First line: Silas loved a good puzzle, especially if it involved the interlocking pieces of science and soul, the known and the unknown.

Summary: Grace had just bought her first home when the COVID pandemic hit, she lost her job as a hairstylist and now her mother wants to move in with her. They never had a great relationship and the hours spent together start to strain their nerves. Grace starts having nightmares about her twin who died when they were young and struggles to differentiate between what is real and what is a dream. And then her mother reveals a dark secret from their past but Grace cannot believe her. There is no way that things happened the way her mother claims. Is her mother trying to drive her mad? Who and what can Grace believe anymore if she cannot trust her own mother?

My Thoughts: This book was STRANGE! It was a fever dream almost literally. Grace tilts back and forth between moments of sanity and bouts of fear and nightmares. She is a very unreliable narrator. But really it is more like the book who is unreliable. So many chapters are dream sequences filled with Grace’s fears and memories. Everything seemed just so wild until I realized that it was another dream.

Neither of the main characters was very likeable but Jackie, Grace’s mother, was awful. She seems like the ideal mother who cooks, cleans and is sweet to your friends but she can quickly use guilt and manipulation. I kept waiting for her to crack and cause some harm to Grace or the cat.

The setting of isolation during the pandemic set the perfect atmosphere for the downward spiral of these two women. Luckily I was still able to work at times during the pandemic because I can see how it easy it would be to lose touch with reality being home bound for long periods of time. The beginning of the story dragged on a little after a catchy first chapter and then it picked up at the end as tensions finally reached a climax. This is not as a good as Baby Teeth but still a chilling WTF book.

I love books where there are evil parents or kids. Stage has proven to be the master of this with baby teeth and comes back in this title with the roles reversed. Slow burn but so so worth it. Loved this one

Thank you to NetGalley and Thomas & Mercer for a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

After reading this book as well as the author’s other novel, Baby Teeth, I have come to the conclusion that this author is just not for me. I don’t enjoy the writing style and for that I feel like I can’t really give a well developed review. I unfortunately found the book to be slow and predictable. I liked the idea of a pandemic setting but it just wasn’t executed as well as it could have been. I did not connect with the characters and also found parts of the dream sequences to be confusing. I just overall wouldn’t recommend this book to any fellow readers with preferences similar to mine. .

This is a good read. It's also an unpleasant read.

These are some seriously damaged people in this book and, as you read, you realize that they are SO damaged that there's just no saving grace.

I didn't like our characters. I didn't like what happened to them. But...I liked the book as a whole.

I'm probably never going to reread it - I just don't want to be in that dark a place - but I'm glad I did read it (once).

This book seriously sucked. Horrible! Present, delusion, dream,delusion, past,present. Are you dizzy yet? This was one of the worst written books I’ve read in such a long time. It’s nothing like the synopsis.

I didn’t know what the heck was happening. I really wish I could go back in time and not have read this book. It was just that bad.

initial thoughts: not for me. this book left me extremely confused and still unsure of what I just read.🙃

What a solid post pandemic novel! I whipped through this one so fast and really enjoyed it. I felt like I was able to relate to the pandemic isolation and mental health issues that ensued. Very well done and a fast read.

Books where people have trouble sleeping always put me on edge somehow. The pandemic focus on this one also leaves me a bit... Uncomfortable, but not in a bay way. Still, I was confused for most of the time, hence the three stars.

There were a lot of aspects I loved about this book. It was creepy, I loved the dream sequences and the not knowing who the trust. I was a little turned off by the way the disabled sister was portrayed but I get why it was done and it worked I got the story okay. The only thing that brought it down a star was the side plot of the pandemic but it wasn’t enough to deter me from really enjoying this book!

This is the first book I’ve read from her and yes it was slow in the beginning. I generally like it though. I plan on collecting all of her books now!

Interesting and well written I just personally couldn’t get into the story. Difficult to follow at times and a little slow. I received an advance review copy for free, and I am leaving this review voluntarily.

Reading Between the Wines book review #84/115 for 2023:
Rating: 1 🍷
Book: Mothered
Author: Zoje Stage
Available now!

Sipping thoughts: I read Baby Teeth by Stage and really enjoyed it until the end. The end was just so ugh that it dropped my rating by like 2 stars. Mothered was so all over the place and just never took off. It was so repetitive and the ending- what was that?! I wanted to give this author another chance but I just don’t think the style of writing for me. But I know there are many people who this style of writing is for and will enjoy it!

Cheers and thank you to @NetGalley and @ThomasMercer for an advanced copy of @Mothered.

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I really liked this. I was confused half the time, hating the characters half the time, and just enjoying the realistic elements of the plot half the time. I think a lot of the scenes were just mundane daily activities, but I love that in a book. None of those things make for a bad book! I really like Zoje Stage's writing, and I think that's what kept me interested. I still have no idea what Grace did or didn't do, how many of her dreams were actually dreams (that minor subplot with Miguel? the test?), but I'm okay not knowing because I feel like doing a 'wrap up' at the end would've taken away from the vibe of the story. Finished this in less than a day.

Liked it, but didn't love it. There were quite a few unsettling scenes that did give me the creeps, but I'm not sure how much I enjoyed the pandemic part of the plot. Overall, a good read!

**3.5 stars**

Zoje Stage certainly has a way of writing about mothers and daughters that makes me so glad I had the mother I did! I read Baby Teeth and liked it when it came out so was happy to receive this via NetGalley. I also listened to it and really liked the main narrator.

This is a pandemic horror-mystery story about an estranged mother and daughter who suddenly find themselves living together during a pandemic. At the start the author’s note says it is not our pandemic we went thru but the idea of being in lockdown is the same. The fear, paranoia, anxiety we all felt is certainly captured in this book. Overall I liked it. If you lost someone to Covid relieving that kind of fear and anxiety might be a little much for you.

**thanks to the publisher, author, and NetGalley for the e-arc irecived in exchange for my honest review.**

I went into this book knowing nearly nothing and could not be more glad to have done it that way. Absolutely gripping, chilling, and heartrending. This book cut far too close to the bone, but I regret nothing. I have already recommended it to several of my colleagues. Now all I want to do is devour everything Zoje Stage has written. What a book!

Taking place during a pandemic, when the world is shut down around them, a woman who revelry bought a house allows her mother to move in with her. Their relationship has always been questionable and we learn more about it as we get glimpses into the last, also exploring our main character’s relationship and dynamic with her sister, who is no longer with us.
I found myself constantly guessing at what was real and what was not, and struggling to figure out whose side I was on.
The author always does a fantastic job at getting inside your mind and messing with it. Always highly recommend.
5⭐️

I am learning that horror just isn't my thing and that is okay. However, I feel bad for having requested this as an arc and not enjoying it. I have also decided that quarantine is not a fun setting to me.

With that being said this book may be more of a me problem and it was interesting in it's own light. I dislike the dreaming thing and it was slow.
I hope someone enjoys the ride!

MOTHERED is the third book I have read from Zoje Stage and it is my favorite of them all so far! There are elements of horror at play sprinkled throughout, but I dig this as a mostly psychological thriller. A pandemic-induced descent into madness...?

In a nutshell: Grace has her mother move in with her during the start of the pandemic due to a series of events. Grace has a twin. Grace is involved in catfishing. Grace has a GBF who has a cat. And there are so many dark moments and twists and turns that weave all of these elements together in a way that I can't fully explain. I found this unputdownable and could not fathom where it was going. There are some pieces that are left open to the reader, but I also wonder if... maybe not? Maybe that was all part of being inside our main character's head. A lot of things happen (and maybe don't happen in the way we think) in the past and present... it's just a roller coaster of emotions. I sensed a lot of paranoia, confusion, passive aggressiveness, claustrophobia / feeling trapped, etc. It's tense, stressful, mysterious, poignant, and heartbreaking.

Will Grace and her mom survive the pandemic? Will they survive each other? What is going on?!

I loved it.

I struggled with this one. I LOVED Baby Teeth, the first book I read by this author. I was super excited to get my hands on Mothered. It just fell short. The early part of the book felt repetitive and slow. The main character was unlikeable and honestly, a little boring. I didn’t feel much of a connection or a drive to keep reading and it took me probably twice the time it would normally would to finish a book this length. The ending was okay, not as satisfying as I would have liked. Mothered was just very middle of the road for me. It will not stop me from picking up another Zoje Stage book in the future, I was just hoping for the “unputdownable” feeling I got from Baby Teeth.