Creepy! I was intrigued by the idea behind the book and it did not disappoint. It wasn't what I was expecting at all. Abby and Ralph are the "perfect couple" but Ralphs' mother comes in the middle of the relationship. If you've seen the romantic comedy "Monster in Law" featuring Jennifer Lopez and Jane Fonda, you will probably like this book. This book is like the Grimm Fairytale version of the movie. It tackles some very heavy topics so please read the trigger warnings. They were handled in a that shows the effects of someone's actions on other people and their emotions. It's scary and it may be uncomfortable, but I think it reflects what that's really like for people in reality. I definitely think this would be worth reading, especially during the spooky season!

Hmmmmm. What in the world did I just read.
I think I can summarize this one up with one main word: Bizarre!!! Very very bizarre.
I didn’t dislike it but I definitely didn’t love it either.
Has a little bit of everything (trigger warnings as well) but just all around buzzard.

I have to say I was really looking forward to reading this and felt super excited when I got the ARC from NETGALLEY.

The description basically telling me that a young wife is now haunted by the ghost of her mother in law. That premise sounds amazing and was why I requested the book.

In theory that’s what this book is about, in execution it’s actually trying to say a lot about grief, motherhood and depression. Our protagonist Abby and her husband Ralph are reeling from Ralph’s mothers death and Ralph is slipping deep into a depression and is adamant that the ghost of his mother is haunting their basement.

Abby must do anything she can to bring Ralph out of it and she goes to some extreme measures for sure. I wouldn’t classify this book as horror at all (except maybe one scene). This is more of a psychological meditation about the effects of grief on a marriage. It’s also about the meaning of motherhood and what it means to be there for someone.

The writing is great and I’m glad this book exists. I’m giving it 3 stars because it wasn’t exactly what I expected or wanted and that was disappointing. While I enjoyed the writing there are definitely parts that felt like a slog to get through for sure.

If you want a more literary take on the horror genre this might be for you.

What it’s like:
Mother meets Hand that Rocks the Cradle
Men meets Ghost

Book Grades:
Plot Development and Pacing - 90/100
Character Development - 90/100
Theme and Subject Matter - 90/100
Writing Style - 90/100
Reader Engagement - 75/100

Overal Grade: 87% - B OR 3/5 Stars

Thank you to NetGalley for an ARC in exchange for an honest review

WHAT THE FREAKING HECK I JUST READ!

This is BOLD, BLEAK,PROVOCATIVE , TERRIFYING, DISTURBING! Not for everyone! It’s not an horror story! It’s quirky, intelligent, harsh, depressing, shaking you to the core kind of psychological drama with filled with so many sensitive, triggering subjects like suicide, mental illness, mutilation, rape, psychological and verbal abuse, parental abuse!

There are some extreme explicit graphic chapters make your stomach revolt and your blood run cold! Definitely hard to digest and accept!

The author chose truly different subjects and brought them out without sugarcoating. The situations the characters have to get through extra complex, overwhelming, horrifying. Writing style is comfortable, direct, razor sharp witty with extra dark sense of humor vibes.

Summary of plot: Abigail works at nursing home, taking care of elder people, achieving a great job even though she’s yearning the emptiness of caring mother figure in her life.

She’s married to the nicest man Ralph. But this lovely man comes with a baggage. A mother who treats him unfairly. When three of them live together, we realize Ralph’s mom Laura suffers from borderline disorder that makes her more cruel and suspicious about the entire men community’s true intentions. She thinks all those men are monsters so she treats her son like a garbage. Abby also gets her share of meannesses.

At the opening of the book Laura commits suicide. She cannot survive. And she literally haunts the poor couple at their house, putting Ralph at the edge of nervous breakdown.

Abigail tries so hard to help her husband but her restrained mother issues start to emerge after Mrs. Bondy: her favorite resident in the nursing house she deeply cares is about to leave the place because of her daughter’s stubbornness.

Abby doesn’t want to lose the only person who is closer to a perfect mother figure to her. Dealing with Mrs. Bondy’s daughter triggers her memories from the past! And the motherhhing comes out from her hiding space!!!!

Overall: this book terrified me! It hurt me! It truly disturbed me! But I have to say it’s truly well written and worth your energy!

I think It shook me harder than most of the horror books! Maybe this book’s genre can be defined as psychor ( something in the middle psychological thriller and horror)

Many thanks to NetGalley and Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group/ Vintage for sharing this digital reviewer copy with me in exchange my honest opinions.

Motherthing
by Ainslie Hogarth

Thank you, NetGalley, ALFRED A. KNOPF publishing for the chance to read an advance copy of Motherthing.
Well, it was very different than the norm. Which is not at all a bad thing. I laughed, and then felt creepy things. Very original and one of the retro cover was great as well.

Big thanks to Vintage/ Penguin publishing also Netgalley for the ARC.
What a strange quirky book. After moving into his mothers house to help her deal with her depression, Ralph and Abby come home to find her dead in the den after an apparent suicide. As Ralph sinks into a spiral of depression, Abby makes it her mission to save her husband from his demons by ANY means necessary.
3.75/5⭐️

First, , thank you to #NetGalley and Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group for a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.
I adore this cover art so much. It’s what first drew me to the book. This is the story of Abby, her husband Ralph and Ralph’s mother Laura. Laura has mental health issues and falls into a depression and Ralph and Abby move in to help her. Laura commits suicide and then haunts them. Abby must save them both.
I don’t know if horror is the correct genre. It was weird and disturbing, kind of gross in areas. Gross ranging from jellied salmon to a lot of period blood. This story deals a lot with mental health issues so check trigger warnings. So, although I didn’t love this book, I didn’t dislike it either.

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.