This was a beautifully written dystopian thriller. But the main character was really morally wrong and some of her actions were really unbelievable which stopped me from being really involved with the story.

DNF ~20%

I couldn’t get into this one (please disregard star rating). Pact writing but I wasn’t feeling grabbed by the plot premise.

The Mother Fault is the second novel by Australian author, Kate Mildenhall. Engineer Benjamin Elliott is missing. His wife Miriam is concerned. Neither his employer GeoTech nor The Department know where Ben is, or are not saying if they do. Which is bizarre as they are all chipped: how can they not know?

Representatives of The Department warn Mim not to tell anyone, confiscate her passport, and those of her children, and tell her to stay put. They offer to care for Essie and Sam in BestLife until the situation is resolved, but Mim isn’t that naïve: after her brother’s experience with BestLife, she knows that it’s no better than detention, and probably much worse.

A hydrogeologist herself, Mim doesn’t reveal that she has already mentioned it to an international journalist, but uses the pretext of sounding out a return to work with a former colleague to take her children to the family farm, and her mother. Mim determines she will have to remove her small family from the compulsory scrutiny of The Department, and find a way to the Indonesian island where Ben has disappeared.

She quickly learns just how seriously The Department considers the situation when she hears of their threats at the farm, and the fate of the friend who helped her go off-grid. She understands that they have to remain, quite literally, under the radar, but she has no idea what will be required of her before she has tracked Ben down and discovered what really happened.

The near-future that Mildenhall describes is highly plausible and the subject matter is extremely topical: the technology aspect, the influence of multi-nationals, and the government attitude to refugees will all feel familiar. Mildenhall gives the reader a strong female protagonist who is no saint but has the welfare of her children as a firm priority, especially when the going gets tough. A gripping plot and a nail-biting climax will keep the pages turning. Brilliant speculative fiction.
This unbiased review is from an uncorrected proof copy provided by NetGalley and Simon & Schuster Australia.

Kate Mildenhall's new book is set slightly in the future in a disturbing dystopian world ravaged by climate change. Everyone is microchipped and under surveillance by 'the Department' who have the power to arrest people without cause or send them to controlled, gated accommodation ironically
called 'BestLife'. Central character Mim is happily married with two children, Essie and Sam and husband Ben, a fly in/fly out engineer working for a mining company in Indonesia. When Ben goes missing and Mim can't get in touch with him, the Department descends confiscating Mim's passports but refusing to tell her why they can't find him. Beside herself with worry Mim decides to leave Victoria, somehow drop of the grid and and head to the Northern territory, and find a way to get to Indonesia to look for Ben.

This well written novel made for a compelling read and Mildenhall's vision of the future is very scary indeed. Her portrayal of the landscape and the effects of climate change on it is one of the strongest aspects of the novel. Her portrayal of the family at the heart of the novel and Mim's determination and braveness in protecting her children is also beautifully depicted. For me, the plot was not quite as plausible and Mim made some poor decisions, but it was fast paced and kept the momentum going to the suspense filled climax and an ending that leaves the family with a glimmer of hope for the future.

It is dystopian, it is beautifully written, it is a thriller. All things I love so why was I not totally engaged by this book?

Maybe it was because I found the main character, Mim, totally unrelatable. Some of her choices were just plain wrong. More likely it was the constant flashbacks which were of value at first in helping to set the scene, but later popped up at very inopportune moments and killed the tension stone dead. All I know is that something kept stopping me from being involved in the story.

I really enjoyed this author's first book, Skylarking. This one not so much.

The Mother Fault is a wonderfully bingeable thriller with a simple premise: Mim’s husband goes missing, she sets off across land and sea to find him—with two kids in tow and the authorities on her tail. Set in the near future, Mildenhall’s imagined dystopia is likewise fairly uncomplicated: a surveillance state in a climate-changed world.

Keeping things relatively simple is the key here to believable world-building and creating very real stakes for Mim and her family. It might be set in the future, but Mim has to go low-tech to avoid capture, so the story isn’t leaning so much on the ‘future’ aspect as it is on the chase and the accompanying family drama.

Unlike some other dystopian thrillers I could name, there is some superb writing here. In particular, Mim’s kids, 11-year-old Essie and 6-year-old Sam, are two of the most ‘real’ fictional children I’ve ever come across. Many of the descriptions of the landscape, as Mim drives across Australia’s vast interior, are gorgeously rendered.

The Mother Fault gets so much so right that it is easy to forgive it some far-fetched moments and a clunky romantic subplot. A really cracking, pageturning read.

This books is everywhere! That stunning cover image is all over my socials, events are popping up for it, everyone wants to read it ... so, with only a week until it hits shelves, I dug in... and did NOT STOP thinking about it until I finished. In a not-too-distant future, when we are controlled by a government agency, Mim's husband Ben is working overseas. And one day, he falls off the grid. Where is he? Why are news outlets telling her to stop calling? And why are do agents want Mim's passport...? Mim decides to take matters into her own hands, and OH GOD, the devastation... This is EXACTLY what I look for in fiction: solid characters; a well-constructed foundation; explosive pace; believable worlds. This is the reader's Purple Dragon: this is what we scour the bookstore shelves for, and pour through ARCs for find. That holiest of holy grails. I can't shout about this enough. Mim's quest to find her husband and (maybe, possibly) release him from the trouble he's in is a CRACKER. Mildenhall does NOT STOP throwing curveballs at the ever-stealthy Mim (and her feisty, compassionate kids). I was on the edge of my bed the whole time, feeling my nerves grab and constrict as I waited for what was around the next corner. The writing is wonderfully real, and MIldenhall is insightful and prophetic in her contemplations on a world that should be impossible to imagine but really isn't. Loved it.

“The world shifted slowly, then so fast, while they watched but didn’t see.”

There are two types of dystopian fiction: Those that are quite far fetched from reality that, although they’re enjoyable, they require a suspension of belief. And then there are those that so closely resemble normal life that, terrifying as it may seem, are within the realm of possibility.

The Mother Fault is definitely the latter. And parts of it scared the bejeezus out of me, at how easily this could be our lives with only a few tweaks here and there.

Kate Mildenhall’s follow up to her breathtaking debut, Skylarking, finds Mim, a wife and mother of 2, desperate to know what’s happened to her husband. And the lengths she’ll go to find him and keep her family safe.

Perfect for fans of Atwood and Orwell, The Mother Fault is full of beautiful prose, captivating landscapes, compelling storylines, and a kickass heroine. I struggled to put it down.
4.5 stars - Highly recommended reading.

Thank you to Kate Mildenhall, Simon & Schuster (Australia), and NetGalley for an arc of this book in exchange for an honest review.

‘He is missing. Your husband is missing.’

Ben Elliott is missing. He has disappeared from the mine site at Golden Arc (a foreign investment site in Indonesia) where he works. The Department has contacted his wife, Mim, to let her know. Mim cannot believe it: after all Ben, like her and their children Essie and Sam, is microchipped.

‘You want to know where your people are when the world becomes a shifting, wild, hungry thing.’

In this near future apocalyptic world, everyone in Australia is monitored. People can be detained without charge for six months, citizenship can be lost, as can assets. Mim is told to contact The Department if she hears from Ben and is assured that The Department will look after her.

But something is not right. Mim is questioned, her passport is confiscated, and she is told not to leave home. Mim’s instincts tell her otherwise.

Mim and the children set off on what will be an arduous journey, undertaken at great risk to themselves and to others. Imagine: a world where the effects of climate change and of the threat of biological warfare are apparent; a world in which people are microchipped and their movements controlled. Imagine. Can Mim protect her children? Will she find Ben?

This is an unsettling and uncomfortable read. Recommended.

Note: My thanks to NetGalley and Simon & Schuster Australia for providing me with a free electronic copy of this book for review purposes.

Jennifer Cameron-Smith