In the acknowledgments of Mothered, Zoje Sage describes asking her friends if they want to read something “batshit crazy” that she wrote during the COVID pandemic. That pretty much sums up Mothered. It’s batshit crazy in the best way possible. (Note: I got into this book and I am not a thriller fan.)

During the COVID pandemic, Grace’s newly divorced mother, Jackie, moves in with her. Not great. The two don’t get along all that well and now they are stuck in the same house together. Old wounds are torn open and things get worse when Jackie discovers Grace’s penchant for pretending to be a man and catfishing women on the internet. What is real and what is imagined? Who is crazy and who has a hold on reality? The writing really gets you feeling for what it feels like when you are locked at home an every day is Groundhogs day.

BONUS: Sage has the best instagram marketing thing going on of her own creativity. “ON LOCATION WITH MOTHERED.” Check out her page where she takes you to the places in Pittsburgh that are mentioned in the novel.

For many, the COVID-19 pandemic still feels very much alive and real. Massive shutdowns, halted travel plans, and isolation from those that you love. But what if there was something else lurking beneath our fragile and terrified society; something as close to us as our own mother whose sudden appearance causes the past and present to collide?

Mothered is a psychological thriller that you didn't see coming. While the pacing was slower than I expected it to be, it does provide that edge-of-your-seat suspense that will keep you interested until the very end. Zoje Stage does a great job immersing us into Grace's world while giving us the kind of slow-burn thrills that made me gasp at the end. Highly recommend to domestic psychological thriller fans.

Thank you to the author, publisher, and NetGalley for the opportunity to read and review the book!

I wanted to like this a lot more than I did, but sadly, it fell short of my expectations. Grace is a hairdresser, and at the beginning of the pandemic, she's struggling to make mortgage payments on her newly-purchased house. Her mom, Jackie, just lost her husband, and suggests that she should move in with Grace to help with the mortgage, avoid loneliness, and quarantine together. Grace has a rocky history with her mom, mostly thanks to her sister Hope, who suffered from cerebral palsy and passed away when they were kids. But she reluctantly agrees.

Stage certainly did a great job of putting me back into the headspace of those first few weeks and months of the pandemic. I can't even describe what the feeling is - anxiety, boredom, confinement, something else? - but I felt right back there. I have to say I disliked pretty much all of the other elements of the book, though. There were many elements that I thought were messy, not well thought through, and distracting, such as Grace's friend Miguel, her catfishing hobby, and the rushed escalation and ending. The first two-thirds dragged, then things changed so quickly.

There are also a LOT of dream/nightmare sequences in this book. I know most other reviewers hated them - I typically also hate dreams in novels - but I thought they worked to an extent. If the intent was to confuse fact with fiction, help you understand Grace's frazzled mental state, and scare you, they worked - I just thought there were far too many dreams for my taste.

Overall, this was not my favorite Zoje Stage book, and I don't think I'd recommend it. Thank you to the publisher for the ARC via Netgalley.

As we get further out from 2020, it's interesting to continue to see a trickle of "Covid novels" coming out, as each author works through their own pandemic experience in their own way (at their own writing pace). Zoje Stage appears to have had a harder time of it than most -- in her afterword she reveals that her mother died of Covid, and to all apearances this novel is part working through the isolation and paranoia of quarantine days, part working through the grief of losing a mother (in a "Zoje Stage, winner of the Bram Stoker Award" sort of way). Certainly we're due for some "Covid thrillers," even if the pandemic in this book is avowedly different from Covid in subtle ways, so I was open to liking this book but it didn't quite connect for me. It's got some very good creepy and/or unsettling moments, especially early on, but it leans much too heavily on a "now we have a very creepy thing happen, and then a chapter break and we discover the previous chapter was a nightmare" sort of pattern. Over time it defangs any creepy bits, as you know they'll be consequence free, and I ended up a little impatient to get to the next chapter whenever anything started to get too obviously dream-like. I look forward to reading Stage's other works, but this one was a miss.

Sadly Mothered was not for me, I enjoyed Baby Teeth a lot and would highly recommend that novel, however this book was too long

I haven’t read Baby Teeth but I’ve heard great things, so I was keen to check this one out. The unreliable narrator in this one was completely unreliable! Is Grace the unwell one, is it her mother?
For most of this book I didn’t know what was what and although it kept me somewhat engaged, I needed some direction as to what was real and what was imagined. I’ve tried to avoid novels written about the pandemic but I see how this worked well in this case. The isolation making the situation that much more challenging.
Will definitely be reading more from Zoje Stage

Grace’s mother, who has just lost her husband, is moving in with her, during the early days of Covid, to share the lockdown. Grace has reservations about this, but since she’s been downsized because of the pandemic, she could use the help with her mortgage, and maybe the company during this terrifying time. But things go wrong quickly—Grace starts having nightmares, mostly about her dead disabled sister, and starts to lose time and hallucinate. And she sees her mother as the source for much of this anguish in her previously stable life.

This is a haunting book, melding the current fear of the pandemic with familial trauma and portrayed in a hallucinatory prose that makes you question yourself, just as Grace questions herself throughout the book. I really loved this, even though it was a little tough to be projected back into the beginning of the pandemic.

Did you ever wait to read a book because you know you'll love it and know you won't have the chance to read the book for the first time again? That was me with this book. 🤷🏻‍♀️

This book starts off from a psychologist's POV. He is talking about how interesting his next appointment is that day. Yep, at this point, I'm totally hooked. I love books that have psychology or really anything about the mind involved. Y'all know the more twisty and turny the better. (Are those even words. If not, I just made them up, and we will contact Webster about it later today 🤣)

As I was reading, I honestly couldn't tell the nightmare chapters from the real-life chapters. They both sound so real and equally messed up. The whole time, I couldn't figure out if Grace was sane or not. I love it!! I don't want to mention more about this because I don't want to give anything away. Just know it was creepy and claustrophobic!!

I do want to mention that it is set during quarantine. It helps set the scene as to why Grace let her mother, Jackie, move in with her. Jackie is passive-aggressive and judgmental. Another character does get the virus but recovers. I know that this won't be for everyone. I felt it was necessary to put in my review.

This book is 100% worth the read!! On my scale of Buy, Bargain, Borrow, Bud, or Bust, this one is a BUY!!! I added the paper copy to my wish list because I absolutely need it on my new shelves!!

Read This Book If:
✂️ You want to read a book to hook you from the beginning
✂️ You love books where you can't figure out what is real and what isn't
✂️ You like horror novels

Thank you @zoje.stage_author, Thomas & Mercer Publishing & @netgalley for an eARC of this book!!

Already posted to Goodreads, Storygraph and Amazon

When Grace finds herself in need of some extra cash during the worldwide Pandemic of 2020, she isn't expecting to invite her mother to move in with her. She had just bought her own house and she and her mother had a less than perfect relationship. However, it seems to be a match for them when she can get money toward her mortgage and repair the broken bond with her mother.
The pandemic does give the book a chaotic and claustrophobic feeling. Her mother starts small, moving things around in Grace's house. There were dual timelines, which I liked. It takes a nightmare turn and spirals out of control!
I liked it. I hate the pandemic and have found myself avoiding novels that take place during that timeline but this was a creepy read that heightened my anxieties in a good way!
3. stars.

Mothered is the first pandemic-based thriller book I've read so far. The cover is disturbing and the synopsis is equally as intimidating. The first half of the book hooked me - it was incredibly spooky. However, but the middle, I felt like this story wasn't as believable as it had started. I did enjoy how suspenseful and well-written this book is.

I wasn't a fan of Baby Teeth so I thought maybe this would change my mind but it didn't really.. I also don't care for covid plot lines either. Not much happens at all, it's a very very slow build that turns into nothing, in my opinion. I can't give this a fair and proper review because I just don't have much thoughts on it unfortunately.


Thank you to Netgalley for an advanced copy of this book!

Mothered by Zoje Stage is both horrific and dark! Stage's writing and storytelling of fractured relationships are superb. I usually am able to call the ending of most books, but this one shocked me. The author is really great at writing characters and situations that stay with you long after the book ends,

I received a review copy of this book from the publisher through NetGalley for my honest review. The opinions expressed in this review are entirely my own.

I admit I am a big fan of this author. I loved Baby Teeth and Wonderland left me feeling so unsettled and weirded out. Her newest, Mothered, did not live up to my expectations.

I liked the premise and was excited to start reading. I was getting flashbacks to the earlier days of Covid and being cooped up in my own house with my family, including my mother.

I didn’t feel like the story went anywhere really and I never quite understood the catfishing aspect.

I will definitely read anything Stage writes and am hoping for a stronger book next time!

Thank you Thomas & Mercer publishing and NetGalley. This book was okay. It was a little slow but overall I enjoyed it.

When Grace’s newly widowed mother requests to move in with her during the pandemic, she isn’t exactly thrilled…but since she just bought her first home months prior it seems it could be a mutually beneficial arrangement, and perhaps an opportunity to repair their difficult relationship.


What could go wrong?


This is a twisty psychological thriller and the fact it was based during the pandemic makes the claustrophobic element heightened. I wasn’t sure how I felt about a pandemic novel and have admittedly cringed a bit when it pops up in storylines, but I feel this really worked in this instance. I loved the dual timeline and the nightmarish spiral, as we uncover bits from the past and distorted reality.

2⭐️

Grace has just bought her first house when the pandemic hits, and to make matters worse, she has to play Good Daughter and let her overbearing mother move in, robbing her of her privacy and individuality. Much like the start of the pandemic, this book is chaotic and confusing as it’s hard to discern what is reality and what is a dream. The premise of this book is interesting, but I wasn’t really into it. It had it’s weird and creepy moments, but I also have a hard time with the way Grace’s dead sister, Hope, who had cerebral palsy, is painted as a horrific figure that puts a really bad taste in my mouth.

3.5 stars. Having read and loved Baby Teeth, I couldn’t wait to get my hands on the latest Zoje Stage’s book. It was written, and about the Pandemic, so I wasn’t sure how it would hold up. It was pretty crazy. Sort of like real life. Didn’t love it like I did her first, but it was good. Thank you Netgalley for the early read.

Thank you Netgalley for this ARC of Mothered by Zoje Stage.

I remember reading Baby Teeth when it was first released and really enjoying it. I wonder sometimes, when someone has great success with whatever debut piece of art they released, if then they double down on their aesthetic. Meaning "oh, you liked that? Okay, I'll add a whole bunch MORE."

That's kind of what Mothered felt like to me. It lost the balance between madness, creep factor, and good story telling. Instead the whole thing was a giant fever dream that I couldn't escape for even a glass of cold water. And the story really had potential, but it lost me in the ether between reality and lunacy. It was just too much.

Zoje Stage has a gift for writing horrific tales of broken or collapsing relationships, enduring catastrophic trials, and telling the stories with a lyrical voice that elevates the readers experience. And with Mothered, she has done it again.

This book is dark. It begins with a murder and unravels from there. A mother and daughter are forced to cohabitate during the covid outbreak and pressures of close quarters and dark history bring them both to the razor’s edge. Who will break first?

If you are a fan of literary fiction, dark tales, and unreliable narrators, then you should definitely check this book out!

I love the setting of this book since I am familiar with the area. Pulling the pandemic into this story was perfect. It added to the craziness of the situation of the characters. This was a very unique plot and I enjoyed it a lot.