Just too creepy and disturbing… That was the reason I did not finish Ms. Stage’s “Baby Teeth” and I’m afraid that’s the reason I had to finally put down “Mothered” one last time (after multiple starts over 5 months and waiting “to be in the right mood”). I’m more disappointed in myself and I now realize that pandemic horror/thrillers are a sub-genre I want to avoid. This is another battle of wills between mother and daughter (except this time the daughter isn’t 7 years old, as in “Baby Teeth”) and maybe having a super creepy older woman made this worse. I stopped being curious about the scissors on the cover and the dead twin aspect threw me for a loop. I’m rating it as 3 stars — a neutral review from me. There’s probably an audience out there for “Mothered” (like the fans of “Baby Teeth”) and chances are they’ll appreciate this narrative. Fellow reviewers that I respect did like “Mothered”.

Thank you to Thomas and Mercer and NetGalley for an advanced reader copy in exchange for an honest review!

Relatively expositional, slow-burn title with mostly character driven story that relied heavily on pandemic elements for atmosphere.

Love love love this one!
I feel like I haven’t read a good horror book in a long time and this one absolutely delivered. I couldn’t get enough. I loved it! I usually get irritated by an unreliable female narrator but this one was just so well done. Lots of suspense and some body horror. Obvious mommy issues and pandemic fears. So good.
Thanks to NetGalley for an advanced copy in exchange for an honest review.

A domestic thriller that tells the tale of a complicated relationship between a mother and daughter. When old wounds come brimming to the top, what could go wrong? A pandemic story that will keep you on your toes and keep you guessing. This story is wild ride for sure! (Call your mom!)

Disclaimer: Thank you to NetGalley and Thomas & Mercer for this ARC copy, I received this review copy for free, and I am leaving this review voluntarily.

Mothered is a chilling, scary story that will keep you at the edge of your seat. The author has captured so perfectly the fallout of a pandemic when relationships are pushed to the limit and tensions escalate quickly.

This book has the mother (pun intended) of messed up toxic mother-daughter relationships at its core. Throw in the death of a sibling at a young age and its associated trauma, and the author has created the perfect storm with a supernatural twist to keep your eyes glued to the pages.

The only element I struggled with were the dream sequences - is Grace awake or is she dreaming? The lines are blurred so often in this story, that it gets hard to tell what’s in her head and what actually is happening around her.

Deliciously dark and twisted, Mothered is out on March 1st 2023.

Thanks to NetGalley and publishers for the arc!

This book is a real page-turner but oh-so unsettling. It's strangely relatable when you've lived through the pandemic, and you remember the uncertainty and feelings of scarcity. The author does a great job of capturing the emotions of that moment. Thanks for the advance review copy.

What took me so long to read this book? I downloaded it several months ago and read it only now, as I am trying to wrap up all the books I wanted to read in 2022.
This definitely was not an easy read. But it was sooo good nonetheless. The book is horrible, horribly good, awfully tragic, awfully awesome, and awesomely scary. I know it is my very own past experiences speaking here, me being able to relate to the main character and her family dynamic struggles. If you have grown up in an unhealthy household and struggled with relationships with your parents long into your own adulthood, you might be able to relate on some level, but I sincerely hope that there are not too many of those like me out there.
What I loved most about this book was this weird ability to see someone spiral in all the bad possible ways and know it is not me who is spiraling there. I am still safe here, in the comfort of my own home, and I get to witness closely and intimately the struggles of someone else. Someone who is entirely made up and not real but described in such fine detail that it makes it feel real.
What this book was about for me: a mother who has done everything she can for her daughter not to want her a part of her life, who then moves to live with the said daughter and keeps doing everything in her power to ruin whatever chance of peaceful co-habiting they might ever have possibly had. And there is no happy ending. Not the slightest bit of a happy ending.
What I also loved about this book: the slight hint of something possibly paranormal, extrasensory, but mentioned only as a tiny, remote hint. Definitely not too much to ruin the story.
I know many people hate that the book takes place during the pandemic. The author never calls it C19, but the similarities are there. I saw it as something that made the story more relatable, not annoying or triggering.
Oh, and did I say I absolutely loved the book? Yup, absolutely loved the book!

There are unreliable narrators and then there are Zoje Stage’s unreliable narrators. There’s no contest. When it comes to unreliable narrators, the ones Ms. Stage creates are the very best. Ms. Stage, if you already don’t know, a few years ago wrote a superb novel called Baby Teeth. At that time, I read Baby Teeth and started out not sure that I would like it because the plot was, I thought, likely to be maudlin and melodramatic. It was nothing of the sort. After reading two chapters I was hooked.

Now comes her new release, Mothered. It’s completely different from Baby Teeth in which a mother is terrorized by her young daughter. This time it’s an elderly mother who brings back Grace’s childhood baggage. But, as this is a Zoje Stage book, it’s not just baggage. It’s more like a baggage car chock full of horrors.

The book is set during the covid-19 pandemic in which the main character, Grace, had recently bought a house and then found herself out of her job as a hairstylist when her employer decided to close the business.

Next, Grace’s mother, Jackie, suggests that she move in with Grace. After all, her second husband recently died and left her some money. She can, she says, help pay the bills for Grace so she doesn’t lose her house. This is not altogether a good idea because to say that Grace and Jackie have a strained relationship would be a gross understatement. Still, seeing no other option, Grace agrees to the plan.

Grace quickly finds that she made a mistake in allowing Jackie to move in. Grace starts having nightmares and flashbacks to disturbing incidents from her childhood and is no longer able to tell what is and isn’t reality, particularly when it comes to her twin sister’s death. It is at this point that the horror element the author has been developing really kicks in. Ms. Stage is such a good writer that I found myself pulled into a plot as masterful as anything ever written by Hitchcock such that as the plot progressed, just like Grace, I could no longer discern what was real and what was not.

Meanwhile, Jackie is shocked to find out that Grace is an online catfisher. But Jackie herself is not without her own flaws: she is overbearing, passive-aggressive and judgmental. Grace’s problems and the tension between the two women continues to mount. Is Grace having a mental breakdown? Or is Jackie manipulating her by gaslighting her?

Were I able to, I would give this book six stars. It’s that good. Few writers can successfully merge the elements of horror genre fiction with those of traditional literary fiction, but as she did in Baby Teeth, Ms. Stage proves herself to be supremely adept in accomplishing the task.

Thank you to Thomas & Mercer and NetGalley for this ARC in exchange for an honest review!

When I saw that the author of Baby Teeth had a new book out, I knew that I needed to add it to my TBR list right away! Mothered by Zoje Stage revolves around Grace, whose mother Jackie recently moved in with her. But they don't have the best relationship. Back when she was a kid, her mother always favored Grace's disabled twin sister Hope. Now that they're living together, old memories are resurfacing. What secrets is Grace's mother hiding?

Here is a gripping excerpt from Chapter 1:

"Two weeks of lockdown became three. One month became two.
Grace whirled around the “office” in her new rolly chair, angrily pushing off the wall with her bare feet. She’d never had space for an office before. At present it was a mostly empty room, with a cheap IKEA desk in the corner—one of the mix-and-match styles where you picked the tabletop and legs separately.
“Grace?” her mother squawked in her ear. After barely talking once a month for decades, Jackie had been calling every other day for weeks; her life had been upended—first by her husband Robert’s mysterious illness and death, and then by her own health scare. Now she was waiting for an answer to a simple question: What’s wrong?"

Overall, Mothered is an amazing thriller and horror blend that will appeal to fans of Sharp Objects or Netflix's Clickbait. One highlight of this book is the eerie, odd atmosphere that kept me constantly on edge. Another highlight of this book is that it is absolutely terrifying. It gave me nightmares and made me afraid to go to sleep at night. If you're intrigued by the excerpt above, or if you're a fan of thrillers in general, I highly recommend that you check out this book when it comes out in March!

I wanted to love this book but it fell flat for me. Some pieces of it were the disturbing world you’d expect from the author, but ultimately those pieces were small snippets and this just wasn’t the dream thriller I thought it would be. (See what I did there? IYKYK)

This book is every single person's nightmare. Grace's mother, newly widowed, moves in with her at the beginning of the COVID pandemic, to save on rent, and seemingly make life easier for them both. While they both have unresolved issues in their past, Grace vows to attempt to make things work with Jackie, since she needs her help with the rent.

When Jackie moves in, Grace begins to have nightmares about her dead, disabled twin sister, and begins to feel very trapped with Jackie, and not being able to go out due to lock downs. When Grace's friend gets sick, that seems to send her into a spiral of sleeplessness that is difficult to come back from, leading to a climax so unexpected it will leave you reeling!

This books is one part psychological thriller, one part any young person's nightmare. After a taste of freedom and independence, having your mother move in with you would be claustrophobic and difficult to manage. With all the baggage Grace and Jackie have, it is downright horrific. This book (like most by Zoje Stage) put you on the edge of psychological discomfort, and end in the best possible, twisty way. Definitely recommend!

This book just wasn’t for me. While I did appreciate some of the more chilling moments and the use of the quarantine theme, it was very hard to get into. The beginning jumps around and through different conversations so quickly without explanation that it made me unsure who or what the author was talking about at times.

While I really wanted to love this book--I"m a fan of Baby Teeth--it felt like twenty-percent story and eight-percent filler. If this were a novella I would've upped the stars. Overall, I will still read Zoje Stage, this one just didn't hit the mark for me. Thanks to Net Galley for the ARC.

I LOVED this book! Thank you to NetGalley for the digital ARC. Having the story set during covid and putting some reality into it was a great choice. We all lived through the horrors of lockdown and isolation. The characters, a mother and daughter, where they have to live with each other during this difficult time, had me feeling all sorts of ways. Without spoiling anything, you have to read this book. The ending was unbelievable yet there are some ways we can relate to her feelings and thoughts. Overall, a great follow up to one of my favorite books, Baby Teeth. Zoje Stage does not disappoint, once again!

Definitely gave me the heebie jeebies. The descent into madness was a lot and more confusing than anything else, but that’s probably the point. The ending left me feeling pretty uncomfortable which was a good thing.

I loved Stage's debut, Baby Teeth, so when I saw their latest on NetGalley I became instantly excited at the possibility of reading it early. Though I haven't yet read the books that came between Baby Teeth and Mothered, I went into this one with high expectations. Sadly, I could not latch onto it. I tried hard,though, knowing my love for Baby Teeth. I kept telling myself there would be a grand payout. But I was disappointed in the ending; I could probably go as far as to say I didn't like it. I also grew tired of the "is she dreaming again or not?" question I had to ask myself frequently while reading this. Though the final 30% does pick up steam, I never found the story all that exciting or bewitching. I was mostly just eager for something noteworthy to happen but...sadly, I was left wanting a different outcome constantly. I didn't like the characters, except Miguel, and the setting of home-during-the-pandemic left me feeling like I was stuck in a "bottle episode" where there should have been exponential character growth but I was mostly just teased throughout. I was frustrated a lot with this book and that sucks. However, I will still read Stage's other titles I haven't yet gotten to, even if this one is ultimately a "pass" in regards to recommendation.

When the pandemic hit, Grace found herself without an income and with a mortgage to pay. When her mother calls, asking for a place to stay, it seems like the solution Grace needs. But as the pandemic crawls on, the decision turns into a nightmare.
Stage captures the sense of claustrophobia and disconnection that so many felt in the early days of the pandemic, when staying at home in your OJs all day had lost its charm and no timeline for ending isolation was appearing. Combine this dread with complicated family relationships, and an unstable, unreliable narrator and the recipe is right for serious tension and creeping dread. There were times that the main character felt somewhat flat and two dimensional, but on the whole it was a fantastic read.

2.5 stars rounded up. I read and enjoyed BABY TEETH, so maybe the problem lies with me. I feel like I wasn't smart enough to understand this book!

MOTHERED is set during the pandemic, but I had no problem with that. Grace has just bought a house shortly before the world shut down. She's not able to work as a hair stylist, and she's worried about paying the mortgage. Her mother Jackie asks to move in as she's getting up in years and is worried about the isolation of being alone. Grace has never had a great relationship with Jackie, but she reluctantly agrees.

There are two weirdly compelling back stories in this book; one, Grace catfishes people online to the extent that she keeps notebooks to keep all of her personas straight. In a way she's helping vulnerable people work through issues, but the whole idea was just unsettling. Then the other...Grace starts having vivid nightmares about her disabled twin when Jackie moves in. Tensions between mother and daughter mount until Jackie finally accuses Grace of the unthinkable. Plagued by night terrors and insomnia, Grace has trouble differentiating reality from nightmares. Is she responsible for her sister's death, or has her mother accused her for her own sick reasons?

I had no idea what was going on half the time, and just like Grace, I had trouble telling the truth between reality and hallucinations. Maybe that was the whole point, and I just wasn't the target reader for this book. I did appreciate the atmosphere of dread that permeated the entire book, but I wasn't a fan of the unsettled, confused feeling. MOTHERED will publish March 1, 2023. Thank you to Thomas and Mercer and NetGalley for this early read.

This is my first Zoje Stage book but it most definitely won’t be my last. I thoroughly enjoyed every moment of this book, I barely was able to put it down and when I got to the last page I craved more.

I think reading a story that takes place during the early stages of the pandemic and lockdown can be quite jarring. But I also think the experience that many Americans had, are having still, is also so far removed from my own experience as a person living in Denmark. Which might make it easier to read this as there’s no exact parallels between my own experiences and the character’s experiences (no near deaths, no lockdowns or masks, not really, except for just a little while). With that said, the relationship between Grace, the main character, and her mother was something that I could only relate to all too well. It made the book uncomfortable at times and I always appreciate a book that makes you uncomfortable while you read it.

It wasn’t due to the pandemic, not really, maybe only a little bit, but as with Grace and her mother. My mother and I also moved in together to save costs and for her health. Our relationship has been on thin ice a lot during my childhood, so the microaggressions that Grace’s mum showed throughout the book only felt that much more real, as I’ve experienced it myself. I think this book, despite it being horror, could resonate with a lot of people who have a strained relationship with their mums. Especially when most of us know, all too well, how complicated our feelings can be when it comes to our own parents.

I’m not sure what my point is beyond it being relatable (to an extend, not to get spoilery) and that I felt excited and uncomfortable reading it. It’s hands down one of my favourite reads of this year and I only wished I had more of the story. There’s so many questions left unanswered, not because the author didn’t consider answering them, but because life isn’t so cut and dry. We don’t always get all the answers and we don’t get to always understand what happened. I appreciate a book that’s realistic in that sense. I also appreciate the openness with which the book ends, leaving us, the readers, to imagine what comes next.

There’s not much I can think of to criticise the book. I know others felt less than excited about the unreliable narrator, but it’s one of my favourite tropes, and so it only added to my reasons for liking it. There’s a character with cerebral palsy in it, I’m not sure, as an abled bodied person, whether it’s a truthful and safe depiction of someone with cerebral palsy or of disabled people in general. She is described as somewhat vicious in her treatment of Grace, but since she’s described in flashbacks and nightmares, I can’t help but wonder if that’s the flaw of the unreliable narrator: thinking one thing happened, while another thing actually happened? It feels realistic for Grace to have viewed her childhood in a different light than how it truthfully was. But then again, if this is the only depiction of a disabled person, is this positive or negative then? I’m not sure and I would love to actually see someone else’s views and opinions on this.

All in all, I really appreciate this book. It's not one I would necessarily read again, I rarely re-read most books, but it is one that will stay with me for a very long time.

Thank you to NetGalley and Thomas & Mercer for the ARC.

This book. Wow! Complete and utter mind fuck. Zoje Stage has a talent for writing extremely intense and claustrophobic thrillers. This one did not disappoint. From the very first page you feel a sense of dread and tension. The slow descent into madness of the main character was so well done, and the pacing is perfect. I couldn't put it down, I just HAD to know what would happen next. I will have to say if you have any kind of pandemic trauma, maybe wait on this one. I do think that added to the anxiety I felt while reading though. Grace moving her mother (who she has a strained relationship with anyway) into her home, in the middle of a pandemic, while dealing with terrible nightmares and financial issues... God the tension practically drips off of the pages.

Thank you to Zoje Stage and Netgalley for providing me with an ARC of this awesome book!