I had a hard time getting through this book. It was a great cautionary tale and I was engrossed until about 65% when I just felt like.... okay when is something new going to happen.

I had a hard time finishing this one. I think the subject wasn’t for me, but the writing was good and the set up was compelling.

When Frida makes a seemingly simple bad decision, her beloved daughter is taken away from her. In order to redeem herself and regain custody of her daughter, Frida must undergo training and prove to the state that she can be a good mother. I found this book disturbing but also saw some parallels to our present foster system woven through it. I thank NetGalley and the publisher for the opportunity to read this ARC.

Loved the premise for this book and immediately felt sympathy for the main character and her struggles as a mother. Though this dystopian school is exaggerated, it exemplifies the way motherhood is scrutinized and dehumanized. You are expected to be 100% perfect all the time or be seen as a terrible human being, thus you have to give up everything and let your whole life revolve around your child. There’s also some brief, interesting points the book makes with the main character’s upbringing and the way immigrant parenting styles can be viewed as cold/unfeeling VS the way parenthood “should” be — I would’ve liked to see this explored further to give a deeper layer to the story, but felt like we only touched the surface. The execution of the book ended up being quite repetitive and didn’t move the story further, so it felt like there were some missed opportunities for more plot threads, relationship developments, twists, etc.

Nearing forty, Frida's life is unlike anything she'd envisioned for herself. She's failed to live up to the expectations of her Chinese parents, both in her career pursuits and by marrying a white man. They briefly forgave her for the latter since it brought Harriet, their new granddaughter, into the family, but forgiveness went out the window once her husband left her for a younger woman. Even her parenting skills are debatable. On a particularly bad day, Frida has a lapse in judgment and leaves her daughter unsupervised at home for several hours, leading one of her neighbors to contact the police. Not only does it result in a loss of custody, Frida is shipped off to a Big Brother-like institution to determine if she should regain access to her daughter ever again. For the next year, she'll have to undergo a series of tests and evaluations to prove she's worthy of being a "good mother" to Harriet.

I thought this was a good debut novel but not one I'd easily recommend, especially if you're post-partum. It takes a certain mood to power through given how bleak the book is. The author did a great job constructing Frida's world and how she fit into the surveillance state but there were too many repetitive scenes and thoughts. The novel could have used less characters too. There were too many to keep track of, and too many that were meeting similar fates. It was a lot, and it would have been nice if there was something to grab onto and feel hopeful for. I found myself skimming the further I got toward the end.

Chen does a good job in this book of creating an all too believable dystopia. The main character's mistake that sets off her situation is so frustrating, but it is also something that an exhausted, overstretched, overstressed mother could imaginably do - unfortunately.

I received an advanced digital copy of this novel from the author, publisher and NetGalley.com. Thanks to all for the opportunity to read and review. The opinions expressed in this review are my own.

The School for Good Mother's is a deeply emotional novel of what it means to be a "good mother". Set in the future where after just one mistake, a woman's whole life is upended, her daughter is taken away from her and she has to prove to the state, through odd and depressing training, that she is worthy to be a mom.

This novel is disturbing in the best way, and a little depressing. I loved it from beginning to end.

5 out of stars. Excellent read!

This book hits it all -
- harsher rules for POC
- utilizes stereotypes to show differential treatment
- men granted more leniency
- women pitted against each other
- anti any non male/female relationships
- anti any woman's sexuality j
- anti any woman's identity outside of traditional roles
- majority of "mothers" are young - late teens/early twenties

Wow. This book takes a hard look - but not unfounded. Not unfounded. This is women's future - reported for mostly minor infractions, pooled with those with pose actual threats to their children. Terrifying.
Chan does an amazing job of using American culture - without extremism. This is what we are on the brink of!

This is the best novel of 2022. Such an important story, can't wait for the adaptation. Also, I had a debut in 2022.

I picked this book up when I was about 6 months pregnant. I found the beginning of the book triggering. Though the stress of motherhood is DEFinitely real, I just could not get behind the main character and her reasoning behind her transgression. I found myself hating her voice and all of her actions and it was a distraction for me from the novel.

This wasn't for me.

this was an interesting premise, but the style was quite irritating to me and I ended up not finishing. I may revisit at some point in the future, but for now this book just was just too negative for me at the moment.

I appreciate the publisher allowing me to read this book. I really enjoyed this one the plot kept me interested until the end which is not easy, and the characters were engaging and believable. I highly recommend this book.

Does a great job probing the scary and frustrating realities of being a mother even while set in a fictional world. You could feel the main character's fear and anger throughout, and it kept me reading to the last page.

Thanks so much for the review copy. I just love a great debut novel. I look forward to reading more books by Chan. Thanks again

I couldn't decide whether to give this book 3 stars or 4 stars. After much thought, I decided it deserved 4 stars because it definitely held my interest. The 3 stars would have just been because it was a very uncomfortable book to read. And think about what it would be like if this kind of situation were a reality.

Centers around a mother who had “a very bad day” where she leaves her toddler home alone for two hours. As her punishment she is sentenced to go learn how to be a “good mother”. Which is taught in a very Orwellian way with the children being robots and the mothers constantly being watched.

I was really excited to read this book - the premise seemed really unique, and I expected a sort-of feminist cultural critique of motherhood. And somehow this book both is and isn’t that at all.

I’ll admit, although the story dragged in a lot of places, there did come a point toward the end where a particular scene left tears in my eyes. Despite the repetitive nature of the plot and the heavy-handedness of its thematic criticism, there were moments of powerful writing. But it tries to hard too be Handmaid’s Tale meets Orange is the New Black, and it doesn’t quite pull it off in a way that I found satisfying or provided any deep literary criticism of modern motherhood.

To put it simply, The School for Good Mothers is the story of a new mother named Frida. One day she decides to leave her baby alone at the house while she runs errands, and a neighbor turns her in. Facing child abandonment charges, Frida is sentenced to a year at a rehabilitation school for mothers and must pass in order to regain custody of her child. But the school’s teaching method incorporates one slightly creepy element - extremely life-like dolls that the mothers must learn to care for perfectly.

My goal is to always review the book I read rather than the book I wish I read, so beyond my disappointment in it not living up to its premise, I have to say this book put me in a bit of a reading slump. Something that should have only taken me days to read took my over a week. I was often bored with the direction the story took when there seemed to be so many other interesting avenues to explore. The main character seemed to change her mind from one chapter to the next with no pretense, so it was difficult to understand how she really felt in each moment. Personally, I started to find her a little annoying.

As I said before, the premise was pretty original and bizarre enough that I kept reading, but the author doesn’t really explore much past that initial hook. And that’s all the doll part is - a hook for the story about a “bad” mother who’s learning to be “good”.

I’m not a mother myself, nor do I have any desire to be. Maybe this book would appeal more to mothers, as they’d identify more with the plights of the characters. For me, I couldn’t get invested.

What a disturbingly amazing read this was!

In a dystopian world where 'bad mothers' are scolded, punished and banished for infractions big and small, there exists a pilot program with promises to retrain and rehabilitate those who have lost their parental rights. For Frida Liu, who has lost guardianship of her daughter Harriet after a fatigue-induced very bad day, The School for Good Mothers is her final hope of reuniting. For one year, the thought of her daughter must be enough to prove that she deserves a second chance and that a mother's love truly knows no bounds.

I was intrigued by the premise of this and I love books with a dystopian/ alternate reality vibe. But this? This was so much more. It was gripping, I couldn't stop reading. It gave me all the feelings. The rage, the sadness!

The commentary on the expectations we have of mothers, the difference in what society believes are the responsibilities of a mother vs. a father and the overwhelmed CPS system were relatively accurate and gut-wrenching. This is not a happy book but it's an important one- one that I'd definitely recommend buddy reading or using for book club.

Thanks to Netgalley and the publishers for sending a digital ARC in exchange for an honest review.

I loved this unique, chilling book which raised a lot of questions & was an excellent book to discuss with friends. It’s very original & thought-provoking.

This book was so much fun to read. I was on the edge of my seat wondering what would happen with Harriet the entire time. I was praying for the ending to happen the whole year Frida was away. This book gives off major Handmaid’s Tale vibes and is such a quick read.