult mother-in-law dies, Abby is at first thrilled. She is sure that now she and her husband, Ralph, will have a child and be free of his mom. However, soon it seems like her mother-in-law’s ghost has returned to haunt their house. It is less spooky and more a commentary on depression seemingly. I also just didn’t like the narrator and found her annoying.

I received my copy from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

📚Book 36 of 2022: Motherthing by Ainslie Hogarth

💬Reader’s digest version: Abby has a problem: a toxic mother-in-law and a husband with major mommy issues. Even after her death, the specter of her mother in law’s presence still casts a shadow over the lives of Abby and her husband, Ralph. Abby pulls out all the stops to get her husband back from the death grip of his mother and loses her own grip on reality in the process.

🏃🏻‍♀️My Take: Buckle up for this one is all I have to say. This book is packed with dark, domestic horror, beyond gory imagery, and little spouts of humor along the way. If you’ve ever read Bunny by Mona Awad, this book has a similar vibe.

I’m still in a place of WTF with this one. There are parts of this book that made me want to vomit, scream, and laugh out loud. It’s perfect for spooky season, but I will warn you..it is not for the feint of heart.

🙏🏻Big thanks to @netgalley and @vintagebooks for the Arc. This book hits the shelves on September 27, 2022

I love a horror novel that makes me laugh -- Hogarth's MOTHERTHING is the perfect blend of unsettling dread and nervous laughter. Abby and Ralph's married-couple repartee is fabulously realistic, and I was immediately sucked into Abby's narrative voice. What a horrible charmer! Every inch of the novel was thrilling and terrible, from the jellied salmon to the blood-soaked basement carpet. I will certainly be stocking Hogarth's books and recommending them enthusiastically!

Do not be deceived by the fun cover and synopsis. This is not a spooky book about a haunted couple. This is a dark story about two mentally unwell individuals dealing with infertility and the traumatic event of their mother/mother in law committing suicide. By the time you reach the end, your are probably going wtf?! or at least I was lol. If you know that going in and it sounds like your cup of tea, this is def the book for you!

So dark and likely one that readers will either love or hate, especially depending on their relationship with their mother in law. Abby's mother in law Laura is a horror story who is relentless in her small and large digs and her constant threat that she will commit suicide- and then she does. Abby's left to deal with the fall out, especially on her long suffering and quite nice husband Ralph who seems to be haunted by her. At the same time, she's working at a care home and her favorite patient might be leaving. How Abby resolves all of this is at the heart of this novel of psychological horror, And then there's the chicken a la king. I'd not read Hogarth before but I'll look for her again. Thanks to Netgalley for the ARC. A very good read.

The writing style got to me. It was just a free flow stream of words and there are times it tripped me up. Otherwise a very interesting and kept my attention wondring what in the world was next.

Incredible! Weird! So much I did not see coming in this novel about grief, mental illness, and *spoiler alert* cannibalism?! So messy and intricate and gut punching. Would love to know more of this world!

This one just wasn't really for me. I definitely thought that it was quite funny in some ways, and I liked that Hogarth approached it in a unique stream of consciousness writing style as it felt really unique and experimental. But I think that my expectations based on the description set me up for one thing, and it was something completely different. This is less a fun domestic horror story about the ghost of a vengeful mother in law, and more an examination of a woman in the midst of a significant mental break. It is more of a weird fiction horror tale than the tongue in cheek story I was anticipating. Perhaps if I had my expectations managed a bit better it would have been a better fit, but as it was I just didn't connect to it so well.

MOTHERTHING didn't work for me, but it may work for others.

"A mother's love is devoted. Consuming."

The last time my mother-in-law visited, she stayed for 9 days. She offered an unending litany of complaints: my sons' hair (too long), the meals we served (too exotic), the portions (too generous).
She carped and nagged about everything from the size of the ice cubes in her glass to the color of my neighbor's fence. The day I put her on the plane bound for Arizona (nonstop, as she refuses to change planes), ranks as one of the happiest of my life, right up there with the births of my two long-haired boys.

I can't imagine the hell it would be if I ever had to live with her.

Dear Abby got to experience that hell on a daily basis when she and her hubby, Ralph, moved into his mother's home to help the old gal cope. While Mother Laura dotes on her son, she's snotty and nasty to her humbled daughter-in-law. When Laura commits suicide (leaving a huge mess for Abby to clean up, of course), it seems as though life might improve for our hapless heroine, but just like unpleasant guests who overstay their welcome . . . Laura refuses to leave. One visit to a fortune teller later, Abby learns the terrifying truth:

"Your mother-in-law, she's with you, with your husband technically, and she's very angry. She'd rather see her son dead than alive with you."

Looks like some pretty drastic measures could be called for here, and, DAMN - does Abby EVER do DRASTIC in a BIG WAY!

Abby is a fascinating character, a tormented soul who was abused by her own mother, she is bursting with love to give, to her husband, residents of the nursing home where she works, and to the much-wished-for, unborn child she is desperately longing to nurture. This was laugh-out-loud funny, but also bleak, tense, and insanely disturbing. It will definitely not be for everyone, but for those who like their humor BLACK AS THE DEVIL'S COFFEE, this is highly, highly recommended.

Extremely thankful to NetGalley and Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Ainslie Hogarth's 'Motherthing' is certainly a powerful read.

The story follows a young couple that experience a traumatic event that leave them both agonizing and longing (for different reasons). This event changes their perspective on everything and triggers certain past childhood traumas that are related with HEAVY Mother Issues. All of these issues told from death, horror and ghosts.

Furthermore, our main protagonist seems egotistical and envious, a truly unlikable character. Her decisions, choices and inner voice can make you quarrell with yourself and go through actual pain, but also can be very relatable in some aspects. Something that will definitely make you uncomfortable. I really like the way that the author explores the dark cavities of co-dependancy and mental health issues when one is in a relationship. How hard it can be to be with someone as damaged as you are, and how magnetizing it can feel at times. The roar and the lighting of such moments when you are in love, gripping, exciting, all of it precious, tiny parts of your insignificant life in the hands of something bigger, what we call universe and what we call love. The experiences all magnified by our brains when it felt like there was nothing. But we all know it is not like that. It is not as romantic as your brain makes you believe. And Hogarth perfectly achieves that feeling. The horrifying sense of knowing that it is not true and you still have problems. The other person is not an extension of your persona. None of the things that you have built in your brain are real. You can not save them. Can't you?

I give this book a 3.75 stars (4 stars rounded) ! Highly recommend it if you are into the unlikeable female character / depressed moving woman literary genre.

MOTHERTHING by ainslie hogarth depicts abby and her husband ralph following the suicide of his mother laura.

deep in the throes of grief, ralph’s mental health quickly deteriorates, made clear by the fact that he is convinced his dead mother has rejoined him as a ghost in the basement.

abby remains detached from grief due to her long-standing hatred of laura; in fact, abby is convinced ralph should set his grief aside to finally move out of laura’s house and have the baby they’d always dreamed of.

at first, the novel closely aligns with the marketing of the book: “a darkly funny domestic horror novel”; however, the plot and characters deepened in complexity more than expected. there were moments i was laughing out loud, but as abby’s mental health also unfolds, i discovered a deeply wounded character working through past traumas, grief, and womanhood.

the ghost of the mother in law is not the focus of the book as anticipated; simply the catalyst for abby’s psychological unraveling.

the focus is actually the ghosts of childhood trauma, mother-daughter dynamics, codependency, and objectification.

and hogarth writes these demons with droll humor and incisive depth — along with the perfect balance of absolute atrocity 👻

for all these reasons and more, i loved MOTHERTHING and hope you all read it so we can all process that ending together 👀

OUT SEPTEMBER 27! thank you @vintageanchorbooks @netgalley for the advanced copy of the book!

5/5 ⭐️

This book is so cringy!! It's weird, cringy and uncomfortable! Typically I'd be ok with those descriptions but not this time. That's all that was happening. I expected more from the ghost and the haunting and was let down. It was barely even a thing! The pace did pick up after the halfway point but just not enough...until the last 10%! That alone bumped it up a whole star! Didn't see it coming at all! I had my hand on my forehead saying "whaaat??!!" There was a teeny tiny thing at the very end that I thought was gonna be another great twist but no, kind of a missed opportunity there. Love the cover though!