Frida is a Chinese American mom, recently divorced. She is struggling with making everything work and has a bad day where she decides to leave her young daughter Harriet alone in the house. That decision causes her to be sentenced to one year in a State-run school that teaches bad mothers how to be good. She has to raise an artificially intelligent baby and pass many tests to be released and reunited with her daughter. (Shades of The Handmaid’s Tale). There is a lot of dark humor in the tale, and I found myself questioning what the true definition of a mother truly is. This would be a good read for a book club! Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for my copy.

I didn't think this book would end up describing life in a dystopian world. Frida makes one mistake, leaving her toddler alone at home for two and a half hours while she rushes to her office and becomes distracted by all she has to do and the deadlines she has to meet.

She pays for that one incident by having her child taken away from her by the state, giving custody to her ex husband and his girlfriend. The story of how Frida, in desperation, tries to meet expectations and how she is viewed as a mother who abandoned and neglected her child is harrowing. The ending is chilling

The School for Good Mothers
by Jessamine Chan
Pub. Date: Jan 4, 2022
37 Ink

In this taut and explosive debut novel, one lapse in judgement lands a young mother in a government reform program where custody of her child hangs in the balance.
Thanks to 37 Ink and NetGalley for this ARC. I was drawn to this book and for some reason could not stop reading it. I think it reminded me of all the "challenges" of being a new mother and not quite knowing what to do.
It did not come naturally to me as it does to some. Where would I be if this government reform program were in place when my children were young? This book was my favorite type of dystopian novel, one that errs so close to the current world you can't help but feel chilled at the likelihood of reality the author is presenting.
Great read!
5stars

I enjoyed every single page of this easy-to-devour book. Beautifully-written, thought-provoking....I loved it!

This was such a chilling, creative, and interesting read. It is dystopian and feminist and deals with the recurring theme, in science, society etc, that Mothers are to blame for most things. Imagine if, like the prison system, social services was run for profit. Punishment for transgressions, ranging from minor to major, is rigorously and unreasonably systematized in a pseudo-educational fashion and features exceedingly lifelike robot children. It is 1984 meets a middle-class parenting handbook with an AI twist, terrifying. I really loved it and would recommend it as a thriller with an incisive take on parenting and what it means to be a good Mother (or Father).

Thank you to NetGalley and Simon and Schuster for this ARC

The School for Good Mothers was a book that was unique and interesting in its own way. There were times when the story dragged , but overall I enjoyed this book.

I liked the dystopian society that were embedded as well as the sprinkles of sci-fi. Overall, this was a solid story with a storyline that I have not read about before, which is always refreshing!

a really interesting novel! it's subtlety sci-fi in that i basically believed all of it could be real. my biggest problems with the book were 1) the chronological order made it very slow paced & the story didn't really kick off until 1/3 through 2) the distance the reader has from Frida makes it hard to understand her motives. there was a lot of interesting moments in the novel about friendship that i enjoyed. i wish Chan had went a little more sci-fi and/or embraced the dystopia side of the story more.

Wow, this book just left me in a little trance, unable to think of much else all day. This dystopian society was a little too close to the way our society seems to be heading regarding motherhood. The unrealistic self-expectations and the expectations that society puts on mothers to hold everything together while making it look easy.

Frida, in the midst of a broken marriage and an unfulfilling career has one very bad day (as she terms it). Frida, a middle class, Chinese leaves her not yet 2-year-old, Harriet, alone in the house as she runs to her office to pick something up. Unfortunately, that quick errand ends up being over 2 hours. After her neighbors call the police, she is pegged as a delinquent mother, and is told by the child authorities that if she wants any chance of getting her child back, she must attend a “school” with other bad mothers for one year where she will be trained on how to be a good mother.

The mothers at the school are treated basically as prisoners and must repeat the mantra every morning, “I am a bad mother, but I am learning to be good.” The mothers are put through a series of “Units” where they must learn a skill and then perform it to the best of their ability in the hopes of scoring high. If they score low, they lose the few privileges they have. These units are disturbing and seek to make all mothers fit into a perfect mold which will enable them to be successful mothers. The only thing that carries the other mothers through this experience is the hope of seeing their children again and regaining custody.

“We’re putting you in high-pressure scenarios so we can see what kind of mother you are. Most people can be good parents if they have absolutely no stress. We have to know that you can handle conflict. Every day is an obstacle course for a parent.”

There is so much more I want to explain about this story, but the more you discovery for yourself through reading, the better. The author made such astute observations about racial inequities, gender assumptions and the many roles mothers play. Frida’s is such a well-developed character, you feel her every emotion, even when it’s not one you would have chosen. You find empathy for her and for the other mothers, and root for their success. There was such a sad and lonely undertone, and as a mother myself, my emotions were taut. About three-fourths of the way into the book, it started to feel a tad repetitive, but overall this book was just amazing. Beautifully written. I loved endings that are not tied up in a nice little bow - this one hit the nail on the head. Such an imaginative, shocking and frightening look at a futuristic society.

“She didn’t mean to talk about a heart being squeezed, hopes she won’t be punished for it. They’ll joke about it when Harriet is older. It will be their code for sorrow and longing. In truth, the sorrow barely touches her heart at all.”

Highly recommend if you enjoy dystopian novels. The subjects are meant to make you uncomfortable and the author was just a master at that.

Thank you to NetGalley and Simon and Schuster for the advance copy to read and review. Pub date: 1.4.22

Frida Liu is overwhelmed and struggling with the adjustment to life as a single parent. Seeking a temporary break from her circumstances, she makes the ill-advised choice to leave her young daughter alone in their apartment and is ultimately arrested and tried for abandonment. The School for Good Mothers chronicles Frida's journey as she deals with the consequences of that decision.

Overall, the concept was interesting though some parts dragged a little for me. It's certainly easy to see Frida as an unsympathetic character and decry her decisions, but moving past that allows us to explore more thought-provoking questions. Who gets to decide what qualifies as a "good mother"? How do we reckon with the simultaneous identities of being both a woman and a mother? How can we combat societal pressures that set women up to fail rather than encouraging opportunities to ask for help?

Thanks to Netgalley for an ARC of this book, in exchange for a fair and honest review.

This book seemed so promising and interesting, but it just didn't work for me.

First off, I was expecting a book about mothers being penalized for being just a little less than perfect - not being total helicopter mothers. But the protagonist was so far from this that I had a lot of trouble sympathizing - this is not the mom who lets her 10 year old walk 4 blocks by himself, or has her 12 year old niece babysit. The protagonist left an 18 month old baby alone in her house for 2 1/2 hours, not for an emergency, but to go to Starbucks, then her office, then hang around answering emails. This seemed so over the line that I didn't have any sympathy for her constant whining that she just had "a really bad day." And it wasn't like she was a single mom, having to cope 24/7 - she only had her daughter half the week and her ex-husband had her the rest of the week.

Assuming that the point here was that women are held to ridiculous mothering expectations, it lost me.

Leaving that aside, the bulk of the book was at the school, where she had to go for a year to learn to be a perfect mother. Lessons taught by people who didn't even have children themselves! And, it seemed pretty clear that failure was the desired outcome, since the reasons given for the protagonist's failings were pretty lame.

I like dystopian fiction, and I'm always interested in books about the status of women in dystopian societies. This one, while somewhat entertaining, just didn't meet expectations.

WOW. This bold book will stay with me for days. I applaud the author for creating a world that's not ours but not so different from ours. As a new mom, the theme of what makes a "good" mother was captivating and compelling. Excellent, creative novel that will have a significant impact.

Thanks #netgallery for this book. Unfortunately this was not the book for me. This isn't my normal type of book but since I am a social worker with a history of working in child protections, I thought that this element of the story would intrigue me. I think this backfired for me. I couldn't stop thinking how the process could/should have been with the child. I'm sure if I didn't have this history this could have been a good book for me.

What makes someone a good mother? Especially in the 21st century where kids are easily entertained with devices that require little to no parent involvement, does that make someone a bad parent? In the upper middle class world that Frida Liu inhabits it is clear to the government that she is a “bad mother”, and so she is sent to a reform school to learn how to be a good mother. I am not a parent so I imagine this book must hit mothers in a different way, but as a teacher who interacts with lots of parents, it brings up lots of conversations. What is a “good” parent? Why is it more put upon mothers to be the “good parent”? Why do government agencies seem to exist to break these bonds? While this book is written in a dystopian future, it does not feel all that distant. A great read!

Incredibly thought-provoking. I appreciate the author's exploration of many aspects of parenthood, including tough topics like abuse and abandonment. In a similar way to The Handmaid's Tale, the alternate reality this book depicts is horrifying and I hope it never comes to be in our society, but I can also see how well-intentioned policies and actions could result in a program like the one our characters find themselves in. It was not an easy book to read, but I was compelled to see how it would end, and I think the ending makes this a highly discussable book that will be perfect for book clubs.

https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/4241757240
!!!!

I'm honestly baffled by some of the responses to this book. There was not a single page where I stopped feeling invested, where I stopped trying to make sense of what I was reading, where I felt bored as a reader.

Frida is a middle-aged, first-time mother who makes a bad decision on a "very bad day." Desperate to meet a work deadline and get a reprieve from her stress, she leaves her small toddler at home unattended for several hours. After she is caught, she is sent to an experimental new program meant to re-train bad mothers.

Not only is the premise of this book cool and different, the execution is exquisite. Frida is flawed and sometimes so selfish and self-destructive you want to reach through the pages and shake her, but she is also vulnerable. It is hard not to be on her team even when her bad choices end up at their climax. The horrors of the program are deeply disturbing, yet very believable. The attention to the real perfection expected from mothers is captivating and authentic. I absolutely loved this book!

Jessamine Chan knows how to tell a story that is chilling and stays with you long after you've read the last page. The School for Good Mothers is haunting and memorable, but I'm still unsure about how I feel toward the main character, which may be the point. I enjoyed the ending, and I felt it was realistic for the story.

Ooooh. This novel gives all the feels. Tender, infuriating, prescient. This year has produced several wonderful novels about motherhood and this one is at the top of the list.

Haunting. Vulnerable. Chilling. Those are the three words I would choose that best describe Jessamine Chan's "The School For Good Mothers". At first, I was taken aback by Chan's masterful prose and carefully chosen syntax, but the more I read, the more addicted to it I became. Not only is this book respected, it's needed.

Ooo y'all this one was creepy... definitely a different type of novel than I usually read but wow still a great book. The writing style was fantastic. This is my first read from Jessamine Chan and I was pleasantly surprised! I think y'all will love it.

"The School for Good Mothers" was unsettling, to say the least.

Although heralded as being akin to "The Handmaid's Tale," I don't believe Jessamine Chan's book packed the emotional wallop of Margaret Atwood's tale. Still, Chan writes a novel that is unrelenting in its grim portrayal of a future in which "bad" mothers have their children taken away and are sent to a school to learn to be "good mothers."

Frida had a really bad day. She left her 18-month-old daughter in a bouncer inside their home as she left for a couple of hours. That mistake (and it's a big one) leads her to the school where the instructors keep moving the goalpost, and getting her child back seems to be less and less of a possibility.

Interestingly enough, the "bad" fathers don't seem to be held to quite the same standard as the mothers. Hmmm. Sounds familiar.

The story is a fairly compelling read, but I think the ending lacks a big ta-da moment.

This review appears on Goodreads, Facebook and on Facebook groups 52 Books; Books, Brews & Bibliophiles Too; and Girls Who Love Books.