MY ABSOLUTE FAVOURITE BOOK OF THE YEAR

Never have I read anything so dark, funny, and messed up (and I’ve read Earthlings). Like… every single sentence contains something both gross and wrong, but absolutely poetic. Ex. "Her fourteen-year-old Pomeranian hung from her hip like a colostomy bag.” I'm DEAD 🤣 This book is for people who want something a little different. It’s like one giant psychotic intrusive thought and is basically a satire on what it means to be a wife and mother. Picture American Psycho if Christian Bale were a housewife. I’ve literally never met a more deranged narrator/MC that I love more than this one.

“‘A nursing mother should try to cultivate a cheerful frame of mind.’ A cheerful frame of mind. Just the phrase makes me laugh. How could I ever have expected Cal to root in my gloomy uterus? I need to put a smile on this uterus.” Like, tell me that is not good writing.

Idk.. I just want to be best friends with this writer because she’s a literary mastermind. She’s HILARIOUS. The messed up, dark humour is just absolute perfection.

I wanted to love this book. I did love the quirky retro cover and the premise of a horror story and a haunting. Abby grew up desperately wanting a mother she could love. Her own was present physically but unavailable emotionally. When she marries Ralph, she hopes her mother-in-law, Laura, will fill the need Abby has. But Laura is selfish, cruel, and vindictive. When Laura dies, her ghost haunts Abby and Ralph. But there’s no real horror story, at least, not what I was expecting. There is a lot about Abby and her need for a mother figure. There’s a lot about Abby’s desire for a child so that she can be the best kind of mother she knows she can be. There is a lot of praise for this book so I wondered why it just didn’t appeal to me. Perhaps the expectation that it was a horror story when I felt like it wasn’t? Thanks to NetGalley for the chance to provide an honest review.

Motherthing follows Abby and her downward spiral towards insanity. Abby and her husband Ralph end up moving in with his mom, Laura, due to her depression. Laura is a cruel and narcissistic mother. After living together for a while, they find a bloody Laura, who ends up completing suicide. This leads Ralph to enter his own deep depression and Abby is just...Abby.

I think you either love or are meh about this book. The writing style is not for everyone. I am really conflicted with this book. It is very slow. I almost DNF'd it multiple times in the first half of it. At times I had a hard time following what was going on. I think this was supposed to be intentional, as Abby is an unreliable narrator. The last 20% of the book is where things pick up and I'm glad I kept reading on. I love an unhinged girlie and Abby went 100% wild in the end.

I do agree that this book was marketed in a weird way. This is not a horror story, but does have a ghost..

Thank you to NetGalley, Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group, Vintage for the opportunity to review this book. It was definitely an experience.

A woman desperately haunted by maternal scars that run as deep as Norman's did in Psycho. Abby Lamb is a wife struggling to hold fast to her fragile sanity, reconcile her past, and find ways to form new, healthier familial bonds.

This dark domestic drama is as quirky as it is macabre . . . along with the chills, there's a touch of humor that somehow just works. I believe Horror Fans will love this one!

I'd like to thank NetGalley for an advanced copy of Motherthing for my unbiased evaluation. 4 stars

Expected release date: September 27, 2022

Thank you, NetGalley and Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group for the E- ARC in exchange for an honest review!

Motherthing was NOT what I expected, but that was for the best. I was expecting a funny, possibly lightly spooky ghost story. What I got was so much more terrifying and uncomfortable but in the very best way.

Motherthing is the story of Abby and Ralph, the perfect couple, who were just starting their journey to becoming a family when Ralph’s mother has a mental breakdown and has them move in with her to “help” her. Abby grew up with a terrible mother (basically no mother at all) and hopes this will be her chance to bond with her mother-in-law, Laura, and perhaps have a real mother. Sadly, things turned out quite the opposite and shortly after they move in, Laura kills herself. Ralph falls into a crippling depression and it’s up to Abby to shoulder the burden of the household, taking care of her husband and Mrs Bondy, her favorite resident (whom she refers to as her “baby”) of the long-term care facility she works for. All the while she has daydreams of the baby she is hoping to have conceived and strange sounds coming from the basement, where Laura took her life.

As I mentioned above, I was not expecting this slow descent into madness, the utter bleakness of this story. The things Abby suffered as a woman and a child are horrible and yet the timelines are woven together seamlessly. We see everything through Abby’s eyes/thoughts with occasional breaks that are written like a scene in a play. Perhaps this is when Abby is disassociating? Her descent was written so smoothly that it took a while before I realized, “hmm, maybe Abby is not ok”. Having said that, though, the humor is so good. It’s a dark sort of humor but it’s hilarious nonetheless. I laughed out loud so many times and had to explain to my husband what was so funny. He was then hooked on the story and I had to give him regular updates as to what was happening.

I read this book quickly but not as quick as I could have because the writing was beyond anything I have ever read. I cannot stress enough how MASTERFULLY these sentences were crafted. I would read something and have to sit there and let it marinate in my brain because it was just that good. I savored these words! I wrote them down in my reading journal to come back to later. All this internal monologue Abby has is incredible. At times it’s super relatable and it was comforting to know that other people have had thoughts like this during embarrassing moments or times when you feel alone. Other times, her thoughts were utterly insane but still powerfully written.

I sincerely hope this book gets the attention, exposure and hype that it deserves. I want to see this all over Book Tok, Book Tube, whatever. Hogarth has the golden touch and every word of this story was imbued with power. Do yourself a favor and pick this up when it’s published on September 27, 2022. You won’t regret it. I'd give it 10 stars if I could.

While I loved Abby’s humour and inner monologue, the overall pacing of the book was slow.

Thinking this would be more “horror” than it actually was, I kept waiting for something to happen. Maybe it’s more psychological horror… narcissistic mother in law… shudder.

Definitely a fun read, more than a “scary” one.

Thank you to NetGalley, Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group, and Ainsley Hogarth for a copy.

Oh my god, this is one of my favourite books of the year hands down. I’m absolutely obsessed with this.

Abby lives with her husband Ralph and when his mother suddenly commits suicide he starts to slip into a deep depression. But then one day he says his mother is alive and in the basement. Abby doesn’t believe him, but then we start to witness her own slow descent into madness as she processes grief in her own way.

Things really start to take a turn at the mid-point of this novel. Abby becomes an absolute psycho. Ainslie Hogarth’s writing is absolutely genius, hilarious, disturbing and unique. I was absolutely obsessed with this book by the end. I don’t want to spoil anything that happens but trigger warnings for cannibalism is all I will say.

Honestly it just kept getting better and better. It reminded me a lot of Mrs March and if you loved that book you will love this too. I can’t believe how fucked up and brilliant this was. Forcing everyone to read this immediately.

Five stars - Fresh, weird, gross, funny - an unexpected gem!
PSA to want-to-readers. Read this first page or two before you commit to this one. You will either not want to put it down, you will HATE it with a passion. That’s the tone of the whole book. Don’t be mad if you press on and get something you did not want.
If you enjoy the hot tub conversation, get this book! If you are repulsed, this is not for you.

I loved this book. Little Miss Stingy with the 5 stars, the one who gets irked when non-scary books get labeled horror…. I LOVED this one!

First off, the genre. It’s not scare-horror, and it’s not domestic-thriller-horror… but I don’t think its been mis-genre-d. It’s literary horror? Toxic relationship horror? Very much comedy-horror….

I think the target audience for this is the lightly-traumatized. Those in recovery. Readers with too much intimate knowledge of the subject matter might find it painful, those who had no dysfunction to heal from might not get it.

I have just enough that this line made my stomach drop and hackles rise.
“And I’ve gotta be on tonight, I’ve got to be as much like myself as I can be. Pretend everything is fine and save your family.”

That’s the horror right there. Not hauntings, not a mother-in-law-from-hell… it’s codependency in the EXTREME, and the scary part is relating so hard.

Really happy that I had a chance to review and ARC via Netgalley - I highly recommend for the right reader!

A clever, disturbing read that made me laugh out loud and go a little nauseous. After the death of her mother-in-law, Abby seeks to pull her husband Ralph out of his depression, save her marriage, start a family, and rid their home of her mother-in-law’s ghost. We learn more about Abby throughout the book, following her relationship with her own mother, a childhood comfort couch she called “motherthing,” and a patient she works with who has taken on a mother role in Abby’s mind. With themes of delusion, obsession, trauma, and sacrifice, this book is perfect for anyone interested in the recent “unhinged woman narrator” trend.

This book is for fans of Touch of Jen and Nightbitch, two of my favorite books this year. And, for those involved in the recent book review discourse- this book has dark themes, gross humor, a amultitude of violence- I hate to say, but it’s like Ottessa Moshfegh with more charm and less vitriol towards fat people.

I loved the subtlety used in divulging Abby’s backstory- it felt realistic and not overwrought, which left room for the devastation the information deserved. Hogarth’s narrator is unreliable and (somehow) charming. I was throughly impressed with this new take on a the “monster-in-law” trope, which seems to take generational trauma into consideration.

This is not the story of the ideal mother but rather a “couchy motherthing,” who is quite the opposite. Abby, the narrator, tells the story of her mother-in-law’s death by suicide, as she and her husband, Ralph sit in the waiting room at the hospital. The “mother thing” Laura, not to be confused with Abigail’s own “couchy motherthing” has finally killed herself. All the graphic details are described and explored, yet it never is gross or depressing, it’s actually told in a genuine, realistic, honest, forthright manner that I liked. Highly recommend this book to those who enjoy a different take on mothers, not the June Cleever type, but rather those “mother things” who suffer from mental illness and use their own children as punching bags.

Rating: ⭐⭐
Genre: Horror?

Abby has been missing a mother figure in her life for a long time. When she gets the chance to move with her husband Ralph to her mother-in-law’s house. Abbigail is ready to offer her love and affection to her mother-in-law (Laura). However, Laura is a cruel person and she does not treat her son well to treat his wife decently. After some time, Laura commits suicide but her ghost will still haunt Abby and her husband and cause them terror and fear. Abby will have to help her husband get over his depression and at the same time get rid of Laura’s ghost!

The synopsis of the book is amazing. The cover art gives me the vibes of the 1970s/1980s horror movies. I felt this book had all the ingredients to make it a favorite book for me. Unfortunately, all the good elements that I thought they will make it a fun read did not help. For a start, this is one of those books that I don’t understand what it tries to be when it comes to the genre. This was not horror. It is more like a general fiction novel. I feel this book will suffer due to misleading marketing. It is categorized as horror but totally lacks any horror atmosphere. I think the author had no intention of writing a horror novel but the way the book is marketed might backfire.

Disregarding the genre, I still was not invested in the story’s execution despite the concept being top-notch. Many times I felt nothing was making sense. Not sure whether this was intentional or it was just the author’s writing style. However, I appreciate the subjects presented in the book like mental health, depression, and haunting even if they did not have a strong impact on me. I wanted to love this book but I couldn’t. It was just not the book for me.

Many thanks to the publisher Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group, Vintage, and NetGalley for providing me with an advance reader copy of this book.

This novel follows the stream-of-consciousness narration of Abby, a woman who is struggling to help her husband, Ralph, cope with the loss of his mother. Abby has a very vivid imagination, so the readers are subjected to a lot of off-the-wall ideas.

This novel is classified as a horror novel, which in some respects, is true. Abby can feel herself slowly coming unhinged and being dragged down into Ralph’s depression. There are some graphic parts in the book as well.
The characters in this book all feel very static. Abby is an untrustworthy narrator, and we only ever really see the world through her anxiety and depression surrounding her mother-in-law’s death. Abby is oftentimes making jokes to herself to help cope, which I found to be a nice juxtaposition to the seriousness of the rest of the book. I can also really relate to the beginning stages of Abby’s anxiety.
The plot of this story, while presenting valid issues with anxiety and depression, moves very slowly. It’s a drag up to the final couple of chapters where we reach the plot’s climax. And then everything just dissolves super quickly into the ending. The whole novel was kind of dull for me, but, admittedly, I have trouble with the chaos of stream-of-consciousness writing.

If you’re into the creepy side of mental health, death, and hauntings, you’d probably enjoy this book. It gave me a mix of vibes between Dexter and the Yellow Wallpaper. It was an interesting concept, just not for me.

I wanted to like this book much more than I did.
The cover was amazing, the story was intriguing, but I struggled to really enjoy it all the way.
The character development was very vague and some parts seemed to drag.
Still a fun read.

Motherthing is a dark look into the lives of bad mothers and the effect they have on their children oft times through multiple generations. Author Ainslie Hogarth tried to wrap this tragedy in humor, but it fell flat, mainly because it truly a story about survival and failure to thrive. It’s hard to wrap that in humor.

The book takes place entirely in the head of Abby, a victim of emotional child abuse. She basically had no connection with her mother and mom’s revolving door of disastrous love affairs. Abby was left to seek her own comfort that she found in the soft, cushy sofa she named “Couchy”. Couchy remained a character throughout the book representing the benchmark of good mothering.

Abby eventually marries a momma’s boy named Ralph who seems to have grown up under the constant threat of his mother’s see-saw moods and threats of suicide. The marriage was precarious from the start and the novel opens in a hospital with the couple hearing the news of the inevitable: mom’s suicide attempt was successful.

The novel meanders from neighbors to Abby’s job at an elder care facility introducing more and more characters who all seem to be or have had unhealthy and damaging relationships with mothers. The author addresses mothers past, present and future. The angst and torment reaches an unbelievable crescendo which left this reader with a head shake and an eye roll. This could have been a much better novel if the author didn’t feel that “gross out” equaled humor. Maybe a novel aimed for the teenage boy demographic would be a better forte.

Thank you #NetGalley, #VintageBooks, for this ARC

This dark comedic horror book is not going to be for everyone, but it was definitely for me. Oh my god. I LOVED this book! This was such a fantastic experience, it was dark, funny, quirky, and creepy. I recommend to anyone, who like myself, loves a good unhinged wild ride.
BIG thanks to NetGalley and Knopf Doubleday for the ARC in exchange for my honest review!

This was very interesting as a concept & I was eager to see where it'd go, although I will say that it was a little slow to start. The build up eventually did lead somewhere and there were a few comedic moments throughout, but for something with a ~haunting~ in it, I think I wanted just a *little bit more*. I'll definitely be checking out more from the author in the future!

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.

So this was not what I was expecting but in the weirdest and best way. It was challenging and twisted and funny and sad. It was definitely a mother in law. I just really was thinking it was going one way and then boom it all changes. Okay I am sure I am making no sense just read it and see.

I really wish I could have loved this book as the concept behind it is brilliant. It felt like it took ages for anything to happen especially in regards to the haunting. I kept wondering when it would finally pick up.
I know the book has been pitched as a dark comedy but i found very few genuinely amusing moments. The characters were just too unlikeable for me and I really didn't mind if they were left haunted by the dead mother/mother in law for the rest of the book. The writing is good in terms of the descriptions and there was a few sections that I enjoyed.
Overall I was left disappointed as I think there could have been so much more. It just wasn't very readable for me.

If you’re looking for a spooky ghost story, this isn’t it. BUT if you’re looking for dark comedy, this will definitely do the trick.

All Abby wants is a normal family, with her super good husband and the baby she’s been longing for. After a rough childhood, rotten relationship with her own mother and complicated relationship with her mother-in-law, Abby is dead-set on becoming a mother herself. But she can’t do that, not while the ghost of her recently deceased mother-in-law is haunting her home, her thoughts and her husband and really making moving forward in normalcy impossible. Needless to say, Abby is willing to do whatever she can to get rid of her and get back on track.

I did not anticipate the ending, and it only made me love the whole story more. I laughed way more times in this book than I would admit considering the subject matter, but Ainslie Hogarth is a genius.

I can’t wait for this book to come out because that cover is everything.


Thank you Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group and NetGalley for approving me for a digital arc of this book.