An interesting dystopian concept of how the government controls parenting. It is very thought provoking and terrifying. I thought the book was well written and Frieda a realistic character.
Many thanks to Simon & Schuster and to NetGalley for providing me with a galley in exchange for my honest opinion.

Frida is a good mother, but she has a very bad day. She leaves her young daughter at home for a few hours and ends up having her daughter taken away from her. Frida is sent to a program to help her become a “good mother”.
First of all, this is a debut novel and the writing is exceptional. The author easily extracts all the nuances of being a mother. In the end, there are no perfect parents and a million ways to mess up as one. But also, so many ways that the love our children is deep and endless.
However, I felt like the story was lacking in depth. When it ended I was disappointed and had hoped for a twist or finality. At times the story dragged on, especially when they were in the program. Overall, outstanding debut novel, but it definitely left me wanting more.

DEVASTATING. So consistently miserable. Really really good but I definitely felt awful almost the entire time. Just complete and utter agony.

"I am a bad mother, but I am learning to be good."  
 
The School for Good Mothers is an unsettling and disturbing novel that demonstrates how government surveillance has the power to radically alter our lives. Frida Liu, a recent divorcee with an 18-month=old has what she deems a very bad day - she was depressed, frazzled from her daughter Harriet's crying, and unable to get her work done. She decided to go out for coffee and half an hour became two hours, two hours in which she left her daughter unattended in a toddler-walker. A neighbor, who heard Harriet crying, reported it to the police and child protective services swooped in. 
 
While there is not forgiving Frida for her poor decision making, not to mention what might have happened to the child, what happens next is uncanny. Harriet is removed from her custody and placed with Gust, Frida's ex-husband and his young wife. At first, Frida is allowed supervised visitation, but she is judged and condescended to by the young social worker, and not only are her visits suspended, but Frida is sent to a prison-like situation where she is to learn to be a good mother. 
 
The only Asian and highly educated woman at the site, a former university, Frida and her cohort are subjected to the most humiliating treatment in their quest to learn to become good mothers. They are given robot dolls (à la Stepford Wives), who are supposed to be their children who will teach them to reform, and the dolls monitor and record every move and every emotion that the parents display (and even those that they don't). The bar for motherhood is set higher and higher as the mothers become unable to comply, and tragedies ensue. Meanwhile, in a full year, Frida is allowed to speak to Harriet but a handful of times. 
 
This is a book that leaves you haunted and thinking about the eventuality of our world, where we are constantly under observation.

I’m glad I gave this one a go. It certainly won’t be for everyone but I think it’ll be fantastic for discussion and I certainly didn’t want to be left out of this chat.

This debut may make you roll your eyes or perhaps even throw the book down and stomp off in frustration but ultimately I think it will make a lasting impression. As a mother you’re constantly judged and living up to impossible standards. You don’t need to dismiss the protagonists error in judgement (that’s not the intent) but it will be hard not to empathize with her as she struggles to make up for her mistake.

The audiobook is fantastically narrated by Catherine Ho and managed to keep my full attention.

Give this one a try, if you too are curious but I suggest you keep an open mind.

I’m not usually a fan of dystopian stories, & this felt very dystopian, big-brother-esq to me. However, I enjoyed it more than I thought I would. I really liked how Chan challenges the concept of what a “good mother” is & in doing so brings in issues of race, gender double standards, & class. That’s a lot to tackle & I think Chan did it really well here. Sometimes I feel dystopian books are so far fetched that I can’t even imagine the situation, in which case the point of the book is lost on me—that is not at all how I felt here. I think it was just dystopian enough that Chan’s criticisms of the expectations put on mothers shone thru & I wasn’t at all distracted by the dystopian features

The sole critique I have is that the chapters felt very long. It’s not a book I could devour in one sitting, & bc of that the pace felt a little slow to me. That’s not to say I wasn’t engaged the whole time—I very much was. But it’s not one that I would consider a quick read

Overall I would say this is how dystopian fiction should be done. Very amazing debut book!

The School for Good Mothers is a book that I normally would not pick up, but I heard some people say really good things about it and I knew that I had to read it. This was actually a very hard to read to get through, not because it was bad but because it was so thought provoking and kind of scary. Women are already so scrutinized in society on how they are as mothers and I can see a society like this “punishing mothers” isn’t so far off. The writing was good and I ended up being able to get it read within two settings.

The school for good mothers is a dystopian look into motherhood. The concept of a school to teach mothers how to be mothers and if they pass they get their kids back. I feel like this had a good premise just fell a little short for me.

possible spoilers....



I feel that this book did not live up to the hype that it has been receiving. The concept of the story is great, but the main character really annoyed me...especially every time she referred to her "very bad day". While the story has been spun as a possible dystopian future, I disagree. The tasks given at the school are ridiculous and overdone. The comparison of the mother's school to the father's school seemed like it was added to add a "men aren't responsible for child care" bit. The dolls were an interesting concept, but again there was a clash between them always being referred to as "dolls", but the school is trying to teach the mother's to care about them like real children (and this was referred to at the end of the book that some mothers wanted to take their doll with them). If there was such an attachment, then why still refer to them as dolls? It wasn't terrible, it wasn't great, but I think this could have been written a lot better. If you enjoy possible dystopian futures check out Christina Dalcher.

Frida is a struggling single mom who makes a huge error in judgement, which leads her to the School for Good Mothers, her last chance to save her relationship with her daughter Harriet.
Do you know those books that you love but completely stress you out? I did not enjoy reading this book-but- at the halfway point I could not stop reading this book. There are all the markers of a great dystopian novel; characters you grow to root for, social commentary, and twists that feel just a little too possible in the worst way.
This book is fascinating in the way it peers at our culture, and I think all mothers, the good and the bad, can see shades of themselves here, which is a real hat trick. I am dying to hear more discussions around this book, so I will definitely be recommending it a lot.
Thanks to Simon and Schuster and NetGalley for the ARC!

The School for Good Mothers by Jessamine Chan is a heartbreaking story about motherhood, mistakes and lasting choices.

This novel is so well-written but oh gosh, it’s a hard read. It’s been a long time since I’ve read a story that actually made me tear up. I’ll get choked up at movies and TV shows fairly easily (example: any Shark Tank episode) but I don’t get like that with novels very often. Yes, various stories can get to me but actual tears is reserved for stories that truly make an impact. And The School for Good Mothers is that kind of novel.

I finished the story while my 11-month-old napped on me and it definitely caused me to hug him a little tighter. I haven’t read such a raw story about motherhood in quite some time. This one is so thought-provoking—there’s so many layers and much to discuss. I see why Jenna Bush Hager chose this for her January book club selection. It’s one not to miss for sure.

The School for Good Mothers is an exceptional novel that is compelling but also quite scary in many ways. It will make you reflect on so much. This is the ideal book club selection.

An exceptional book - shocking in a way that builds almost non-stop suspense for what could possibly happen next, a horror story in its own way, and with an ending that made me exclaim. A very nice surprise!

Frida is the mother of an 18-month old daughter, Harriet. On what she describes as her "very bad day", Frida loses custody of Harriet and ends up being sent to a school for women that teaches them how to be good mothers. The court decides that Frida, and the other mothers sent to the school, will spend a year there, following a specially designed program that will teach them to be good mothers. At the end of the year, they will each be evaluated and a judge will determine which mothers get their children back and which are stripped of their rights permanently.

This novel tears at your heartstrings as you follow Frida through her journey of losing her daughter and trying to earn her back. While what Frida did to have her daughter removed from her home was punishable, the extent to which she is punished is reproachful. After Harriet is first removed from the home, Frida is no longer allowed any privacy as cameras in her home watch her every move. This is how the courts gather data to determine if she will get Harriet back or be sent to the school. Every single facial expression and movement is scrutinized to determine what kind of parent Frida is.

Once at the school, the mothers are taught the basic tenants of child development. The topics of the lessons they learn are appropriate, but the method in which the school administers its instruction is horrific. As someone with a degree in Child Development, I cringed at how wrongly the school ran their program.

The School for Good Mothers makes you reflect on what actually makes a good parent and is raises many questions. How much freedom should we have and what would happen if it is taken away? Who should be the judge of parenting? What is the line that should be drawn? While some cases of children being removed from homes in the novel make sense, other reasons seem absolutely ridiculous. Would any of us get to keep our children if we were being judged on each decision we make every day of our lives? How do racism and classism effect which children are removed from their homes based on supposed bad parenting?

I didn't love this novel because I had difficulty getting vested with the main character. Her emotions were exhausting to me in a way that was a bit over the top. I understand what the author was trying to do though. The story itself was very creative and well executed! I enjoyed reading this book and it will stay with me for a long time. I give it a solid 4 out of 5 stars!

If someone is triggered reading about child abuse or neglect, and the foster care system in general, this book may not be fore you.

Thank you to #NetGalley for an ARC of #TheSchoolforGoodMothers by #JessamineChan in exchange for an honest review.

This one will stick with me. It was written for book clubs and is begging to be discussed by thirty-something mothers. I rarely enjoy dystopian novels and it took me a while to let go of the "this is ridiculous" thoughts as we learn more about the "school", but ultimately Chan succeeds in a psychological mindtrip for the reader, not unlike the one the mothers are put through.

Satirical, allegorical scathing look into society’s perception of a “good mother”. After a “very bad day”, Frida loses custody of her daughter and is sent to a new program, The School for Good Mothers. The goals are completely unrealistic, the mothers are expected to be superwomen, there is no support and the finish line keeps moving farther away. And just for constraint, there is a school for fathers with a much lower bar to measure success. Heartbreaking and a great discussion spark for book groups.

Thank you to NetGalley for a copy to review. I did not care for this book. The writing included multiple paragraphs (often pages at a time) of description without dialogue and I have found I don’t like that type of novel. I did not care enough for any character. What happened at the school was not good but it almost felt like it should have been worse? We never find out why the fathers are treated differently than mothers, which I wanted an explanation for. I felt like some things were described too much while other things were just glossed over. I think overall I just expected more from this book.

A dystopian novel that examines parenting in a society where the government has extended its reach into child welfare. Frida is a 39 year old mother of a toddler whose husband left her for another woman. One “very bad day” she leaves her daughter home alone in an exersaucer for 2 hours. The government has created a new systems where parents who have been found to have neglected or abandoned their children are sent to a school to be trained how to be a good parent. They must complete the program or face losing their child. The story is dark and disturbing which made it hard to read, particularly the terrifying injustice and unattainable expectations of the training. The pace was slow and the year at the school felt repetitive and painfully long. Although the issues raised are thought provoking, it was a disappointment for me.

Extremely disturbing story of a not very distant dystopian society where mothers are judged harshly and held to unrealistic standards without the existence of any available supports equal to the draconian measures used to re-educate these poor women. Fathers are also judged critically, but the expectations for their behaviors are far less stringent than the expectations for mothers. The government claims to be doing this for the good of society, but the children they are purporting to protect are potentially the most seriously damaged of all.
All parents make mistakes - some are egregious and those people do not deserve to be parents. However, “Big Brother” is unable to detect shades of gray.
Should the State decide who is perfect, and does a mother need to be “perfect” to keep her child?

Wow. I’m going to be thinking about this book and all the questions it raises for a long time. Lots of themes of motherhood, of course, but also parenting in general, race, class, gender, surveillance, AI, technology, social welfare programs, etc. etc. I thought the writing was great, the characters were dynamic, the pacing was good, and the plot was intriguing. Definitely enjoyed and recommend. Worthy of a reread for sure.

Jessamine Chan's "The School for Good Mothers", a current popular celebrity book club pick and a book with much advance buzz in the literary readers' community, was quite a gut-wrenching read. The story starts breathlessly with the police calling the principal character, Frida Liu, to inform her that they have her toddler daughter - through circumstances which rest entirely on Frida's shoulders. A single mother with an overtly supportive but manipulative and selfish ex-husband, her parental rights are quickly stripped, forcing her to eventually choose the lesser of two evils: she must attend a reform school (though not called as such) for wayward mothers, or risk never having equal access to her daughter again.

The heart of the book is the year that Frida is kept literally in captivity with other "unfit" mothers, some of whom have committed infractions lesser than what most normal humans would consider an offense, and others who commit veritable monstrous acts of child abuse. The mind-games, the mental cruelty, and eerie quality of the activities administered by pink-lab coated (and funnily, childless) instructors, is a mind-twist. The book takes place in modern day Philly and later, at the school, but heaven help us if Society were to come to this misogynistic way of life where women are treated as vessels for children with no rights to center even part of their day around themselves. As mothers, they must always subjugate their soul to the needs of their child. Unsurprisingly, at the Dads reform school nearby, the impingement on their personal freedoms do not take place and these draconian messages about parenthood are not evangelized.

I found the section set in the school to be fascinating, if not horrifying. I found the sections involving Frida's external life (both pre- and post- her time served at the school) to be frustrating or to downright make my blood boil. Though the author takes pains to show how Frida's ex-husband and upbringing made her vulnerable to making the mistake that led to her child being taken away, the central character herself never ever fully takes ownership of her role in her own tragedy, even after a year when she had nothing but time to reflect. Other desperate behaviors by Frida prior to visiting the school filled me with disgust and some sympathy for her. But there were also plotline holes - how could such a smart woman with so many advanced degrees and the steady support of her parents find herself in a menial job and with no adult coping skills at age 39? Perhaps other readers more aware of living with mental health issues do not see this as a plotline hole, but I simply could not connect with this character. Her self-sabotage throughout the book made this a deeply unpleasant experience for me as a reader.

I did appreciate Jessamine Chan's quality of writing and the sheer inventiveness of the story, even if one can trace obvious inspiration from The Handmaid's Tale, 1984, Fahrenheit 52, and other dystopian novels. But purely on my visceral reaction - especially to the befuddling ending - I rate this 3/5 start.

Sincere thanks to #NetGalley, #JessamineChan, and #Simon&Schuster publishing for the Advanced Readers' Copy in exchange for an unbiased review.