Creepy as they come. The Mother collective a far reaching group which exists for women to birth girls to continue this cult of motherhood perfection. Young Maeve escapes in childhood and in her adult years is reunited with her cousin Andrea. This successful cousin and her husband live in a Catskill estate where their tech company fashions dolls to help woman to be better mothers?
You know exactly where this is going but you can’t look away. Lots of psychological and physical trauma past and present is endured by Maeve and just when you think she’s out of the woods….
Thanks to netgalley for this ARC. Publishing soon!

I am so disappointed that I did not enjoy Just Like Mother. The title is creepy, the cover is unsettling, and the premise is intriguing. Unfortunately, the execution was just not there for me. The plot requires an immense capacity to suspend your disbelief -- and I just didn't have it in me. And the writing fell flat because Heltzel continually tells the reader what she wants them to know, rather than showing it to them. Overall, I think you can skip this one in favor of some other creepy books.

This book gives the term mother a whole new creepy meaning.

Giving me all the cult, wacky mom group vibes just like mother delivered on the creep-factor with just enough discomfort, disorientation and gore. I loved this book.

Maeve and her cousin Andrea grew up in a cult built on the idea of motherhood being the ultimate calling with the underlying message that men are irrelevant beyond that. After Andrea escapes the cult as a young girl, she grows apart from the one person in the whole world she lives and trusts…her cousin Andrea.

After years apart Andrea and Maeve get back in touch and seem to pick up exactly where they left off…but Maeve is forbidden from talking about their past and Andrea can’t understand why Maeve doesn’t share her same goals in life…to be a mother.

Things get a little tense from that point forward.

This book is like an awful, judgey mommy Facebook group to the extreme. Trust. No. Mother.

But also happy Mother’s Day.

4.5 stars.

This is a truly creepy thriller that earns its creepiness with a slow build. After a brief childhood scene with a group of women who call themselves the Mothers, the main story begins in the present with young adult Maeve trying to make it in publishing in New York as an editor. She had been adopted into a foster home and lost track of her cousin and best friend Andrea.

When she and Andrea find each other through a DNA matching site, it's as if she has been reunited with long-lost family. Not only that, but after scraping by she is invited into Andrea's world of wealth and success. Andrea is the CEO of a lifestyle company called NewLife which supports family planning with AI technology.

From here things become increasingly complicated. After turning down Andrea's request to donate her eggs to give Andrea the possibility of having a child that looks like her, her life goes into a tailspin. Her lover dies in a fire, and then her new love abandons her. Pregnant against her will, Maeve miraculously escapes a trap. The original Mother collective story is interspersed through the narrative, and eventually all of the questions that are hinted at from the beginning are answered. But that only begins to address the mystery that Maeve is facing. The conspiracy runs deeper than she imagined, and the surprises continue right up to the end.

Thanks to NetGalley for a prepublication copy.

This started off as a bit too much of a slow burn to really keep my attention; I kept finding other books to read unfortunately because I just could not get into this. The synopsis sounds really cool and there was * some promise* to the first 150 or so pages, but it was just... honestly a little boring. I finished it and it felt like I was doing so intentionally, with great effort - and the payoff didn't feel worth it. Not the worst book and not poorly written, just... very slow & kind of dull.

2.5 stars - I am so conflicted about my feelings towards this book because the ending (and I mean the epilogue) was one of the eeriest things I have read in a good while. The beginning of the novel (and I mean the prologue), while we get to know our protagonist Maeve and her cousin Andrea's history and upbringing, was also incredibly interesting. The entire plot of the book was super interesting and Heltzel's writing is extremely quick paced - I definitely felt like I could not put this book down because I really wanted to know what was happening. The first 30% of the book is a lot of buildup to the overall cult/thriller vibes and I really enjoyed that. But - you really need to suspend your disbelief. The novel very much hinges on the fact that Maeve is straight up naive and oblivious (and also, that the reader is too tbh). Without going into details, there is so much that does not make sense and if you have even an ounce of awareness of what is going on around you, you pick up on the plot and exactly what is happening verrrry early on. The mystery then became a chore to read because I just wanted it to be over; I knew exactly what was going to happen. I do want to give credit to Heltzel because I trusted exactly 0 women from the reveal of the cult to the ending of the novel and I still did not expect that ending at all.

Nothing happens in the first half of the book, except a few weird exceptions, is down right dull. After 55% through, it starts to get interesting. Hated the shallow side characters who were fo used on childbearing and making the main character feel wrong that she wasn't making children.

All in all, I'm not at all the target demographic audience for this book based on the intense nature of producing children. Otherwise, what makes a woman a woman without producing a child? Ffs.

I am usually a sucker for anything cult related. And while this didn't absolutely disappoint, I did find it to be fairy predictable. The twists and turns never surprised me and even though there were parts that played out a little more dramatically (sexual assault-y) than I had anticipated, I never really got that edge of your seat thrill I am always looking for in a thriller.

Just Like Mother” is a taut thriller with an unforgettable ending. Although the book sometimes seems more like horror than a thriller (there are scenes with corpses and rape), it is a psychological thriller at heart. I wasn’t sure how I felt about the main character. She wasn’t likeable; however, given her history that made sense. She did act courageously and was (for the most part) smart. Without giving away spoilers, the villain in this book was on-point. I wished the book did a little more to explore the cult in which Maeve grew up. I found that part fascinating and wanted to hear more. Other than that, I highly recommend this book.

OMG what a ride. I had no idea what to expect from this story and wow it was unsettling and compulsively readable. I flew through this story and I loved the atmosphere. From the outset of the story I felt on edge and a "wtf is happening" vibe that just got more chaotic the further you get in the story. I liked how we just got little glimpses into the cult flashbacks, because it made it more creepy to just get little incomplete slices. The story had interest commentary on mother hood and female autonomy. The whole last 20% was definitely WTF.


SPOILER:
I only wish we found out what happened to Emily.

For fans of cult books and The Push.
TW: rape, birthing trauma, loss of a child

“Just Like Mother” opens with Maeve and her cousin, Andrea, as children in a cult we later learn is The Mother Collective. She and Andrea are tightly bonded but are separated when the cult is raided.
Years later, Maeve and Andrea reconnect after matching on a DNA website. They join for lunch to find out that both women have been living in New York. Maeve as a struggling book editor and Andrea making a fortune in tech and fertility industries. Maeve’s life slowly starts to revolve around Andrea as she spends more time at her remote house.

This story was creepy, and the flashback scenes sent chills down my spine. The author did a good job at making the reader feel disoriented along with Maeve as she struggles to cope with not only her current circumstance, but her past as well.

The setting, writing, and interactions between the character was very unsettling, something at points where you cannot distinguish what is “off”. The plot was well developed and had twists that took me by surprise. The cult aspect of the book gave the story an eerie realistic quality that terrified me as a reader. The sadistic twist of feminism made this story unique and gripping. The last line of this book had me gasping and shocked. It was one of the best last lines I have read.
My only downside of this story was the pacing. Parts of the book felt like they dragged in contrast to the high stress plot/themes.

A delightfully unsettling page-turner exploring a perverse definition of motherhood, Just Like Mother follows the story of Maeve, a woman who escaped from a cult when she was just eight years old. Now 33, Maeve is reunited with her best friend/cousin from her childhood in the Mother Collective, Andrea. Maeve hasn't been able to become close with anyone in her life, but now she feels like maybe she can start to trust others, starting with Andrea.

Filled with hints of "things are not as they seem", I found this book hard to put down! I loved how the author slowly gave us details on Maeve's experience in the Mother Collective cult as a child, as well as the time shortly after she left. The characters in the novel felt like real people, and there were several jaw-dropping moments, as well as times when my skin crawled. Definitely read this book if you're a fan of horror, thrillers, and cults! Please check trigger/content warnings before reading.

Thank you to Tor Nightfire and NetGalley for providing an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Wow! What an enthralling book. Just Like Mother had me hooked from the beginning and kept me reading to find out all the story. Although some of the plot points were foreshadowed I still enjoyed trying to figure out what exactly was going to happen. This book has a lot of interesting commentary on motherhood, womanhood and our role in society. Thank you to the publisher and netgalley for an early copy in exchange for my honest review!

Special thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for a free, electronic ARC of this novel received in exchange for an honest review.

Fantastic Read! Just the cover alone had me intrigued. Just Like Mother reminded me of a modern Rosemary’s Baby just a bit more disturbing.

The book centers around Maeve and her cousin Andera, both who managed to escape a cult. They haven’t seen each other since. Both their lives have drastically changed upon leaving the cult. Now as adults, they are thrilled to reconnect. Maeve finds herself spending more and more time with Andera which draws her away from the life in NYC she built. However, the more time she spends with Andrea, the more she feels something is not right.

Heltzel does a great job at building tension throughout. There were many creepy parts throughout (the dolls, her friends) and THE ENDING! Without spoiling, left me wanting so much more. The novel is very character driven.

There were a few loose ends that I thought were going to be tied up by the end, but never were. Also, parts that I wish they revisited to get a deeper explanation. Overall, a great horror read.



Fantastic Read! Just the cover alone had me intrigued. Just Like Mother reminded me of a modern Rosemary’s Baby just a bit more disturbing.
The book centers around Maeve and her cousin Andera, both who managed to escape a cult. They haven’t seen each other since. Both their lives have drastically changed upon leaving the cult. Now as adults, they are thrilled to reconnect. Maeve finds herself spending more and more time with Andera which draws her away from the life in NYC she built. However, the more time she spends with Andrea, the more she feels something is not right.
Heltzel does a great job at building tension throughout. There were many creepy parts throughout (the dolls, her friends) and THE ENDING! Without spoiling, left me wanting so much more. The novel is very character driven.
There were a few loose ends that I thought were going to be tied up by the end, but never were. Also, parts that I wish they revisited to get a deeper explanation. Overall, a great horror read.

The premise of the story was enticing. A child escapes a cult and is reunited with her cousin, also raised in the cult and who is now the head of a business focused on offering emotional support to those who’ve lost a child or want to experience what it may be like having a child using realistic dolls that react and sound like real children. Super creepy. Their dynamic is off kilter, which is reasonable given their time apart. What ensues is betrayal, murder, more betrayal, more murder, see where I’m going here? I found it an interesting if not a true page turner. It would make an interesting movie plot.

Just Like Mother is over the top, derivative, cheesy -- but a good enough guilty pleasure page turner

Truthfully don't know what to say on this one. Reading a week before mothers day was a choice but weirdly a good one. Just Like Mother is the disturbing women lead cult book you've been both waiting for and terrified of. I truthfully couldn't look away from this book and its eye catching cover.


I am going to try to explain the story without giving much away. Maeve and Andrea are cousins who grew up in the Mother cult. After Maeves escape she doesn't see her cousin for a decade before a chance blood test brings them together. Their reunion is a journey of discovery, betrayal, and creepiness. Maeve and Andrea have lived very different lives since the cult was exposed and this all comes to the forefront when they meet again.

I will say this books twists I both anticipated and didn't. There were some where I had to take a breather and others where I watched in awe. This is a book I wont soon forget.

Overall I would give this book 3.5 stars.


Thans to NetGalley and Tor Nightfire for the ARC for my early review.

Maeve hasn’t seen her cousin, Andrea, since the day she ran away and exposed the cult they grew up in. The Mother Collective empowered women to have babies, preferably girls, and simply used men for procreating. This fractured childhood caused Maeve to keep everyone she meets at arms length. Now, years later, the two cousins find each other again. Maeve, a struggling book editor, and Andrea, a lifestyle and tech guru, both commit to rekindling their relationship. When Maeve falls on hard times, Andrea takes her in and takes care of her, but the longer Maeve stays the less things add up. What kind of business is Andrea actually running? And why is she so obsessed with Maeve helping?

This book was so strange and spooky and good. It’s hard to put it into words. I’m sitting here still reeling, trying to think of what to say and I’m at a loss because whew, what an ending.

Maeve is a strong, impenetrable wall, so to see the story from her perspective is interesting. Her memories of her childhood and the cult are strong elements in the story. Maeve becomes an easy character to root for. On the opposite end, Andrea is easy to hate. Especially once the pattern of manipulation begins.

This book has A LOT of trigger warnings: child loss, rape, infertility, just to name a few. I would recommend being careful walking into this thriller, because there are a lot of intense moments.

Overall, I rated this book 4 stars. It was interesting and quick. The power dynamics in this book were fascinating. The ending was a little disappointing for me, and I wanted more for Maeve. Overall, if you’re looking for something cult-y and spooky, this is it.

Thanks to NetGalley and Tor Nightfire for this #gifted eARC in exchange for an honest review. “Just Like Mother” by Anne Heltzel hits shelves May 17th!

This book was supremely creepy and gave me major Rosemary’s Baby vibes. The premise was original and I especially was drawn to the conversations about the pressure society puts on women. You may figure out what is happening along the way BUT I implore you to keep reading. The end was brilliant. If you like dark, twisty and creepy stories - this is a MUST READ.

This one is hard to review…..I started out engrossed in this book and then it got so far fetched I lost interest. I think I would have enjoyed more chapters about the actual cult and why and how it worked but the author left us guessing.

I still think this was a decent read. Thank you tot he publisher and Netgalley for this copy!