Thank you to Netgalley, Simon & Schuster, and JEssamine Chan for an ARC of The School for Good Mothers in exchange for an honest review. First off, what an interesting premise for a book! I have never read anything like this and it was definitely unique and thought provoking. I got frustrated throughout the book as I cheered on Freida because I felt like she was held to an unrealistic standard. I didnt realize how invested I was in the story until Immanuel went to the closet and I was feeling so many emotions. This is a breath of fresh air in terms of literary fiction. 3.5 stars, rounded up to 4 for GR.

Wow, what can I say about The School for Good Mothers? I was waiting for this book to come out. This is such a weird, interesting look at society, the relationship between mothers and children, and government power all wrapped in up a gross social horror bow.

The plot of this story is incredibly dystopian, like an updated 1984. In the novel, a mother (Frida) leaves her young daughter at home temporarily and is whisked away to a facility for a year to learn how to become a better mother.

I found the pacing of this book almost excruciating. There were slow moments I thought would never end, then suddenly a whole month had passed. I couldn’t get a grasp on the timeline, and that was one of the worst parts of the entire book. At many points, everything felt very underwhelming - I was just waiting for something to happen.

Other parts of the story were absolutely horrifying in a subtle, creepy way. There were never jump scares or in-your-face blood, guts, and gore, but the story was haunting and thought-provoking. I think it will stick with me for a long time.

There was a lot of ethnic representation throughout the book, which I really liked. The representation didn’t feel forced or stereotypical, as it does in a lot of fictional works. There were conversations about race and how it impacted the mothers’s stays at the facility, how they ended up there, future plans, etc, but otherwise, it felt like most of the characters could’ve been any race. So that was handled really eloquently.

The plot felt like an intensive social experiment, and while I’ve read up on several real experiments that have taken place throughout history, I’ve noticed those are typically conducted on male subjects. I could definitely see this adapted into a mini series (I’m looking at you, Reese Witherspoon), and it would be an updated take on previous films with similar male-focused counterparts.

TL;DR: Part The Handmaid’s Tale, part Orange is The New Black, part Black Mirror, The School for Good Mothers is a skillful, necessary, and deeply uncomfortable read that offers incisive commentary on gender; race; state and social surveillance; and the toxic culture of intensive mothering. My rating 5 of 5 stars.

"Loneliness is a form of narcissism. A mother who is in harmony with her child, who understands her place in her child's life and her role in society, is never lonely. Through caring for her child, all her needs are fulfilled."

Is The School for Good Mothers an excellent, important book that I think everyone should read? Yes. Did I *enjoy* reading it? I’m honestly not sure. It was hard and challenging and uncomfortable. But art and ideas of consequence often are.

After reading this book some months back, I immediately rushed to read other readers’ reviews. I needed to see how others were receiving this complicated book. And I was gravely disappointed by many reviews condemning Frida for her big mistake. I felt like we hadn’t even read the same book or been introduced to the same woman, whom I found deeply, deeply relatable and sympathetic—in all her flaws and failings. Those comments demonstrated to me—even more than this book alone—just how toxic and ingrained our cultural ideas about all-sacrificing motherhood are. Due in part to the excesses of American individualism, Frida alone pays dearly for a mistake that she made within a situation, culture, and systems that set her up for failure.

Rant aside, there is also much to appreciate from a literary standpoint. Early on, this book reads as general fiction. It’s only later on that dystopian elements enter into the narrative—namely, the extreme surveillance apparatus directed at mothers labeled deviant and the creepy reform school where the delinquent moms are isolated from society and forced to care for doll replicas of their children. But honestly, it all feels very, very real. Anyone paying attention is aware of grave injustices and inequities in our current system of justice. As well as the ways in which governments, corporations, and individuals use technology to police one another’s actions. By just barely exaggerating reality, Chan has crafted a “dystopia” more terrifying than any I’ve read before.

Chan also makes readers *feel* Frida’s emotions. Her anger, her resentment, her jealousy, her regret, especially those directed at her ex-husband and his younger mistress-turned-wife-turned-step-mother-to-Frida’s-daughter. I imagine this book is also very relatable to mothers who’ve experienced the unrealistic, and often-times gaslight-y standards they are held to (e.g. “breast is best”). The books gets a bit slow in the telling of Frida’s day to day life at the school, but that also gives the narrative a lot of it’s power since the reader is able to feel the expanse of time Frida is enduring separated from her daughter, Harriet, and isolated from society at large.

Many thanks to Simon & Schuster and NetGalley for the opportunity to read this book in exchange for an honest review.

This was very mediocre for me. I was very intrigued by the premise, but it got bogged down with the minutiae of daily life at the school. Also, while I know the author was trying to make a point about how ridiculous the things that happen in the novel are, there wasn't enough exploration of this.

One of the best dystopian novels I've read in a while. This one will stick with me for a long time. Especially relevant in our current moment. Rec for fans of Handmaid's Tale.

The School for Good Mothers by Jessamine Chan presents a very unique and thought provoking plot that revolves around mothers and fathers who have their children taken away from them due to neglect. The mothers are sent to a training school where they are forced to experience various scenarios that are set up to improve their parenting skills. The school is set up in a way that is similar to a prison. The discipline is severe and the mothers are forced to wear uniforms. As the story progresses the woman are given dolls that simulate real life children. The mothers are to practice their parenting skills using these dolls. The reader of the novel will be forced to really think about what makes a good mother and how can mothering skills be improved over time. The School for Good Mothers is interesting and very thought provoking.

As I finish this book, I honestly feel like I’m about to hurl. The beginning of the book I enjoyed and at first the dystopian school for what CPS considers bad mothers was one of amusement.
However, it became so repetitive and the continuous negativity took its toll on me. The government puts women who aren’t even actual mothers to determine how a perfect mother acts and behaves. They are given no exceptions and your motherhood will be taken away from anyone who isn’t “perfect”.

As a mother of two very unique children, parenting them as a single mom is hard and I’m sure most people would agree to this. Having two children, I can’t have a one size fits all parenting style, in fact my parenting for each child is completely different.

We have so much judgment in this society and don’t tell me you haven’t ever been annoyed by a screaming child in a restaurant or while shopping and think why is that Mom not doing anything?? Nobody is perfect and all Moms make mistakes and should be able to parent their own way when they have the best intentions for their child.

There was real opportunity for this to be so much more, if only it brought more emotions and a build on relationships. I was secretly wishing the stepmom would have been sent to the school also lol.

I tried twice to make it through this book, but wasn't successful either time. For me, I think the issue was the title's bleakness. I'm quite willing to read books that narrate difficult, unhappy events, but there was nothing in the narrative or characters to counterbalance the bleakness.

Perfection. An all too realistic commentary on motherhood, written with a sharp, witty edge. This book stayed with me for a long time.

The School for Good Mothers is a thought provoking and at times difficult to read dystopian story about motherhood set in the not distant future. Frida, an overwhelmed mother of a toddler (who's now ex-husband fell in love with a younger woman), has a very bad day and prior to the changes from CPS and the government, she would have been given some counseling, supervised visits and fines. CPS installs cameras in her entire house, she's under constant surveillance and her social worker is clearly not on her side. Now, in order to preserve her parental rights, she is sent to an experimental school for bad mothers (I'm a bad mother but I’m learning to be good) for one year. During this tumultuous year a human experiment unlike any others is conducted. This part of the book was frustrating/maddening at what the mothers are put through and is drawn out but draws the picture to the conclusion. Chan paints a horrific picture of the future and what defines a "good" mother from a "bad" mother. Overall this is tough book to read with the proactive subject matter and is well written.

Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for this ARC in exchange for my honest feedback.

THE SCHOOL FOR GOOD MOTHERS is chilling, fast paced, and absolutely compelling. This book was an easy 5 star read for me and one I'll recommend over and over again for years to come.

"The School for Good Mothers", by Jessamine Chan, is a timely novel considering current events in the United States. A dystopia where motherhood is highly regulated by the state doesn't sound much like fiction sadly, and of course, for many minority groups, it never has been fictional. As a mother of a young child, and an immigrant in America myself, I felt this book on a very personal level.

The plot follows a Chinese-American woman, Frida, raising her one year old daughter as a recently divorced single mother. One day, pushed by sleep depravation and general overwhelming, Frida commits a grave mistake, and leaves her daughter Harriet home alone for a few hours. What follows is Frida's fight against a whole system pinned against her, and a re-education course on how to be a "good mother", to try to get her daughter back.

This book was very infuriating to me, and, in many aspects, did not feel speculative at all. It's rooted in mothers' guilt, and the way mothers are judged and held at different standards than their male counterparts. It's also rooted in the way parenting from different cultures is often considered backwards and punished, in countries like the United States. Because of all that, the book feels just one close step away from reality.

While Frida, like any person, had faults, and made mistakes, I could not help but empathize with her despair and get really angry with what she was going through. The really scary part of this book is that this is the reality of many women, and it's easy to arrive in Frida's situation in a society where mothers are judged and blamed, instead of given support and resources.

Thank you to NetGalley and Simon & Schuster for the e-arc. "The School for Good Mothers" has been out since January 2022. All opinions are my own.

A solid premise for a book and it did not disappoint - until the very end.
Frida leaves her daughter in the car alone for 2 hours so she can get some things in the store. She is reported and has to attend "the school for good mothers" for an entire year. This harsh, dystopian school has created robot babies for the mothers to mind and learn how to care for according the rules set forth by the government. This includes repeating 'I am a bad mother, but I am learning to be good" as one of many negative mantras. At the end of the year, the judge will determine if the mother is fit for parenting again.
I found this book disturbing in it's accuracy to what so many of us fear is coming in our nation. The disparity between how the dads are treated at their school vs. the moms is not shocking. None of it is really, just sad.
I loved the ending, but was left a little uncertain and that did not set well with me.
Overall a solid read, dark, but timely.

I found this book to be very lacking in some fairly important parts. We are meant to feel sympathy for the main character and that she is being made to stay at this “school”. However, she is a terrible mum and doesn’t deserve sympathy. She needs more than a school! I also just found the blurb to be quite deceptive in that it originally appeared (when I first requested an ARC) as a standard literary fiction. After receiving it, however, and upon publication it is revealed that it’s actually dystopian. I am a huge fan of the former and absolutely detest the latter. Therefore, this was a huge disappointment to me.

A great example of a book that you finish reading a have no idea how to feel about it. I can't say that I liked it. I'm not sure that any one would be able to say that; it's not that kind of book. The New York Times review called it "frustratingly timely." Vogue had this to say:

“The School for Good Mothers picks up the mantle of writers like Margaret Atwood and Kazuo Ishiguro, with their skin-crawling themes of surveillance, control, and technology; but it also stands on its own as a remarkable, propulsive novel. At a moment when state control over women’s bodies (and autonomy) feels ever more chilling, the book feels horrifyingly unbelievable and eerily prescient all at once.”

It will also make you think about what goes through your mind every time you hear news about a parent like Frida. You know when you hear stories about parents doing what Frida did, you instantly label them as "bad parents." We have very little empathy for a parent who has become overwhelmed and done a bad thing, made a bad choice. "Why didn't they ask for help?" "They have no business having children if they don't know any better than that."

Then there are the kinds of things we so often say about our justice system. "Why do we just incarcerate people? Why don't we rehabilitate them, teach them how to do better?" That's just what happens to Frida - the state decides they will teach Frida how to be a better parent, a good mother. But it's coming from a place of thinking of all of the parents as inherently bad, essentially unredeemable even with training. And that there is only one "right" way to become better, to prove that you've been rehabilitated. Which is also a thing our justice system does. Which is the way all of us are prone to feeling, if we're being honest.

Here the state determines, after only one brief visit with Frida and her daughter, that her daughter should be taken away and that Frida should be committed, for a year, to a new rehabilitation program for parents. At the school, each parent will be given a robotic child, which vaguely resembles their own child, and taught how to properly care for children using the dolls. Except it's almost impossible to satisfy the instructors, especially given that the robot children don't react exactly the same way that real children would, that they aren't children who already know this person. The women are repeatedly told they are bad parents, regularly have their weekly calls to their real children withheld for weeks and months on end, and are held to standards none of us could meet. Here again, there are often lessons that seem, on the surface, to be well intentioned. But the way the lessons are taught, the insistence that success can only be measured in one way, that if you can't get your "child" to react in the way that the instructors have deemed "right," then you are a failure.

It's relentlessly frustrating and depressing and you find yourself feeling sorry for even the women who truly committed heinous crimes against their children when the other side is a state which seems bent on making the parents jump through hoops - while their on fire - ten feet off the ground - and six inches in diameter. There is no hope for these women.

And then they meet the fathers. Who are held to entirely different standards.

The School for Good Mothers is like nothing I've ever read before, nothing like what I was expecting. It was a struggle for me to read but also a book that has me thinking. About the way we judge parents, the standards we hold them to, and the lack of real help we offer them.

Haunting novel - a real page turner. A chilling story of how a horrible lapse in judgment can lead to horrific results. The school for correctional behavior was beyond the pale and shocked the imagination. And yet, the sanctimonious beliefs of those in power seems oh-too-real. The ending seemed somewhat abrupt and confusing - so I’ll definitely be thinking about it for quite some time.

I was really excited for this book but struggled to connect with the story or characters. Over all it was just ok.

Incredible, heartbreaking, compelling. A must-read for mothers and fathers alike. Recommending this to everyone.

This story was very triggering in the beginning and I was not able to finish it based on what happens in the start of the book with the mother and child.

This was super thought provoking!! A great addition to the dystopian/motherhood sub genre. Made me consider the value of being a mom and motherhood in general. This was almost too plausible… really enjoyed.