Let me start by saying I am a CPS worker which possibly jaded my perception of this book. I understand this is a work of fiction but was absolutely horrified by the treatment of parents by CPS. Not all states are the same and not all workers are the same but that is not how it works AT ALL. Secondly the “school” and their ideals are completely messed up - keeping mothers from their children is not going to fix anything - it creates more of a rift and a lack of attachment - those mothers didn’t have a chance the second they agreed to that school. I also wanted to shake Frida multiple times and tell her to fight for all of her rights - her basic human rights were trampled on. I almost stopped reading this book because of my frustration in the way things were portrayed. I gave it a neutral rating due to my conflict of interest.

Juggling a baby, a career, and adult responsibilities is difficult for single mother Frida. Like any mother in that situation, she is frazzled, tired, and struggling. Unfortunately, Frida has one bad day and pays the ultimate price - her daughter Harriet is in her ex-husband's custody until she completes a mothering program. With the very real possibility of losing her daughter forever looming over her, Frida works hard in the program, despite prison-like conditions and completely unrealistic expectations.

School for Bad Mothers is a page-turner. Frida's predicament and participation in the training program will leave readers feeling outraged at the hoops that mothers have to jump through to prove they can take care of their children. The novel will leave the reader pondering the following questions: what kind of unrealistic expectations do we set for mothers? How effective is a system that separates mothers and children after one bad day? And most of all - how do single mothers juggle everything on their own under the weight of society's scrutiny? A must-read.

This dystopian story was amazing! I was not prepared to enjoy it so much. It was frightening to read because it could happen! If you enjoyed The Handmaid’s Tale and The Vox, you will love this too. Frida is Chinese/American, separated from her white American husband. She has one very bad day, leaving her toddler alone at home for 2 hours. A neighbor reports her and her child , Harriet, is taken away and given to her husband temporarily . A new scheme has been set up by the government and so she is sent to the School for Good Mothers. She is treated as a criminal instead of as a mother who made a bad mistake. She is not even sure she will get Harriet back after a year. It was hard to read in some ways because the mothers were treated so harshly. There was also a school for bad fathers but they were treated very differently.
I voluntarily read and reviewed an advanced copy of this book. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

An indictment of fascist social practices, the performance of parenthood, and the ways relationships manipulate peoples' perceptions and self-understanding. Frida is a lousy mom, and she's sent to a special facility with other parents, most women, all of whom have failed to perform motherhood in acceptable ways within their social strata/communities. The parents undergo "training" with sentient dolls, passive-aggressive counseling, and punishment for "offenses" and "failure" to get the dolls to behave as required in timed tests of their mothering abilities. There's a heavy overlay of gender essentialism in the training and the men in a parallel program are clearly treated differently--usually better.

It's a well-created world and system, but while Chan tries to make the mix of parents diverse, there are no obviously queer parents, just women who enter into romances with each other out of loneliness. Following the timeline of events is difficult at times--days are counted by "days in uniform" and holidays, but this becomes confusing; it's easier when, partway through the book, Chen starts to mark time by months instead. It's easy to feel sympathetic for some of the characters, but not the protagonist, which--for me-made the book more interesting and unique.

I appreciated the message and concept behind this novel, but it just got to be too much. What is the difference between a good mother and a bad mother? And how does society make women into bad mothers? There are a lot of important topics addressed in this novel, but it was just over the top.

This book infuriates me. Not because it isn't well-written -- the writing is drum-tight and compulsive -- but because the story crawls under my skin and dies.

Mothers are unfairly judged on absolutely everything involving their children. How much has the baby grown in the past month? You're not feeding her GMOs, are you? How many minutes of screen time does she get each week? Have you prepared her college fund? It never ever stops. Yes, fathers are harshly judged on their parenting, but it's ignorant to suggest that the burden to raise children doesn't fall to the mother. It always has.

And in the case of The School for Good Mothers, this burden is more important than absolutely anything else Frida could do as a human being. This book underscores society's insistence that women are destined to become mothers and if they don't do it perfectly, they are failures.

And this... this hurts. I'm a mother. Not the best ever, but not the worst, either. I'm guilty of as many motherly sins as any other. An all-powerful, all-knowing CPS may not have installed cameras under my kitchen counter or taken notes on my facial expressions when I'm away from my children, but I recognize the feeling of judgment. Of feeling trapped. Worse, Frida's "very bad day" pinged my own sanctimommy radar. She left her crying toddler alone in the house, drove away, and stayed for more than 2 hours. When I read that, I judged her. Instinctively, I thought less of her as a human character because of her aptitude as a mother. I believe this is why many other readers find her unsympathetic and unlikeable. No matter how many times Frida explains herself or apologizes, nothing can atone for her sin. Recognizing this blurry line between reality and dystopia makes my skin crawl.

The pacing of this story is relentless and even when the reader wants/needs a break, there isn't one. It's exhausting, being this anxious all the time, and I found it difficult to keep reading. At a certain point, the realism drops off and takes a sci-fi turn with robot babies, breaking the spell. Maybe that's all the relief the reader gets.

The School for Good Mothers is incredibly effective, intensely disturbing, and unforgettable. It's a dystopian layer cake of creepy surveillance, pseudo-sci-fi governmental control, sexism, and racism, all thickly frosted with shame. It's a terrifying read for any mother who has ever made a mistake.

Thanks to NetGalley, the author, and the publisher for providing a copy of this book in exchange for my honest review.

I would love to discuss this book with some of my friends who are mothers. This book takes place in a disturbing dystopia where a mother's actions are monitored and questioned to an extreme level. What a nightmare.

After leaving her daughter Harriet home alone, Frida is astonished at the response by social workers and the police. Harriet is taken from her, and Frida is put under surveillance. When the surveillance report comes back negative, Frida is given one last chance to regain custody - to attend a year long program designed to turn her into a good mother.

I had a hard time getting into this book. I did not particularly like Frida and found her pretty unsympathetic. It took a long time for the book to get interesting, and even then it was slow reading. I understand the author was trying to make a point about a surveillance society, and the intrusion of government, but I wish she had just told a story. Overall, 2 out of 5 stars.

I couldn’t put this book down. As a mother it gave me all the feels and was at times difficult to read. At first it was difficult to accept that Frida would leave her awake daughter home alone but the on the other hand the book did a good job showing that everyone’s childhood and life experiences shape them In different ways.
This book utterly captivated me. I wish I had saved it to read as my book club pick.

Frida has a very bad day. Divorced, working from home, and splitting custody is a lot to juggle. When 18 month old Harriet barely sleeps one night and it fussy the next day, Frida makes a choice that could be her undoing.
The idea behind this book is very interesting, what if all of the mothers that make bad choices could simply be taught to be better mothers?

The School for Good Mothers shines a light on personhood and motherhood and the complex relationships surrounding both roles and takes it a few steps further mapping out a "fix".

While I loved the idea, I didn’t love the execution. I can see the framework for a great dystopian story but it didn’t flesh out enough for me. The protagonist was not someone that I felt I could champion and the antagonists weren’t as despicable as I would hope they would be, given the circumstances.

Frida’s relationships all felt shallow, as though someone on a heavy dose of medication was trying to describe their feelings, rather flat and never quite making the reader feel connected. This may have been done intentionally, as her mental state was discussed several times.

Great ideas but kind of fell flat in the execution.

A book about the horrors f leaving a child unattended.
Frieda was only gone a couple of hours. She left her baby by itself, unattended. Now she must go to a school that teaches her how to be a good mother.
Phone calls are earned or list according to how you act and use the skills taught.
A scary, horrifying read. I was enthralled at the creativity of this author about this subject. Brilliant!

Hurray! This is my 900th review on NG!

Welcome to dystopian new world which turned into worst nightmares of mothers where their children are taken to the reform schools as their motherhood skills are scrutinized by being put under microscope of government. Any wrongdoings, misbehaves, faults are punished by not being able to see your child for a long time!

The story is centered on Frida, whose worst day results with her child’s taken by reform school. She’s cheated by her husband and replaced by younger and more attractive version of herself. Being a single mother and handling everything on your own are already stressful enough to handle while she’s taking care of her daughter. She’s suffering from sleep deprivation, working too much, exhausted, impatient, lost, sad, depressed.

At her worst day, she makes a big mistake by leaving her toddler all alone for two hours which is reported by her neighbors to the authorities and the very same day she loses her child.

The book focuses on struggle of Frida who tries so hard to prove she was not a bad mother, she just made a mistake when she dealt with her sh*ttiest day.

We learn more about Frida: Her lack of self esteem, her way of dealing with her family and Chinese inheritance, her desires, her postponed dreams, her confusion. But she still loves and cares her daughter so much, doing everything in her power to be good parent for her.

We witness the harsh, strict rules of the reform school: counseling sessions, talking circles, parenting classes. And if she doesn’t get good scores, she never get a chance to talk to her daughter. She already struggles from limited rights and supervised visitations but the school system is so compelling to create flawless, perfect mothers which is impossible and unrealistic task because humans have tendencies to make mistakes and learn from them. So it seems like a no win situation.

Overall: this is thought provoking, intense and impressively disturbing reading! Frida’s character and struggles to become a better mother are so easy to empathize. I had a few breaks during my reading and let my mind absorb and think through the situations described in this story! It’s definitely tense and absolutely provocative!

Special thanks to NetGalley and Simon& Schuster for sharing this digital reviewer copy with me in exchange my honest thoughts.

This was an interesting story that delved into science fiction. Not usually my taste in books, but I continued on reading until the end.

Frida left her toddler daughter alone for two hours and was reported by neighbors and sent to a reform school for a year. While there she underwent counseling, parenting classes, talking circles, and was only allowed phone calls to her daughter if she scored well. I believed that mothers of toddlers could relate to how Frida felt about being a single first-time parent, and some of the parenting advice was accurate and realistic.

I recommend this book for readers who enjoy dystopian/science fiction/futuristic books.

This book was almost a five star read for me, however, I felt like it ended too soon, there was more story to be told and it kind of left you on the edge of your seat. I wasn't satisfied with the entire ending because it wasn't a happy one or one that felt like it was complete. I hope the author decides to write another book to clear the air on what happens next!

This book stuck with me. I can't explain why but I haven't been able to get it out of my head. The fact that this book focuses around the fact that there is a school that is supposed to teach women how to be good mothers. I just couldn't wrap my head around it.
I wasn't a huge fan of Frida, but I did sympathize with her through out the story.
One of the things I've been reading is that this book would make a good book club book and I will be honest, I couldn't agree more.

Thank you so much to NetGalley for the arc

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for an advanced reader's copy of The School for Good Mothers, a work of dystopian fiction so absurd that it almost circles around into being believable again.

Jessamine Chan's story is focused on Frida, a new mom coping with the loss of her husband to a younger mistress and the snowballing stress of motherhood to her daughter, Harriet. Frida's story goes off the rails after she has what's described as a "very bad day," which Chan frames as very relatable and believable. While we may not agree with Frida's actions, it's easy to find empathy in the nuances of her sleep-deprived and overworked world. Those who find out in Frida's world, however, are largely not as empathetic. The bulk of the novel focuses on Frida's battle to prove she is, in fact, a good mother who had a very bad day. The court system, however, believes otherwise. She is eagerly thrown into a new system: instead of supervised visits or limited rights, she's sent to the titular school to focus intently on her ability to eradicate her flaws and become the ideal mother.

There are many subtleties at play in Chan's text. She weaves in Frida's complex relationship with her Chinese heritage, her family dynamic, sexual desires, personal goals, tumultuous relationships and fragile alliances with other moms in the program, and her longing for Harriet. The details of school policy and practices are so horrific and over the top when compared to current media portrayal of Child Protective Services involvement that they can't possibly be real, and yet, as technology continues to evolve and we're bombarded with (white, middle-class) ideologies of self-care and how we are outwardly perceived against this unattainable standard, there's something chillingly believable about the institution and its larger program.

I was hooked early on in this read, empathizing for imperfect-but-trying Frida and her series of circumstances that left her exposed. Once the school is introduced about a quarter of the way into Chan's text, I couldn't put it down. Frida's relatively privileged world quickly takes a turn to the dystopian, leaving the reader questioning what it means to be a good mother and where the line is between humiliation and necessary growth--between survival and rebellion. I did find some bits to be drawn out with detail that didn't add much to the story as a whole, but overall, I enjoyed reading this very much. Chan's voice flows smoothly and acts as a guide through a draining search for seeking the light in the darkest times.

Recommended: sure
For a slow character study, for a creepily realistic look at how things can suddenly yet subtly cross the line, for a book that's like the opposite of The Farm

Thoughts:
This book is somewhat outside my usual preference of magic and action and saving-the-world kinds of issues. Frida is just looking to save her own little world, and maybe that of her daughter's, Harriet. And yet, despite this being a more literary style, which I usually struggle with, this kept me 100% engaged. When I wasn't reading it, I was thinking about it. And I finished it in two days.

The pull of this one is almost voyeuristic, because I watched Frida slowly and undeniably lose herself through her time in the school. Her thoughts are mine to know, and I end up having more insight than even the all-seeing monitors who judge her emotions via endless camera footage. Hearing their diagnoses of some mothers in the program as not having enough love in their hugs, based on the biometric feedback, or that they should be able to physically heal illness with just their motherly love, was so genuinely unsettling to read that I kind of shudder again just thinking about it.

This book is more about the people in it than the plot driving them all. Of course there's a clear goal: get their children back and prove they are good mothers. But what I got as a reader was a personal view of their deterioration to the exact opposite of what the school was supposed to do. That's what kept me thinking about it and coming back to it.

They got in my head. I kept wondering what I would do in a situation, what I should do in that situation. The pain Frida feels by the end felt like my own, having seen the growth and degradation from it all. The end was a fascinating choice, and yes, I'm still thinking about it.

One masterful integration was the comparison to the fathers' school. The fathers are treated relatively humanely, promises are upheld, they get second chances. Once you've almost settled into the new normal of how the mother's school work, it serves as a cold reminder that this is not normal. That more than anything probably stoked the fury, and made me rage a bit wondering WHY?? Why are the women treated like this? Why do mothers so often take the brunt of everything?

While the plot is certainly different than 1984, the feeling felt quite similar. The ever watchfulness, the intrusion that controls a persons speech and actions and eventually their mind. I feel like it's a bold thing to compare a book to such a giant, but it feels accurate for this one. The other book that I feel is a perfect counterpart to this is The Farm. This book is about bad mothers who need to be retrained, and The Farm takes a look at just using surrogate mothers instead. If you like one, you'll probably like the other.

Thanks to NetGalley and Simon and Schuster for a free advanced copy in exchange for an honest review!

I enjoy dystopian-esque literature and ended up finishing this book, but I felt frustrated the entire time. It was definitely a hard book to read, and I felt myself struggling to find the central lesson behind the book. I will, however, be suggesting that it be added to our collection, as I feel like the story might resonate more with parents.

Great book. Couldn’t put this one down. Great book for a book club so many things to be addressed. Single mom, left her baby alone for 2 hours, with the excuse of going to work. She is reported and must go away to a government training program for “bad moms”.. The Women she meets there, her unbelievable ex husband, the relationship she has with her own mom. All I can say is brilliant.

I finished this book a few days ago, and since then I’ve just been thinking about it, and reading other reviews, because it’s a very hard story to mull over.

Frida is the child of Chinese immigrants and is the single mother of one-year old Harriet. She discovered that her husband was having an affair while she was pregnant with Harriet and her husband left her soon after Harriet was born for his mistress. Frida is having a very bad day when she leaves Harriet alone for a couple of hours, and has Harriet taken away from her.
At first, it’s hard to sympathize with a mother who would leave a baby alone for hours, but as the story goes on, Frida becomes an incredibly sympathetic character. At first, the reader could be convinced that this story takes place in present day, but as the story goes on and Frida is admitted into The School for Good Mothers, you realize that Frida is living in a dystopian future which is, for lack of a better word, incredibly creepy.

I found this story to be deeply unsettling, but that’s kind of the point. As the story goes on, you’re really rooting for Frida to get Harriet back. Reader be warned: A VERY large chunk of this story takes place at the creepy school. I was expecting it to just be a portion of the story and then we would learn more about Frida’s life after she graduates, but the school is the main portion of this story.

Without giving too much away, I was blown away with how Jessamine Chan explores the intricacies of how mothers are treated in society (basically, mothers have to be perfect and even if they are struggling, it’s not an excuse for ever being a “bad mother”), the double standard of how fathers are treated, and how BIPOC parents are held to different standards than white parents.

One more warning: Don’t read this book before bed! It really did give me nightmares, and boy were they creepy. Despite feeling very unsettled, I do think this is a great book and worth a read. I think the whole point of a book is to make you think and feel things, and this one did just that.