I enjoyed this author's first book "Baby Teeth", and was kind of hoping that this would be the sequel.
No need to worry, the story was able to hold its own with Grace and her cat fish personalities, as well as her mom who ended up moving in with her during the beginning stages of Covid.
It explores their rocky relationship as a child with her, and trying to get past that now that her mother's husband has passed away and needs a place to stay. It was interesting to see how the initial shut downs, and covid safety protocols played out in the book, now that we know the world wide pandemic that this turned into.

"Baby Teeth" is one of the darkest horror novels I've ever read and something I recommend to anyone looking for a dark dark dark domestic novel, so I was thrilled to be granted a copy of "Mothered". Zoje Stage is incredible.

Personal rating:
2🌟


I felt like I wasted my time, if I am to be truly honest. I was so excited to start this story too because I read Baby Teeth before and that was such a fun story to binge on. So with that in mind, I have quite an expectation for Mothered. Boy, oh boy was I wrong.

The story here moves slowly but has great potentials. Normally I don't have a problem with books that are slow burn but when you couple that with numerous nightmare scenes—which all started out feeling normal but gradually spiraled out into pretty gory outcomes—the plot started feeling repetitive. The mystery kept me reading until the end because I really wanted to know what actually happened. Then the ending came and it made me feel blah about it. There's no fun plot twists, not even any kind of plot twists.

I kinda like the way Covid-19 was used in the story, though. It did make me feel a little weird but after I adjusted myself, it's pretty good.


Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for providing me with a free digital copy of this in exchange for an honest review.

4 *

Disclosure: I was provided an advanced copy of Mothered via Netgalley.

Mothered was a strange read for me, and didn't quite grab me until the halfway mark. Once we hit a certain high (low?) note in the story, I couldn't put the book down. It's a strange story about grief, messed up family dynamics, and isolation. I think this is the first pandemic related horror story I've read, and it added a very real spin to the story. Ultimately, I'd strongly recommend this for fans of horror that like a slow burning descent in to madness.

I am drawn to psychological thrillers that revolve around mothers. I identify with the plot personally. So, naturally, i had to read this. I was so pleased with this book's prologue as Silas s a man after my own heart--a psychotherapist who sees murder cases, killers, and the identities and mental illnesses and back stories of killers as puzzles. Macabre puzzles. Grace fascinated me in that way--a macabre puzzle. She has unpacked baggage from her childhood, poor adult relationships, multiple online identities which she uses to catfish needy women, and during the pandemic, lock down, she reluctantly invites the mother she can barely converse with over the phone to move in with her. I was hooked from the start.

Reality is blurred with the past, with dreams--nightmares. Is it somehow her mother behind it, who seems to bounce from one mood the next. Or is it Grace? Has she gone mad? Insane?

The story fell apart a bit in the last 20% or so. There was a lot of unnecessary stuff that was so nonsensical it didn't add to or forward the climax. It could have been significantly shortened and therefore had a much more impactful punch.

In the early stages of the Coronavirus, Grace finds herself forced to invite her estranged mother into her home. But as a sickness unlike Covid seems to ravage their home, things go from bad to worse.

Stage's premises are always interesting and filled with just enough creepiness/gore to not be over the top. The way she analyzes mother/daughter relationships and writes about severely twisted ones is also entertaining. However, just like with <u>Baby Teeth</u>, Stage's newest novel suffered a pacing issue and a just slightly too absurd conclusion. There are a lot of tense scenes and situational build-up between Grace and her mother, Jackie. But by around the 50% mark these scenes get very cyclical in nature and there's very little payoff until the somewhat abrupt climactic conclusion. And while this conclusion was oddly somewhat satisfying (also similar to the conclusion of <u>Baby Teeth</u>, in my opinion ie. everything is how it should be...), it still felt a little too open ended. Three stars for this being an overall entertaining and original read, but the slow pacing killed the second half of the book for me.

This book was really good in the beginning and the end was pretty good but the middle was kinda meh for me. I never knew if she was dreaming or if was real life and I kinda disliked both the main characters. I LOVED baby teeth but this one just wasn’t for me. Thanks NetGalley for the ARC

Another twisty book that left me thinking WTF. Really enjoyed it. Once I started I needed to keep reading to see how it ended. Love the cover!

3.5/5⭐️

At the height of the pandemic, Grace loses her job, her newly widowed mother (Jackie) moves in with her, and her best friend is hospitalized. Definitely a recipe for disaster. Grace starts suffering horrible nightmares about her twin sister, who died when they were children. Jackie’s mental state also becomes questionable, and she starts throwing ridiculous accusations at Grace about her sister’s death. Jackie blames it on whatever “sickness” her stepfather had, and the cause of his death is also unknown. What is happening to Jackie, and could Grace really have done what Jackie thinks she did?

Overall, I enjoyed it. The nightmares were creepy. I also loved how it showed both the mother/daughter and sister/sister dynamics. Even though it’s set during the pandemic, it’s not talked about very much. Aside from their isolation, and her best friend getting sick. I really liked the suspense at the end, but I felt it was too short. I would’ve liked more of that tension and chaos, throughout more of the story.

Thank you, Netgalley, for an ebook arc of this book in exchange for my honest review!

This novel was quite a wild ride. The story begins with Grace, a hairdresser who spends her down time on the internet “catfishing” damsels in distress as a well meaning prince. It is the beginning of the pandemic and Grace’s mother Jackie (with whom she’s had a volatile relationship since childhood) asks if she can move in with Grace. Against her better judgement, Grace says yes, hoping for some company during the lockdown and possibly creating a better relationship with her mother. Unfortunately, this is not what happens. All of the old issues between the two resurface, along with some new ones. Grace starts to have vivid and horrific nightmares replaying events from her childhood about her twin sister who died at a young age. She finds herself sleep deprived and having a hard time determining what is a dream and what is real. Tensions between mother and daughter escalate and grow, bringing the novel to a crazy, frenzied climax. The is my first novel by Stage and I’m looking forward to reading more of her work.










https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/60180796

Zoe Smith is always a must read for me so I was super excited to read Mothered. Taking place during the pandemic, Grace has to deal with her mother moving back in to help out financially and due to her mom's health. She slowly starts feeling like she is going a bit crazy as her mom starts paying her back for the death of her sister. A good, fast paced read.

I was given an ARC of this book and HOLY MOSES, I sure did love it. Things got going right out of the gate with the prologue and just kept right on until the end. Zoje Stage did an amazing job with drawing on the collective pandemic experience to create a novel that is so tense, so surreal, so claustrophobic. Consider me a fan.

Thank you to NetGalley and Thomas & Mercer for allowing me to read this fantastic book before it's 2023 publication!

Whyy did I even request this book? It's Zoje Stage! I knew it would be terrifying! And I committed to finishing it. Or, I've been trying to finish it. But it's really scary y'all. I know it will still be intensely unnerving whenever I return to it. Give me some time.

I would like to extend thanks to NetGalley and Thomas & Mercer for providing me with a digital arc of this book in exchange for my honest review.

During the height of the pandemic, devoted hairstylist Grace finds herself out of a job and scrambling to make payments for her newly bought house. Grace’s mother Jackie, recently widowed, moves in Grace’s house with her to help make ends meet. Despite Grace and Jackie’s strained relationship, Grace initially believes living with her mother will do them both some good. However, as time passes, Grace begins to feel suffocated by her fraught past with her mother and the confinement to her home.

This narrative weaves perceived, dream-like reality with actuality as Grace begins to lose grasp of her mental and emotional state. Stage does a good job making the reader second guess everything in Grace’s memoryscape as well as within her claustrophobic environment.

Neither Grace nor Jackie are likable or relatable characters. I had a hard time staying with and coming back to the story because I personally didn’t care about what happened to them. The plot is an incredibly slow burn, which I felt was definitely reminiscent of what quarantine felt like.
I really enjoyed Stage’s other work Baby Teeth, but this work mostly fell flat for me. The tone was too casual for me to take what was happening seriously, especially in COVID-related fiction.

Mothered is an interesting concept and breaks down what it means and what it takes to achieve closeness and acceptance with oneself and with others. I appreciate NetGalley and the publishers for offering the opportunity to read this work.

Struggling to make mortgage payments due to the pandemic, Grace agrees to let her mother Jackie move in to help out financially. The two have never had a great relationship, so Grace is hesitant at first, keeping her mother at a distance. After Jackie moves in, Grace begins to experience horrible nightmares about her disabled sister. Their relationship starts to deteriorate as both women attempt to cohabitate in Grace’s small new home. Mothered: A Novel is a psychological thriller that shares the claustrophobia of being stuck in close quarters with someone who has less than good intentions.

Zoje crafts the slow descent of Grace in a way that is foreboding and jarring; starting off with small incidents of hair cutting and later followed by larger incidents that show the extent of her spiral. The tone of the novel contributed to an easy to devour story that examines Grace’s mental health and the impact that her deceased sister has had on her life. As the story unravels we are given more and more insight into Grace’s difficult childhood being a caregiver for her sister while their mother worked. The relationship between Grace and Jackie is depicted as incredibly complicated—Grace always wary of every one of her mothers intentions.

Mothered starts as a slow paced psychological thriller and develops into a fast and spiralling game of reality vs skewed perceptions. A game of manipulation, truth, and anger flows between Jackie and Grace, maintaining a high level of suspense right through each chapter. I couldn’t get enough of the paranoia that Grace was experiencing in regards to her mother and her presence in the home. The entire novel was an absolute pleasure to read

I've read all of Zoje Stage's novels so far and they're always quick and entertaining reads. Mothered is no different, though I must admit that I enjoyed it a bit less than Baby Teeth or even Getaway, perhaps because I wasn't in the mood to read something set during the pandemic. However, the book was sufficiently creepy to keep me interested through to the end.

The author mentions that writing this book wasn't as fluid in the sense that she took breaks along the way because of different life events. This can be felt a little bit throughout the novel but particularly in the second half where you sometimes get the sense that a couple of chapters were cobbled to together and added as an afterthought. Yet, the character's own experience is meant to be a bit disjointed so it's not a particularly serious flaw.

Thank you to NetGalley for providing me with a review copy in exchange for an honest review.

This book was TERRIFYING! Zoje Smith has done it again! I was on the edge of my seat. You’re definitely going to want to read this one.

This book started off crazy, I mean COVID quarantine is stressful enough, add in a crappy relationship with a mother who has to move in with you because you lost your job, and add in secrets that start to come out and it is now in code red territory. We have two people that are trying to ‘survive’ close quarters and they each have their resentments and secrets. Things come to a head when these secrets start to be exposed. Add in some catfishing, murder and nightmares and you have yourself quite a psychological ride you know will crash and burn! Great read I really enjoyed and literally had no idea how it would wrap up, kept me guessing! Thank you NetGalley for a copy of this book, the opinions are my own.

The Pandemic hit everyone hard and this book really captures that. Grace, a hairstylist, is struggling to find work due to the pandemic. She had just bought a house before it hit and now is worried about how she is going to pay her mortgage. Jackie, her mother, calls from the hospital and offers to help pay it if she can move in.

These 2 have been estranged for many years but maybe now is a good time to make amends. Or maybe not....

Grace is still angry with her mother for leaving her to be responsible for her twin sister Hope, who was wheelchair bound and very demanding. Jackie was at work the night Hope died and Grace shoulders the blame.

I really enjoyed this book.

After reading Baby Teeth, I was incredibly excited to read another novel by Zoje Stage. The trauma from the recent pandemic is something we can all relate to, and I was looking forward to how Stage would incorporate this into the story.

Grace is a hairstylist (and an online catfish) who is struggling with lost hours and wages due to the pandemic. She allows her mother, Jackie, to move in to help ease the financial burden. Grace soon starts to experience disturbingly vivid dreams, which lead the reader on a wild ride.

I felt that this book was at times, a difficult read. It was well written and interesting, but the covid content proved to be hard to get through. I would definitely caution reading this to anyone who struggled to get through the last two years.

Anyways, back to the story. Zoje Stage is incredibly talented at blending nightmares with reality throughout this book. I was constantly questioning what I had read, and my attention was held from start to finish. I only wish that I had a physical copy because the cover is absolutely beautiful and I would love to add it to my library! Thank you to NetGalley for this digital ARC copy in exchange for my honest review!