Motherthing

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 received an advanced copy of Motherthing for my unbiased evaluation. 4 stars

First of all, this book is one of the creepiest books I’ve ever read. But, this comes with a huge caveat: I don’t know if you can truly understand how profoundly creepy this book is unless you have Borderline Personality Disorder (which I do) or if you have a loved one who has Borderline Personality Disorder and you are in their life. Having an intimate connection with the main character of a horror story where their mental illness plays a huge part of the plot except with the symptoms almost turned up to 11 is a huge mind screw, because you know exactly what the character is trying to say. You know what is causing their behavior. You know how they likely turned out the way they did and you know how profoundly toxic it can all be. It’s surreal and more horrifying than just about any other horror novel you could put in front of me. This book is filled to the brim with morbid humor, which delighted me to no end since morbid humor is practically a love language in my family. It’s also vulgar and gory, filled with vivid imagery that is both hilarious and gross to see in the mind’s eye as you read. It’s also filled with prose that’s purposefully meant to make the reader feel uncomfortable, awkward, squirmy, on the edge of nauseous, and deliberately grossed out. In some of these passages I’m reminded of Chuck Pahalnuik and Zoje Stage and books like “Invisible Monsters” and “Baby Teeth” (yes, I know I have used those examples in my reviews before, but you’ll have to forgive me because they immediately came to mind). The prose surrounding the human body, gore, and viscera also reminded me a bit of this year’s “Manhunt” in style, but since they both came out this year I’m going to chalk it up to common inspiration for the authors of both books. Inter-generational mental illness is something I have a great interest in, since it runs deep in my family. I seem to have gotten the lion’s share of mental health issues, but every AAB female in my family has some sort of mental health issue, going back at least two generations. My kids (one boy, one gender fluid) both have mental health issues and are neurotypical. Their other parent is neurotypical and has mental health issues in her family. As I was reading “Motherthing” and watched the plot and the characters unravel one chapter at a time, delusion giving way to delusion until desperation was all that was left, I felt more and more terrified about how unaware the main character was about her own mental health issues and more and more horrified about her obsession to protect, save, keep, and love forever and ever. It seems as though not as many people like this book as much as I did, and that’s okay. I do have to point out that I think it is a little longer than it needs to be, but the space isn’t exactly wasted because the prose is so entertaining. The inner narrative is done in a style of s...

Now THIS is the mother-in-law from hell book I've been looking for. First of all, the cover = Perfection. 👌 Abby and Ralph Lamb decide it's time to move in with Ralph's mother, Laura, to help her around the house. She's a needy woman, controlling, manipulative, and 100% devoted to her son. No one will ever be good enough for him, especially Abby. This breaks Abby's heart because after growing up with a mother that liked booze and men more than her own offspring she was hoping she'd make a connection she so desperately needs in her life with Laura. Eventually Abby succumbs to defeat and spends her time wishing for Laura's death behind a polite smile. Laura, having long dealt with depression since her husband abandoned her, has decide to take her own life. A threat she's wielded time and time again but that has finally come to fruition. Abby thinks they are finally free of her but that's not really Laura's style. Nope, in fact, Ralph mentions that her ghost is actually living in the basement. Ralph continues to spiral down into his depression and Abby needs to figure out a way to get her good husband back and banish the ghost of her mother-in-law once and for all. I've met my new favorite fictional character in Abby Lamb. She is hilarious and she had me giggling throughout the book. "I could have loved you so much, Laura, but you just couldn't do it, you were just too mean, sucking everything pleasant from a room. The private alarm of losing track of a spider on a ceiling, that is what it felt like to be in a room with you." "At the front door I dig my feet into my boots and pull my coat over a long t-shirt with a flirtatious looking horse on it, an outfit that makes me look like a woman who regularly falls asleep with lit cigarettes." "I know from yogurt commercials that an epidemic is happening right now: constipated women, dangerously constipated, dying for probiotics. A perk of being a jellied salmon type is that I 💩 regular as clockwork every morning." Personally I'd take a yogurt over jellied salmon ( 🤮 ) any day but don't tell Abby. I wouldn't want to hurt her feelings. Admittedly, my humor isn't quite like everyone else's and I am a-okay with that knowledge. Hogarth get's me right in the funny bone but it WON'T be for everyone. Also, this book gets dark at the end. Gross-out dark. Gag worthy for some. I loved it. Though if you're a lover of Chicken al a King you may want to give this one a pass! Lastly, everyone should wish for a relationship like Abby and Ralph. They're perfect together! ALL. THE. STARS. Thank you to NetGalley and Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group for my complimentary copy.