Happy Pub Week Book Review

Just Like Mother by Anne Heltzel
@AnneHeltzel
Pub date: May 17th
4 stars

I’m so late on my review for this chilling story that I read MONTHS ago and is still with me even now. I’m ashamed that it took me this long to put my review together!

There are so many things that stuck with me about Just Like Mother and while I felt an overwhelming sense of dread throughout - thanks to the authors ability to create an absolutely tangible atmosphere - it is the characters of Maeve and her cousin, Andrea that linger the most. I think most of us have a childhood memory of a friend or family member that we trusted above all others. In Maeve’s case, it was her cousin Andrea. The two girls survived a murderous cult upbringing and were separated while still quite young. Andrea never knew what happened to Andrea after a fateful night, only that it was her fault and she’s carried the guilt of that night close to her heart all these years. Now in her 30’s, Maeve longs for that closeness she had with Andrea and has never stopped looking for her.

When they reconnect by chance, it’s more than Maeve could hope for but before long, cracks begin to show in what was, at first, a dream relationship. Andrea’s done well for herself and in of all things, the fertility industry and as a life coach for women. Staying with her cousin in her country mansion in the Catskills, things start to get confusing for Maeve. People begin to die and soon, she’s not sure who she can trust. There are some disturbing doll situations in this book – that’s a big nope from me and a spider situation that had me lifting my feet off the floor and gave me the heebs for a while.

And because I’m absolute crap at who to trust, too, I was blindsided by the ending. Totally. Blindsided.
I’d recommend this to any fan of the horror/thriller genre and have already started listening to the authors backlist books.

My thanks to @TorNightfire for this gifted DRC

Are there any big nopes for you? Things that irrationally scare you? For me it’s clowns and dolls. Gah!
Stay bookish, my friends!

In Just Like Mother, Anne Heltzel brings a lot of popular horror subgenres to the table. You’ve got your cult, your secluded location, your “just wants a new life” protagonist, your social commentary. But do all these elements add up to a satisfying horror feast?

In this reader’s opinion…not so much.

Just Like Mother has an intriguing premise – Maeve, years after exposing and escaping from the cult she was born into, is able to reconnect with the cousin she grew up with. Andrea is now a successful businesswoman worth millions, thriving off her lifestyle coaching business that also features a line of creepy, hyper-realistic dolls intended to help women prepare for motherhood. Having lost her only daughter, Andrea looks to Maeve as her only remaining relative for that close family bond…allegedly.

The novel moves at a brisk clip, which certainly helps things, but it isn’t enough to keep the middle section from dragging. Things feel overly long and a bit repetitive, especially when the one-dimensional characters are factored in.

Maeve is by far the worst offender. She’s meant to be this character who hasn’t been able to trust anyone in decades, someone who won’t get close to anyone, with no romantic or platonic attachments beyond her FWB and her boss. But the second Andrea enters the picture, all walls are immediately demolished (and common sense with them) as Maeve looks to her cousin for validation. She becomes this doe-eyed idiot with zero critical thinking skills, and it’s infuriating to read. It’s so blindingly obvious from early on exactly where the novel is headed, not just generally but right down to the specific sequence of events, yet the author seems to expect the reader to be shocked by these big reveal moments in the last half of the book.

There are some creepy moments, and the general premise of motherhood as a cult is definitely terrifying, but it really didn’t read as horror. The author was also clearly looking to incorporate some elements of social commentary, but it didn’t land as the plot was too thin and surface level. Any one of these things would have maybe been easy enough to look past, but with all of it together, it made for a less-than-stellar read.

Real Rating: 3.5* of five, rounded down because Maeve is so irritating to me

The opening scene...Maeve, locked in a closet (!), hearing hideous screams of agony and being quietly comforted by her cousin Andrea as they go on and on, had me riveted. And that is that! No more folk-horror goodness.

All the momentum drained out of the story for me as we went from following her child-self to the chase narrative laid on for adult Maeve. The reason? I don't like adult Maeve. She's either a bit simple or she's got The Most Trusting nature ever plopped in a human being. Either way I want to shout at her, shake her until the missing connections in her brain click together, until she sees the simplest manipulations are being used on her with appalling regularity and success.

In the story universe, Maeve is one of the girl children in The Mother Collective whose purpose is to control matrilineally all the money and power that men have always controlled. They're using that power and wealth as men always have, to oppress and abuse their opposite numbers. Maeve's rescued/kidnapped by the Patriarchy at the ripe old age of eight and, unsurprisingly, is a Survivor and PTSD sufferer for the rest of her life.

When we rejoin her first person narrative, she's a never-was in her thirties, making her meager crusts of bread as a fiction editor. She's naturally quite wary of relationships, having very few...until Andrea comes back into her life. Andrea, her cousin from childhood, is fabulously wealthy and living a dream life as the big boss of a fertility start-up.

If you've read horror novels, you pretty much know what's coming.

It occurs, over the course of some thirty chapters. I'd say if you don't already have a grasp on the end of the book it will come as a shock to you. It did not do so to me. I was along for the ride, though, because I started to want this idiot woman Maeve to suffer some more right here in front of me as Andrea manipulates and sets her up.

The actual ending of the book was pretty clearly telegraphed from the start. I kept hollering at Maeve, "just <I>LOOK AT ANDREA</i> for ten seconds and you will see it!" But she didn't, and I began to suspect her intelligence truly was subnormal.

When, at around the half-way mark, Maeve's friend-with-benefits pays one hell of a price for her vague, unconnected relationship to life, I was ready to say "sayonara." I decided to do something I don't usually do: I read the epilogue. There was another vile w-bomb aimed by Maeve, there was a moment of clarity for Maeve, and there was something so deeply schadenfreude-inducing that I had to get there step by step.

This is a horror novel for those, like me, who aren't in the Cult of Mother, and whose belief in the goodness of Woman is so frayed and chopped that it can no longer be discerned from a streak of extra-dark dirt etched on my skin. I think Author Heltzel has created a dark, dreadful mirror of the life men have forced, and continue to force, women to lead. There is nothing innate in the desire to Mother someone for many women. Uteruses are not always the only important organ in a woman's body, and her existence should never be presumed to revolve around that organ's use in any way.

If you can read this book and not see that the nightmare is very real, and that its fictionalization is merely cosmetic, then you're at Maeve's level. I don't think I know many folk like that. But if one reads this: Go back and look carefully at every decision Maeve makes. What that will tell you is all you need to know.

This is going to be a great beach read for people who like things a little on the creepy side.

We start out on a cult compound with two young girls and then jump ahead to them as adults out in the real world reconnecting and discovering who's bad and who's innocent... if anyone actually is. Complete with creepy babies and more than a few murders.

It's a bit predictable but still a fun read or listen.

Just Like Mother is a creepy tale with a twisty ending.

Maeve and Andrea grew up in a cult. They were as close as sisters until Maeve was 11 and the girls were rescued and split up. Maeve has worked hard to build a normal life in New York City. Her normal life includes an ugly little apartment, a sex buddy, and a job that doesn't appreciate her. When she's not editing books, she is looking for her long-lost cousin. When Andrea pops up on a genealogy site, Maeve regains the only true friend she’s ever had. Soon she’s spending more time at Andrea’s remote Catskills estate than in her own cramped apartment which is good because bad things slowly begin to happen to her. Is Maeve's life cursed or is something else going on here?

There is a lot here that reminds me of Rosemary's Baby. While there is nothing supernatural, the people who follow Andrea and her co-worker remind me of that cult. NewLife is about babies and sorrow. It's about following the human prerogative to propagate itself pushing its agenda on others when the members have a chance. They have their eye on Maeve, still fractured from her youth in a cult that put value only on women.

This builds up to the ending. I saw every beat of the book before it happens except for the ending. I loved that I was shocked by it. Not only was I shocked, but I had fear for the character. I was truly creeped out! I was very impressed with how Anne Heltzel finesses the horror.

Just Like Mother is creepy, traumatic, and not recommended for casual horror readers. For my horror fans, the payoff is worth it.

This was a creepy and wild book, but I enjoyed the overall message of this book and it was like no other book. Like an even more horrific version of the Handmaid's Tale. There’s a lot of pressure and expectation of women surrounding life choices and I can appreciate the feminist undertones and message it delivers. There are some gory parts of this book as well. I did thoroughly enjoy reading this one though and would recommend.

Thank you@tornightfire and @netgalley for the #gifted eARC of JUST LIKE MOTHER.

I really wanted this book to work. I was so ready for a creepy horror novel about a cult that is obsessed with motherhood and femininity.

Instead, I read a very predictable “thriller” that had some gross scenes to make it “horror”.
I predicted every single twist. I could see what was happening to the main character from a mile away. I kept reading because I was hoping I would be proven wrong and that I would finally get to the good part but it never happened.

I would have loved more information about the cult itself and how it worked but the author was disappointingly vague about the whole thing.

Also there are a lot of trigger warnings in this one, so if you do read it, pick it up with care.

cw: death of a child, child abuse, gaslighting, drug abuse, rape, cults, self-harm, graphic child birth scene

Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/4492257566?book_show_action=false&from_review_page=1
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/p/Cddz63mJSf2/

Rating: 3/5

I have so many thoughts about this book. So many. The cover drew me in immediately and I decided this was a must-read.

Maeve reunites with her cousin, Andrea, 25 years after the fall of the cult they had been raised in. The cult was centered around the Mothers, and the idea of motherhood determining a woman’s worth in life. Maeve is 33 and happily single with no plans to have children, whereas Andrea seems to have her dream life as a wildly successful married CEO of a tech startup. Things get weird when Maeve visits Andrea's renovated old mansion in the Catskills, and everything only gets weirder from there.

This book made me irrationally angry at times. I’m still left quite not knowing how to feel. The book definitely succeeded at the unsettling atmosphere- I was not comfortable for a single minute.

I’ve always been uneasy about the idea of motherhood and I loved the idea of that being explored in horror. This book made me feel itchy. The dialogue definitely added to this. At first, it felt very awkward but soon turned unsettling and almost nightmarish.

Unfortunately, at some point, the book turned into what felt like a drawn-out retelling of a specific Criminal Minds episode. While I love Criminal Minds, I was disappointed. I felt like I’d connected all the dots and had half a book left to figure out if I was right. And I was right. I was rarely shocked by this book, except for a few short moments.

There were a few twists that punched me right in the stomach. With the premise and the cover, combined with some of my own fears, I thought I’d be kept awake at night. Unfortunately, this book didn’t scare me enough. This is definitely a personal preference. The horrifying moments were definitely stomach-turning, but it was more like quick moments of shock for me, and then I was back to a mix of infuriated and annoyed, shouting at the book like I was watching a B-rate horror movie where there’s just blow after blow until you’re waiting for it to finally be over.

For me, the good parts were not balanced out by the time skips. There were too many time skips for me. I felt like I missed out on almost a year’s worth of time within the book.

I was definitely a little let down by this book. However, in no way do I regret reading it. It was a quick read and my experience was not bad. It was a nice reading experience, even if I didn't love the book. Thank you so much to NetGalley and Macmillan for my advanced reader's copy! This is a completely honest review and all thoughts are my own.

Special thanks to MacMillan Audio, TorForge and Netgalley for the audiobook copy in exchange for my opinion.

Maeve and Andrea, cousins, grow up in a cultish house with all women, all called Mother. There is Mother with the blonde hair, Mother with the lazy eye, Mother with the red hair. It's a Mother Network and girls are welcome, boys frowned upon. There is one boy there called "Boy" who gets treated bad and there is punishment for the girls, also. There is also a thumping thing w no voice in the room they are not allowed to go in.

Maeve is grown now, hasn't seen her cousin since the day she ran away 20+ years. Maeve is so happy because Andrea was like an older sister to her. Now Andrea is married and beyond rich with her own company and they found each other through a DNA database. But something is not right. What does Andrea remember and what is she hiding?

Did I like this book. It's OK. It could've been a little scarier for me. No a lot but it's not really a horror.. Some parts at the end were gruesome but I gave it a 3. Not bad, not great.

Just Like Mother, by Anne Heltzel

Short Take: Sleep is overrated anyway.

(*I voluntarily read and reviewed an advance copy of this book. All thoughts and opinions are my own.*)

Hello my lovely nerdlings! Confession time: I have an 11 month old beagle/bulldog puppy named Jonesy, and he is an absolute jerkface. The worst, stinkiest jerkface on the planet. And Jonesy demands to be let outside at least once between midnight and 2 AM every freakin day.

My usual MO is to let him out on his chain, grab a drink of water, let him back in, and read a couple of pages on my Kindle till I go back to sleep. And at a quarter past midnight last night, I made the mistake of picking up around chapter four of Just Like Mother, and duckies, next thing I knew, it was 4 AM and today was going to be rough.

Like all the best thrillers, the story is deceptively simple. As young children, cousins Maeve and Andrea were best friends, closer to sisters, two bodies housing one spirit. The teensy little problem, however, is that they were being raised in an abusive, violent cult. At ages eight and ten, the compound was raided, the children rescued, and sent Into The System, where they lost touch for over twenty years.

But now Andrea has reconnected with Maeve, and WHOA. Andrea’s life is a dream - rich, beautiful, and powerful, she has everything that Maeve has struggled to attain even a hint of.

My beloved nerdlings, do you need me to tell you that there are Dark Secrets buried in these womens’ sisterly bonds, or that Not Everything Is What It Seems, or that Maeve is In Terrible Danger? Those things are all true and then some, with a side of about a half-dozen other Women In Peril cliches, but Just Like Mother transcends all of that.

The pacing is relentless, and Maeve is the kind of stubborn, traumatized, kind of messy but kind of awesome heroine that I needed in my life. Sure, a few plot points felt a little too reminiscent of a certain classic that I won’t name, a few twists were a little too telegraphed, but I still just couldn’t stop reading.

Just get this one. You won’t be sorry.

The Nerd’s Rating: FOUR HAPPY NEURONS (and definitely not a smoothie.)

Maeve was part of a cult as a child—The Mother Collective. The Collective was a group of women that put motherhood at the top of their duties, while men were just to provide children. She knew she was different than her cousins in the house, but she took solace in her cousin Andrea. When the house is raided and the girls are taken from each other, Maeve spends her young adult and adult years coping and looking for Andrea.

Thanks to familial genetic websites, it takes years, but Andrea finally comes back. She looks like she’s coped way better than Maeve—she’s loaded with a great IT startup business. Andrea and her company make AI-based babies for soon-to-be parents as well as grieving parents. Creepy, right?

It gets worse. Just Like Mother had me cringing through the entire book. As someone afraid of both parenthood and dolls, this one really hit the spot. I haven’t been scared by a book in such a long time. But why did it have to be dolls?!

The beginning is a bit of a slow burn, but once it starts going, it definitely goes. Without saying too much (go in blind, I promise, it’s great), you’ll never know what’s going on, who you can trust, and what will happen next.

Just Like Mother releases from Tor Nightfire today! Thank you to Nightfire and NetGalley for the advanced review copy.

CW for rape, gaslighting, torture, confinement, fire, panic attacks

This book is so deliciously creepy that it kept me enthralled right to the last page. The horror is sprinkled, not splattered, for maximum effect.

4.5 Hearts
SJ, Romance Junkies

Ann Heltzel's jaw-dropping thriller, JUST LIKE MOTHER, combines feminism, dysfunction, horror, and a cult! This is obviously not a romance, though it has some romantic elements. It's a jarring thriller that will keep you glued to the pages, then rereading to capture that brilliant ending all over again. 

Maeve grew up in a cult, but we are in the present for most of the book, with flashbacks to the past, done with to great effect. Maeve is living an unfulfilling life in her early thirties, when her cousin, Andrea, whom she hasn't seen in years, contacts her after finding her in a DNA data bank.

They start to reconnect, and the reader learns little by little what life was like in the cult and sees how it has shaped these women's lives, Maeve's especially. Andrea is now rich, married, and very successful. She invites Maeve to spend time with her and her husband at her renovated house (mini-mansion) in the Catskills, and that's where things start to grow very, very strange.

It's hard to describe what happens without spoiling the book. However, the author does a fantastic job showing the varied roles women play, from giving birth to running a multi-million dollar company. (Expectations, children, and the role the sexes are "born to follow" make for interesting reading.) The strange conditions in which Maeve and Andrea were raised affect everything in the present. Before long, Maeve is trapped by an insidious group with insidious ideas Maeve has been around before. And the ending is twisty for sure, which elevates the plot even more.

The way the author keeps the suspense while pushing the story forward through flashbacks and intense dialogue is riveting, and the horrific ending was there and gone before I knew it. A definite thriller to add to your reader shelf.

Well, this was a total roller coaster and I’m here for it!

From the very beginning, I knew this story was going to be messed up and it did not disappoint.

Maeve and Andrea are born into a cult called The Mother Collective and it is TWISTED.

Even though the girls get out, the memories remain. And their memories create some awfully sick issues down the road.

I loved so much about this tale: the suspense, the wicked people, the creepy baby dolls, the crazy story of the locked room, the Freemason house, and even the whole Stepford Wives vibe it has going on.

The last 10% was a bit rushed and seemed to have a different pace than the rest of the story, but I don’t think you’ll be disappointed with how it ends. 😉

After hearing rave reviews of this book, I jumped in feet first. It quickly lured me in and left me intrigued. There are two timelines - what happened in Andrea and Maeve's youth, and what is happening now. Unfortunately, I became quite frustrated that the book wasn't going back and forth enough. I didn't care about the now as much as I wanted to know what the heck happened then.

I didn't end up finishing this one because it didn't give me enough after hooking me. I wasn't sure if I loved the characters or not. I think someone with more patience who loves a good psychological thriller will enjoy this.

I have no other word to describe what I'm feeling upon finishing this one other than: disturbed.

This is a heavy book, and spine-chilling, disconcerting, but incredibly well constructed and a massive page-turner. I had seen the least information about this one possible, and just the fact that it appeared to deal with motherhood and its dark sides was already enough for me to want to read it because I absolutely adore books on this topic, so I was eager to see "Just Like Mother" take on the subject. Also creepy unsettling cover and horror? Sign me up.

The first time I tried to read this the first chapter was impassable. Then yesterday I gave it another chance because the publication date is near, and I finally understood that the MC used to be in a cult, and that's why the first chapter is so weird because it is narrated through the eyes of the child main character as she was living inside this cult. Thus this book combined two things I am interested in, motherhood and cults. I was immediately hooked.

This book is nothing but disturbing, as I said, in the best way. The first-person point of view gives a dimension of suffocation, fear, and apprehension throughout the whole narrative. As the reader, you can sense that there is something deeply wrong going on, and as you read it is like you're waiting for the other shoe to drop so you can say "I knew it!".

From start to finish there are many discussions in regards to motherhood, and the cult from which the MC was raised was entirely based on Mothers in the most creepy, extremist, abusive, and violent way. They believed that the sole path in a woman's life was to become a mother, and that having a baby girl the most blessing. Throughout the novel characters express different opinions in regard to motherhood, including the main character in her opinion that she does not wish to become a mother. I really enjoyed these scenes where conversations would sprout and some people would express horrible views on it, I feel like the author worked this theme really well, this is definitely a book I would recommend to someone interested in reading a book about this topic.

The cult aspect was also done really well, this sense of foreboding is always present, the atmosphere was really well constructed and it made me unable to stop reading. It was frenetic and I needed to know what would happen next. I would definitely recommend it as well to someone looking for a good book featuring cults.

To me, the ending was hard to get through because I was so apprehensive of what would be the closing of this story, I would also say check the trigger warnings if you're used to check them and do not mind spoilers, this is a horror book and it comes with a lot of heavy stuff in it. The ending was satisfactory, but do not go into this one expecting a happy ending, because this is not that type of book. It's the type of book that would in fact look great as a limited series, the one where the closing scene leaves a bitter taste in your mouth from all the dread it brings you, but like I said, in the best way possible.

The best way to describe this book is in three words: Gaslight, Gatekeep, Girlboss. I have to say, this book provides me with exactly what I want out of a cult-themed horror book. It was overwhelmingly eerie and at times hopeless, while also gaslighting the hell out of me. Cult fiction is only really good if you felt as though you've been gaslit the moment you put it down. This book did a phenomenal job by not only being creepy, but realistically creepy. The events that occur in this book are simply terrifying, especially if you're a woman living in the twenty-first century. It's crazy how applicable this story feels given the current political climate with everything happening in the Supreme Court and Roe v. Wade. It's just relatable horror. As creepy as supernatural/monster-centric horror is, it can never really compare to horror based in reality. The events in this book are realistic; it's terrifying because it's not outside the realm of possibility. While this book has nothing necessarily to do with abortion, the themes of pressure to have children, the mental and emotional toll of sexual assault, and the loss of ownership of ones' own body are pervasive and sharp. Heltzel did a great job at portraying these themes in a meaningful way. They were not only integral parts of the narrative, but they also added to the growing horrors surrounding the protagonist. Throw in some cult fanaticism and gruesome acts of violence and you've got quite the horror novel. The writing itself was descriptive and the tone appropriate given the profile of the protagonist. Now, did the author stick to the tone she had created for the protagonist throughout the entire book? Unfortunately, no. There was a large veer off-track that felt supremely out-of-character at the very end of the book; but for the most part, Maeve felt like a cohesive and supremely relatable character.

Now, my qualms aren't big, but I did have a couple of problems with the story itself. My primary problem lies in the predictability of the story. The twists were never very far "out there" in terms of shock-value. I was able to predict them all, which kind of caused any action to follow to sort of fizzle out. Trying to guess twists is a favorite pastime of mine, but this one really made it too easy. It was kind of obvious where this book was going right from the get-go. My other thing was that I wanted more background information. The bits and pieces we were thrown just didn't feel like enough. I felt like there were big gaps in Maeve's background in regard to the inner workings of the cult. Given the importance of the cult and what was to follow, it seems like the more that we could've known, the better. Half of the bits of backstory we were given focused on Maeve growing up outside of the cult and just felt a bit unnecessary. Sure, it helped us to understand her problems adapting, but understanding whole her history felt more important to me. I also feel as though there is quite a bit about Andrea that we don't know that could really help to flesh out her character. She's kind of two-dimensional in her purpose.

I really think that, when taken as a whole, Just Like Mother is a great, quick horror read. It is not only appropriate with the current political climate in America, but also it's just a compelling story. The most effective horror stories are the ones based in realism and let me tell you, if you identify as a woman, this is as horrifically real as it gets. This is the kind of book that just gaslights the hell out of you, but its better for it. Despite any shortcomings it is a great horror novel. I look forward to seeing what Anne Heltzel does next, because I have a feeling this one might be hard to follow up!

If you're looking for your next great cult read that'll make you look at mommy bloggers in a whole new light, I encourage you to try this. It's quick, it's realistic, it's graphic, but most of all, it's a compelling story.

I feel like I don’t read thrillers as often as I used to because I often struggle to feel for the characters (and their often terrible decision-making). But Just Like Mother was certainly an exception, a story following the very different lives of Andrea and Maeve, two cousins who grew up together in a matriarchal cult.

In addition to being an addictive thriller, Just Like Mother has the potential for the kinds of discussions you’d have over a literary fiction novel. Conversations on motherhood, family planning, and feminism are more relevant now than ever, and this book does such a great job of exploring those concepts in depth.

One of my most frustrating experiences with reading thrillers is knowing how many escape routes a character just doesn’t think of taking. But I was amazed at how well Just Like Mother covers everything, from why Maeve can’t leave the property to what would help her regain her independence. Plus, gothic novels are my favorite, and I love the modern take on this.

The one thing I wished for more of in this book was the backstory of the cult. While the chapters set in the past do a great job of progressing the story and showing why Maeve behaves the way she does now, there wasn’t as much about the history and operations of the cult. We know what they do, but not so much their guiding principles aside from a high-level explanation. This would have made it a 5-star for me.

But that aspect of the book certainly didn’t take much of my enjoyment of Just Like Mothers. This is perfect if you’re looking for something creepy from start to finish. I think this could also be an interesting recommendation for readers who enjoyed The Handmaid’s Tale.

This horror-thriller is one of the best I've read in recent years. I'd say that besides the occasional Stephen King book, I find most horror books do not live up to my expectations. Just Like Mother is a frightening and shocking story with an ending that left me speechless.

The story is told from Maeve's point of view in alternate timelines. The first timeline is in the past when Maeve was still a child living under the roof of the Mother Collective. The current timeline focuses on Maeve's life as an adult living in New York City working as a low-level editor in a small publishing house.

Maeve crafts an interesting story of her days in the cult, and she makes it clear that she is still working through her trauma from those days. The biggest manifestation of her issues is that she doesn't allow anyone to get close to her. She keeps everyone including Ryan, the man she's been sleeping with for over a year, at arms' length.

As the story develops, Maeve reveals that she orchestrated escaping the cult after finding what Mother was hiding behind locked doors. She feels guilty that escaping caused the rest of the children to be put into foster care because not everyone was able to get adopted as she did. She specifically feels guilty that she abandoned her best friend and older cousin Andrea, who was too old to get adopted and lived from foster home to foster home until she turned 18. Now as an adult, Maeve wants to find and make up with the only family she ever had, and thanks to DNA testing, she finds Andrea right away.

I truly enjoyed the technological aspects of the book. Everything from the DNA testing to Andrea's company patented dolls was realistic, and it was nice to see how the author incorporated these elements to create a masterpiece in horror writing. One of the aspects I was more curious about this book was the cover, and when the dolls are introduced to the plot, I had an aha! moment. The description of the doll itself was truly frightening, and I was curious about how it would become a plot device. I was horrified once the dolls become a constant element of the story because I've seen reborn dolls in real life, and they are scary. I would never want to see a robotic baby like the one in the book in real life.

The other thing I truly enjoyed was how Andrea and Maeve's relationship was described. Andrea comes up as a dazzling woman who people are easily captivated by, and Maeve's own trauma makes her more susceptible to her charm. Not only is Andrea older, but she is also more successful. Maeve's opinions of Andrea are distorted by their childhood, which Andrea refuses to acknowledge. There is a clear imbalance of power in their relationship, but Maeve fails to recognize it because all she wants is to have her family back.

The characters are multidimensional, and I was in awe of how their stories were crafted and linked to one another. I was in a constant state of disbelief about some of the choices the characters made, and I was in shock when Emily and Micah's relationship is introduced. Every character boosts the plot, and their storylines intersect at the right moment. Something I truly enjoyed about the plot was that even the secondary storylines were interesting in their own right. I wish a couple of them had been explored further such as Maeve's life with her adoptive parents and Henry's life after Emily gets hurt. The story goes fast, and these subplots keep the book interesting from beginning to end.

Overall, the book is an amazing piece of horror storytelling. The plot is dark and unsettling, but also engaging and hard to put down. And the ending was something I didn't see coming and left me completely shocked.

“𝙰 𝚜𝚊𝚒𝚕𝚘𝚛 𝚠𝚎𝚗𝚝 𝚝𝚘 𝚜𝚎𝚊 𝚜𝚎𝚊 𝚜𝚎𝚊
𝚝𝚘 𝚜𝚎𝚎 𝚠𝚑𝚊𝚝 𝚜𝚑𝚎 𝚌𝚘𝚞𝚕𝚍 𝚜𝚎𝚎 𝚜𝚎𝚎 𝚜𝚎𝚎.
𝙱𝚞𝚝 𝚊𝚕𝚕 𝚝𝚑𝚊𝚝 𝚜𝚑𝚎 𝚌𝚘𝚞𝚕𝚍 𝚜𝚎𝚎 𝚜𝚎𝚎 𝚜𝚎𝚎 𝚠𝚊𝚜 𝚝𝚑𝚎 𝚋𝚘𝚝𝚝𝚘𝚖 𝚘𝚏 𝚝𝚑𝚎 𝚍𝚎𝚎𝚙 𝚋𝚕𝚞𝚎 𝚜𝚎𝚊 𝚜𝚎𝚊 𝚜𝚎𝚊.“

I saw this novel here and there so I thought I would give it a try. The creepy cover art, description, and prologue drew me in immediately. Told in a first-person POV, we are introduced to Maeve, a 33 year old New Yorker and former child member of a misandristic cult known as the Mother Collective. Told through past and present timelines, we follow Maeve as she searches and finally reconnects with her cousin and best friend, Andrea, who she hasn’t seen in 25 years. Maeve and Andrea were as close as sisters but were separated when the Collective was raided and dispersed.
 
“𝙼𝚢 𝚠𝚑𝚘𝚕𝚎 𝚕𝚒𝚏𝚎 𝚛𝚎𝚟𝚘𝚕𝚟𝚎𝚍 𝚊𝚛𝚘𝚞𝚗𝚍 𝙰𝚗𝚍𝚛𝚎𝚊, 𝚊𝚗𝚍 𝙰𝚗𝚍𝚛𝚎𝚊 𝚠𝚊𝚜𝚗‘𝚝 𝚎𝚟𝚎𝚗 𝚝𝚑𝚎𝚛𝚎.“

I really enjoyed this novel. For the most part, it was exactly what I was looking for in a read. I found it fast paced and continuously creepy, with many incredibly suspect characters. It began as a highly entertaining gothic horror then quickly descended into serious madness and depravity.
 
“𝙸 𝚠𝚊𝚗𝚝𝚎𝚍 𝚝𝚘 𝚋𝚎 𝚋𝚊𝚝𝚝𝚎𝚛𝚎𝚍, 𝚝𝚠𝚒𝚜𝚝𝚎𝚍, 𝚋𝚕𝚘𝚘𝚍𝚒𝚎𝚍 𝚕𝚒𝚔𝚎 𝚝𝚑𝚎 𝚝𝚑𝚒𝚗𝚐 𝚒𝚗 𝚖𝚢 𝚑𝚎𝚊𝚍.“
 
Don’t get me wrong; I love a good, grotesque horror. However, this one ended with a few unanswered questions that kept me thinking. Although I predicted every reveal, save one, the epilogue came with an unexpected, and very welcomed, twist.

There is no doubt, this debut author knows her stuff when it comes to disturbing and spin-chilling subject matter. I will definitely be on the lookout for her next story.