Motherthing was the perfect blend of humor, horror, and what-the-f*ck is happening. I loved every hilarious and mildly terrifying second of it. The cover is absolute *chefs kiss.* I would recommend this to anyone with a sense of humor, a strong stomach, and possibly someone who read and enjoyed NightBitch

Mothering is a comic tragedy or a tragic comedy. Bad things and sad things happen, but all and all it is a clever, witty story. Some lines were so funny that I laughed out loud while reading. There was one big twist I never saw coming. The things we do for love....

Poor Abby had a brutal childhood, finally found love, only to be haunted by her crabby, dead mother-in-law. When I read ghost stories, I wonder if these are ghosts or mental illness. Motherthing has both going on. The way Abby breaks the haunting is not the normal way of doing things. (If there is a normal way of getting rid of a ghost.)

We have some blood, vomit, and chewed up bread getting caught in Abby's hair. The spraying bread gagged me out more than the blood, but that's the way I am.

Thanks to Netgalley and Vintage for allowing me to read, review, and gag over soggy bread in Motherthing.

This was such a fun and wild story! I thought this was a fast pace and entertaining book! I loved the characters and felt I could relate to some of them. Overall, fun and quirky with enough suspense to keep me going. Such a fun read that I will be telling my friends about!

Interesting and engaging opening and premise but I found the dialogue and plot development a bit trite. Might try it again later though.

This book is literally insane. Be ready for stream of consciousness that moves to scenes like a movie. That part took me off guard but having had depression, I get it and like this gimmick. I would say it's like "The Yellow Wallpaper" but this one also brings is ghosts and demons--or the idea of. It's up to the reader to decide.
Honestly, I wish I had a third-party epilogue to hear about the fallout.

The title and premise were so intriguing. This book is so confusing, I never knew what was going on. I feel like scenes were thrown in just for an ick factor and nothing about this worked. Disappointed.

this was such a creepy and at times disturbing book, I was OBSESSED. all throughout this book, I was waiting for something to happen that would keep me up at night but by the end of it I realized that “something” was the writing. Hogarth is able to write about a story with characters that are so hauntingly real, THAT’S what kept me up at night! her ability to keep you so engaged in the story like this is incredible (at times I felt like I was one of the characters themselves.) I initially went into this thinking it would be horror but quickly realized it’s psychological with a little bit of paranormal aspects which made this book even more enjoyable.

This is such a sick, disturbing book!! I loved it!! Excellent, twisted explorations of motherhood, wifehood, femininity, depression, and love. Definitely a top reading experience for me this year.

5/5

4/5 stars

What the actually f**k did I read? It was creepy and raw and terrifying in the best ways possible.

I loved the concept of mental haunting and actual ghost haunting, but also portrayed the stages of grief in a real way. I found Abby to be just as creepy as Laura, but obviously in drastically different ways. Her directness and eccentric personality irked me in both good and bad ways, and I always felt weird reading.

Sometimes she’d go off on long tangents that weren’t really my thing and bored me, but that was the only time I felt truly bored during the whole book. It was a lot slower than I thought it was going to be, but that only added to the eerieness.

Other than that, I’m speechless. What was that ending?!?!?

Thanks to NetGalley and Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group for the e-ARC!

Dark and incredibly thrilling, poignant and possessed, this book reads like a roller coaster through trauma and generational depression. I absolutely loved it, was horrified by it, and will spend too much of my life thinking about it in the back of my mind. Hogarth’s writing is SO GOOD, I’ll read anything she writes from this point forward. This is a great recommendation for any horror lover, especially those who aren’t squeamish.

This book was crayyy zeee. It all started out as normal as any other domestic couple can seem. Then Abby’s world spiraled out of control.

Synopsis: Ralph’s mother committed suicide and appears to Ralph after her death. Abby, Ralph’s wife, feels bad for him because he is grieving in an unhealthy way. I can’t divulge any more than this, I’m sorry to say.

Quote- “he flinches. Not because I am close, but to let me know not to come any closer. “I’m okay”. He smiles but his eyes are glazed cherries and his face is a yanked rag spent from a hook.”

“Negativity was Laura’s (mother in law) mysticism, and maybe that powerful negativity has kept her here on earth.”

🎥 movie to go with this read- Falling Down with Michael Douglas. Because when you’re having a bad day or week, shit happens and you do stuff.

🥨 Snack- jellied salmon with crackers, because eww.

Overall, this was a good read and Hogarth is a fantastic writer

If you are looking for a spook, this book is probably for you! BUT, be warned - of the many triggers, which include but are not limited to gore, violence, foods, & so on. It is VISCERAL!

From the first words in the book, we are gripped by the experience that character Abby and her husband Ralph are faced with. Ralph’s mother, the MIL/Motherthing in question, has committed suicide in the basement of the house which the three of them shared together.

Ralph descends into a depressive state, contemplating what he could have done better as a son. He also won’t leave their basement & Abby wants to know why.

Feverishly, Abby clings to her beloved cookbook and tries saving her family with food like the jiggly jellied salmon dish. But Ralph isn’t that hungry and he’s a bit preoccupied entertaining his zombie/ghost Motherthing in the basement.

Will Abby be able to reckon with her hatred for her deceased mother in law, and in a grand gesture to save her family, can she pull her Ralph out of the darkness of grief?

You’ll just have to see for yourself!

Ey, thanks, NetGalley, for giving me an e-arc of this book! I swear I read it right away, but in typical Potato fashion, I took 1000 years to review it. ON THE BRIGHT SIDE, ODDLY ENOUGH, I saw Pearl (A24) the other night and it actually made me like this book more. I was truly on the fence before this week, but now, I SEE!

I think the reason I had a hard time deciding how I felt about this book is because I can't connect to the protagonist/narrator AT ALL. I do think that if you are married or in a long-term relationship where you interact regularly with your S.O.'s mother, who isn't as fond of you as your S.O. would like, you would find this book hilarious and relatable.

But Abby (the aforementioned protagonist) is also someone who wants to be loved and wants to give love (wants to practically smother her husband and her charges with it), and I am the cartoon Grinch from days of yore, back before his heart increased in size. I do feel bad for her, because she had a horrible childhood with a mother that chose to pay attention to an endless string of boyfriends instead of to her daughter. Young!Abby was so desperate for motherly attention and comfort that she started to project her feelings onto the living room couch and view it as a "motherthing", the way those baby monkeys in that one horrific real-life experiment with the surrogate sock-mothers did.

So I can see why her mother-in-law's scorn and disapproval would bring back bad thoughts and memories, especially since Abby's husband is a mama's boy and he is also the ONLY person Abby truly has to rely on in her life. She has no friends (just coworkers who are nice, but who she barely tolerates because of her own insecurities), no family, just him. And he seems to be in somewhat the same boat, except with the overbearing mother who he loves to the point that he can't let her go even after death (or she won't let him go-- I can't really decide). Talk about unhealthy! The obsessiveness and the downward spiral do make for fun horror, though.

Another thing that bothered me about this book (and this is a me-being-a-germaphobe problem, so as usual, it doesn't factor into the rating) were the gross descriptions of everyday things, like the smell after you lie in bed without showering for a week or how disgusting and unclean sex is when you REALLY think about it (which is why it's better to do and not think, lol), and MOST OF ALL, how much the characters don't seem to care! EUGH! *SCRUNCHES UP NOSE*

Equal parts horrifying and hilarious, and such a delight to read! Couldn't stop guffawing at Abby's internal monologues, some of which sound like my own, tbh. From a fellow Jellied Salmon.

Motherthing is an experience. I dare you to ask anyone to properly explain to you what this book is, and I can almost guarantee you that they’ll tell you that you just have to read it to find out.

Preferably the audiobook. So immersed by the narrator that you’ll feel like you’re sitting down with Abby and she’s unloading this onto you, every single twisted and demented thing.

Motherthing is lowkey kind of feeling like the white woman’s ‘Earthlings’ (by Sayaka Murata) …and I’m not entirely mad at it. Confused, sure. But I am definitely thinking about it (chewing on it??) for the next few days.

WHEW.

Sadly, I would have liked this book more if the book description didn’t give it all away. It felt like watching a trailer for a funny movie and being disappointed when you watch the movie and the only funny parts were already shown in the trailer. I did enjoy Hogarth’s mix of prose with screenplay to demonstrate the parts of our leading lady’s life that were real vs imagined and how these blurred over time. I think additional points of view from the mother or the husband would have been welcome to make this a more nuanced and layered story. Overall, this sometimes funny, sometimes freaky novel was enjoyable, but the fact all major (and even minor) plot points fit neatly into a one paragraph summary was disappointing.

An easy read that kept me engaged with thoughtful characters and storyline - I’ll keep an eye for this author, no doubt!
Thanks Netgalley and the publisher for the ARC opportunity!

"The night Ralph's mother flayed her forearms, a woman in a red dress handed him a business card."

You know by the cover and the opening line that Motherthing is going to be a wild ride. It is razor sharp (no pun intended) and twisted. There are three main characters: Ralph's mother Laura, Ralph, and his wife, Abby. Abby's mother appears just long enough to provide some background on Abby's life.

In life, there are many types of bad mothers but those with Borderline Personality Disorder are some of the worst. They are extremely needy, manipulative; unpredictably vacillating between love and hate. Suicide threats and gestures are common. Laura's death was not accidental but she was still manipulative and destructive even in death. Abby's mother, in contrast, felt like a nothing without a man in her life, any man would do. Her daughter's needs were never a consideration.

Now, Ralph is not a bad guy, Sort of a Mr. Milquetoast with episodes of severe depression. Abby wants to be a good person and a perfect wife but has no idea how to be in a healthy relationship. Following his mother's death, Ralph quickly spirals downward and Abby will do anything to save him. But Abby's solutions are cringeworthy at best. Horrible things happen and I was smiling and laughing. What the heck!

Motherthing is not a book for everyone but exactly who it is for I have no idea but it is worth checking out.

I received a drc from the publisher via Netgalley.

MOTHERTHING is unlike anything you've experienced - it's heavy, weird, scary, provocative, and downright fun. Also, no spoilers but I told you cannibalism was in!

This creepy book, perfect for October, starts with Abby's live-in mother in law dying, and Abby's desperate attempts to help her depression-prone husband fall into a depressive state. But there is so much more to the story. There are possible ghosts, murders, the stealing of heirlooms, weird food, and a sense of foreboding that is palpable. You will not be able to anticipate what comes next, and this wild book has made me such a fan of Ainslie Hogarth.

Also, this cover! Even better after you read the book.

I adored this book, even (especially?) when it got completely bonkers, and so much darker than I expected. I love love love when women write Weird, and I quadruple love when they really double down on the bizarre - this did that and then some. Still smiling to think about it, weeks after finishing it. Definitely recommend if Weird Horror is your bag.