The School For Good Mothers
By: Jessamine Chan
Pub. date: January 4, 2022
Review date: January 10, 2022

Many thanks to Simon & Schuster, Jessamine Chan & NetGalley, for allowing me early access to this arc.. I’m leaving my review voluntarily.

Wowwwww… Jessamine Chan has pulled from me more emotions than I knew existed! It’s Rare a book gives me So Many feels but this one here is Something Else altogether.. Also, I was born, raised & actually Still reside in South Philly & the story just happens to take place right here in my hometown. This is a semi-dystopian take on a real-life scenario, one more common than most would believe. I’m giving The School For Good Mothers 5 stars & will encourage Everyone who enjoys a good dystopian, (mostly) fictional story with many true to life themes. I Can’t Wait to see what Jessamine Chan thinks of for her next novel!
#TheSchoolForGoodMothers #NetGalley
#JessamineChan #SimonAndSchuster

Poor pacing. A novel like this is something I feel can benefit from being a novella. A shorter story that packs a punch.

It takes a lot for me to actually cry when reading a book. I have to be perfectly in tune with the characters and really able to feel the despair or sorrow being described. Jessamine Chan was able to pull out all sorts of emotions from me while reading this book: frustration, longing, anxiety. This is the mark of a truly talented writer in my mind.

The main character, Frida, makes the inarguable mistake of leaving her toddler home alone while she runs an errand. She's reported to CPS and is required to defend her parenting abilities. In this futuristic story, Frida is mandated to spend one year in a school for mothers who have also proven to be less than perfect mothers. She's tasked with impossible tests, day in and out, all in the name of receiving custody when she is released.

I am not a mother but I was so able to clearly fit into Frida's shoes because her desperation to be better and her commitment to her family is universal. This book reads like a horror novel at times (no gore, just shock at what the mothers are made to endure), a dystopian novel, and a cautionary tale of what could happen if we as a culture become consumed by the idea that there is a model for what a perfect parent (and person) should be.

This book will stay with me for a long time, and even after the tears, I'll be eagerly anticipating Chan's future work.

When exhausted single mother Frida Liu leaves her eighteen-month-old daughter, Harriet, alone for two hours her life is forever changed. Child Protective Services take her child and give her to the custody of her ex-husband Gust and his new wife Susanna. Frida must prove herself a worthy mother through observation. Her home is set up with cameras and she gets supervised visits with her daughter Harriet. When these visits go poorly she then must go to family court to retain custody. When that also goes poorly she is allowed to redeem herself by going to an education camp, a school for good mothers.

She is then placed in a sort of prison with other mothers who have also abandoned or harmed their children. Each mother's education includes an assigned robotic child for practice. She must go through a series of classes and tests to determine if she is a worthy mother. If she fails, she will lose custody forever.

Jessamine Chan combines several science fiction elements that might be familiar to readers. However, it seemed to be a hodgepodge of elements that don't seem to combine that smoothly. Mothers are in prison missing their children. These elements are familiar to anyone who has read or watched Orange Is the New Black. Many also make the comparison to Handmaid's Tale. This doesn't seem to sync up since it isn't a prison. Mothers can leave at any time, and some do, it just means giving up custody of their children. Later scenes of mothers escaping don't seem to add up. They don't need to escape since both leaving or escaping both means losing custody? The story flow is very wooden as well. It sets a dystopia, but what happens to mothers in our current society far exceeds what occurs in this narrative.

This is a story about bad mothers, who are learning to be good?

Who are you supposed to root for here? The writing feels ambivalent- as though perhaps we are not supposed to root for anyone? Also- I’m pretty sure this is how the robot uprising starts.

While this was clearly not for me, the author is obviously really talented and I’ll totally read things she writes in the future.

Thank you so much Netgalley and Simon & Schuster for the eArc!

⭐️ ⭐️. 💫 rounded to 3.

The School for Good Mothers was an intensely triggering and frustrating book. The comparisons to Handmaid's Tale is definitely accurate. The dystopian feature of the book is unexplained, but nonetheless felt realistic.
Because of its content, this book was hard to read. It was upsetting and heart breaking. The tone of the story was somewhat detached and clinical, which made it harder to fully connect with the characters. Overall I think this book accomplished what it intended to accomplish.

I’ve seen a lot of books compared to The Handmaid’s Tale, but this is the only one so far where I think the comparison is fair.

Frida has an eighteen-month-old daughter and she has had a Very Bad parenting day. She leaves her toddler alone for two hours as she gets coffee and runs to the office. Someone calls CPS when they hear cries from inside her apartment and her parental rights are suspended. Pretty standard stuff, right? Wrong.

In this dystopian society just slightly different from our own, there have been changes to family court and CPS. Parents have to agree to constant surveillance in their homes and of their technology for a final analysis of their emotions. If they fail, they’ll be sent to The School
For Good Mothers—a renovated college campus with a years worth of sessions on how to hug correctly, properly speak Motherese, and protect kids from kidnappers and molesters among others. All of this must be done with highly advanced, lifelike robotic dolls that look similar to their own children that are sentient, have genuine emotions, and can feel pain and discomfort.

Full disclosure: I am not nor will I ever be a mother. But Jessamine Chan has created such realistic characters that I felt for Frida as if I knew her. I sobbed the last 15% of this book because of how much I grew to love Frida, Emmanuelle, Harriet, and Frida’s motherly love. I’m in awe of this author and I can’t wait to see what else she writes.

**Big thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the eARC copy in exchange for an honest review.

I can definitely see why this was a book club pick this month! I couldn't put this book down. It kept me GUESSING the whole way through!

I had to stop reading this novel several times to process the horror of what was happening to the mothers in this novel. The School For Good Mothers by Jessamine Chan is a train wreck that I couldn't look away from. Great writing, tight editing and good pacing make this book readable even though the subject matter is disturbing.
In the near future, a parent who has has failed, whether on purpose or by neglect, abuse or other offenses as determined by the state, will attend a school to hopefully be reunified with their child. The school is dehumanizing and shows how good intentions to reform people can go horribly wrong. A definite read.

My first read of 2022 and it’s a five star rating, hands down.

I first want to thank Simon & Schuster for the complimentary copy of this book to read in exchange for my honest review!

I see a lot of 3 and 4 star reviews on this and I have to start by saying this book hits different if you are a parent vs. if you have no children. It’s ALSO important for future potential readers to be aware of TW (cps/dcf, child loss/miscarriage, abuse, PPD/PPA, suicide).

“By staying calm, they’re showing their child that a mother can handle anything. A mother is always patient. A mother is always giving. A mother never falls apart. A mother is the buffer between her child and the cruel world.”

A great book, in my opinion, should start up a rollercoaster of emotions. I want to go from happy to sad to infuriated to hopeful, but always on the edge of my seat. Jessamine Chan put me on that ride and fully engaged the entire way through. It left me thinking deeply of how children pay the ultimate price for the decisions made by complete strangers who may or may not be properly qualified to make such decisions. Decisions made in the “best interest” of the minor child or children. I see it often in my job field and it’s heartbreaking. This book is harsh reality with a fantastic and disturbing mix of the technological future we’re not too far away from.

I thought her method of weaving the social stigmas of “bad mothers” and “good mothers” was equally fantastic. No matter what we do as moms, society finds a way to demonize us. You need a break? Bad mom. You let your kid eat McDonalds instead of cage free chicken, green beans fresh from your garden? Bad mom. There were great examples of how intense and judgmental women are toward other women despite how similar our battles are because of our egos.

All in all, I thought this book was fantastic and I’m looking forward to purchasing a physical copy for my personal library.

3.75 stars

This book focuses on a future where mothers are sent to a year long school that tells them they are bad mothers, but can learn to be good. Frida is sent to the school after having “a bad day” and leaving her child, a toddler, at home alone for 2 hours. Her daughter is taken away and given to her cheater ex husband and new girlfriend. The experience for mothers at the school is terrible, including testing, evaluations and bonding Ex we used with toddler robots, little to no access to their real kids, and oppressive monitoring. Women are placed there for everything from coddling their kids too much , to “gentle burns” on Children’s bodies to allowing a 12 year old to babysit their baby. This book brings up so much that can be discussed from What makes a good mother to how we judge others and how they parent. I thought the writing overall was great though the middle dragged a bit. Again, a good book for a book club though slower paced and tough to read as a mom to two young kids.

Frida has a bad day which ends up with her being sent to the “school for good mothers”. Bad mothers are sent to the school to learn how to be good mothers.

The idea of this book was really strong but it didn’t quite live up to the concept. The book felt very repetitive and never really had a climax. It was really depressing and I never felt any hope. I also didn’t understand and couldn’t relate to a lot of the choices Frida made. Some parts felt a little too over the top whereas other places just feel flat.

This book should definitely have a trigger warning for mothers. If you are sensitive or have young children this probably isn’t the book for you.

I am having a hard time putting my thoughts together for this book. The concept and topic is intriguing. It definitely is going to be a great book discussion book. There are so many thoughts I had while reading this book and it made me question my own beliefs and opinions. I cannot imagine being a mother and reading this book. However, there are parts of the book that didn't hold up for me. I feel like the main character's time at the school was longer than it needed to be in terms of the amount of time devoted to it. Other parts felt rushed, and I know that was the point of the book, but it felt like it was the same idea over and over. I also felt like different themes were incorporated, but they were not expanded on enough for them to be included. It felt like the book was doing too much.

Frida Liu had a very bad day.

She left her eighteen-month-old daughter Harriette at home while she went to the local coffee shop for an iced coffee. What was meant to be a 10 minute trip to the coffee shop turned into a two-hour abandonment? Emergency removal of Harriette takes place and Frida is sent to a new reform program for bad mothers for an entire year.

<i>“Now, repeat after me: I am a bad mother, but I am learning to be good” </i>

Frida’s entire life gets scrutinized by the courts. What was it like growing up? What were you doing on the day of the incident? Why did you leave her at home? Do you let her watch television? An endless scrutinization. Frida falls into a ceaseless “I should have” shame spiral. It’s honestly something I’ve struggled with myself. Constantly questioning whether you’re doing the right thing for your child, always second-guessing yourself, always thinking you should have done something different.

The School takes on a prison-like feeling right from the start. She’s not allowed anything from home, she’s only allowed to wear the “school” uniform, guards are in rotation, weekly phone calls home (if she’s lucky), and constant video monitoring.

<i>“She is a bad mother among other bad mothers. She neglected and abandoned her child. She has no history, no other identity” </i>

One mother locked her 6 kids in a hole in the floor. Another was there because her daughter broke her arm sliding down a slide. Another whose daughter had bruises on her arms, another lost custody when she turned herself into the psych ward. The mothers gossip incessantly about each other. They obviously all made terrible mistakes, some worse than others, but it's questionable whether they deserve to be sent to what I feel is a prison for mothers.

The mothers go through a series of classes of psychological torture. It’s honestly disturbing. It’s like Squid Games meets some kind of dystopian robot movie. The mothers must prove their good mothering by completing each unit assessment perfectly. If they pass, they are allowed the privilege of a 10-minute video call with their family.

This book is very terrifying and downright disturbing but also eye-opening. It questions what it means to be a mother in today’s modern world. What determines a good mother from a bad mother? It criticizes the expectations society has on mothers as well as what mothers expect of each other and of themselves.

Frida has one bad day and ends up sentenced to a stint at The School for Good Mothers so the government can decide if she is a proper candidate for motherhood.
…
The first main thing I want to say is that this book will hit VERY differently for parents than it will for people without kids. Since I do not have children, I know the horror I felt in some scenes is only a sliver in comparison to how a parent could feel reading it. The School for Good Mothers has a heavy dystopian vibe that mirrors The Handmaid’s Tale. So much so that at times I felt I was even in the same universe. The acts the mothers do to land themselves at The School for Good Mothers varies from violent to the mundane. But what all of them share is over a year without their children while being taught by the government what being a good mother means. At the end they either pass and their children are returned (oftentimes only for supervised visits) or they are deemed unfit and cannot see their children again. The overarching theme is absolutely horrifying and kept me reading. But the middle of this book dragged a lot and the repetition became too much. Things finally pick back up towards the end, but reading this felt like a chore at times. It’s not a happy book, and I think there were some missed opportunities to dive deeper into extremely important topics like race. It’s not really even a book I can say I enjoyed because that word doesn’t fit the heavy topic matter. But I can say that I am glad I read it and that it really made me think about a lot when it comes to what it means to be a parent and the impossible task of perfection.

Thank you Net Galley and Simon and Schuster for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Plot: Frida Liu is tired. She’s a single mom, sharing parental rights of her 18-month-old Harriet with her ex-husband, who left her for a younger woman. On a particularly trying day, she leaves Harriet alone to grab coffee and run by the office. When her neighbor calls CPS on her, she’s sent to a government-run school to teach her how to be a good mother.

What happens next is upsetting, fascinating, and layered. Frida’s time at the school had “Orange is the New Black” vibes and gives the reader a lot to dissect, with a focus on how society’s expectations of parenting change based on the parent’s gender, race, age and socioeconomic status.

This is an incredible book. It’s been compared to THE HANDMAIDS TALE, and I think that’s fair, since it’s technically dystopian—the climate disasters are a little worse, the technology a little more advanced—but the real horror of this novel is that it doesn’t feel dystopian, or speculative in the same way a book like THE HANDMAID’S TALE does. Frida lives in the same Philadelphia I do; she drives the same roads, goes to the same parks. Society’s expectation of mothers and treatment of those experiencing poverty that is displayed in the book is so spot on, this story feels more inevitable than dystopian.

I told my book club I was reading this and could not find an adequate comp title that would help them decide if they wanted to read it. So I’ll just say this: If you’ve appreciated the “mommy noir” books of the past year (THE UPSTAIRS HOUSE, NIGHT BITCH, and sure yeah THE PUSH), I think you will find this intriguing. But although those book have similar themes, this book has a sense of originality (and horror) that is truly all its own.

Thank you to @netgalley and @simonandschuster for my copy! TSFGM is out now.

I’ve seen this book put in boxes: feminist, dystopian, etc., and while yes, the urge to categorize the uncomfortable is normal, I’m not going to do that. Because this book is waaaaaaay to realistic.
The night I finished this book I watched the episode of Little Fires Everywhere in which a mother, who gave up her baby because she could not provide her a safe life, is trying to get her daughter back. Her raw, desperate screams completely mirror those of the mothers in The School for Good Mothers. Mothers who have been stripped of their rights and placed in a school where they are told again and again that they are bad mothers; where they are dehumanized, demoralized, destroyed.
I don’t have children, I have no idea the levels of exhaustion and despair a new mother, especially a single mother, may feel. It is this amalgamation of emotions that leads Frida to have one very bad day.
While the court system and Child Protective Services may seem extreme & exaggerated in the book, what scares me is that I don’t think they are. Working in a school I have had…..dealings with CPS and the flaws in that system are outstanding. I have seen a child get taken away from his mother because she grabbed him too roughly by the arm. I have seen a child be returned to his father after the father extinguished a cigarette on his child’s arm. The system, in our lives, in Frida’s life, are not so different.
This book is incredible but it is not easy. It is not fun. It is written straightforwardly. It is not frivolous nor is it filled with adjectives. It is not fair.

Frida Liu’s very bad day as a mother lands her into many bad days of depression and despair. She is institutionalized as a sort of reform.
The story uses dark humor making the plight realistic. Elements of sci-fi that gives a sense of futuristic. I wouldn’t call this a fun read, in fact it’s alarming wake up call to reality.

Frida Liu is a single mother struggling to maintain her job while raising her toddler, Harriet. One day, in a fit of frustration, Frida makes a mistake. She leaves her daughter alone for two hours while she drives to her office to pick up some paperwork. A neighbor who hears Harriet's crying decides to call the police and Harriet is taken out of Frida's custody and given to Frida's ex-husband and new young girlfriend while the state determines what Frida's parental status should be. Worried that Frida's behavior is indicative of larger parenting deficiencies, Frida is sent to the School for Good Mothers, a pioneering institution designed to take "bad mothers" - mothers whose offenses range from letting their kid walk home alone from the library, to complaining too much about their child on social media, to not preventing their child from taking a fall on the playground - and reform them with lessons over the course of one institutionalized and carefully monitored year. If the mothers decide not to enroll, their parental rights will be severed. If they complete the year, the judge will review the evidence that has been collected and make a final determination. As Frida's situation quickly spirals out of control it becomes clear that the odds are not stacked in any mother's favor, including Frida's. The state that Chan has built intentionally does not look very different from the one that we occupy, but in this version of reality the stakes have been raised significantly, creating tension-filled and anxiety provoking chapters. My biggest critique came from the length of time spent on the descriptions of daily life within the school, which dragged on for a bit too long and dulled the drama and anticipation that was so expertly built in the first quarter of the novel. Despite this, I enjoyed The School for Good Mothers not only because it was a well-crafted and well-written book, but also because of the larger questions that the storyline raised, such as what does a good mother look like and what role the state should have in ensuring the welfare of children. This is certainly a novel that I will be thinking about for a long time to come.

Rating: 4.5/5
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This book. Frida makes a horrible parenting decision because of stress and depression. And this decision set off the government stepping in and sending her to a school to become a good mother.

I was angry, stressed, sad, and frustrated. The exploration of motherhood, and the guilt we experience, was raw. I recommend this highly.