This book gave me the creeps. The main character, Maeve, grew up in a women's only cult and witnessed horrible things. She was taken away at an early age and adopted. Years later she is reunited with her cousin (more like a sister) who also grew up in the cult. However her cousin and friends are obsessed with motherhood. As I'm reading the book, I kept wanted to yell to Maeve--"Don't do it!" "Run away!" It's a freaky, enjoyable book. Some of the plot is predictable--but it is fun watching what happens.

Thank you to Macmillan-Tor/Forge for providing me with an advance copy of Just Like Mother. This book was creepy! If you are drawn to stories about cults, plot twists, unsettling endings then this story is for you. The entire time I was reading this book, I kept thinking I had it all figured out. The author's ability to write in red herrings and distraction was fantastic. There are few books that make me cringe but this one was just cringy and creepy. I enjoyed seeing the main character develop throughout the story and the vignettes of the past were a wonderful creepy bonus. I thoroughly enjoyed Just Like Mother and highly recommend.

I waffle between giving this three and four stars. Our protagonist Maeve is a frustrating and overly flawed character whom it is difficult to feel for. Terrible choices are made over and over again to a frustrating g degree. What saves this novel is the overarching message about women and their relationship to the expected role of motherhood - whether they have children to look after or not.

A couple decent twists, some shock gore moments, a bit predictable in places, but ultimately a very readable, quick paced thriller.
The most interesting part is that, like me, the author is childless and nearing the end of (average) childbearing age. So to choose to write about a cult obsessed with motherhood, that reflects my frustrations with how childless women are often treated, represents (perhaps) the psychological struggle many women have these days about having children or not. I really respect Anne Heltzel for trying to find a very overt way of discussing the shunning feeling that many of us childless have had over the years. By adding in the horror and gore the way she has it makes it seem like being so elitist about Motherhood is wrong (which frankly it is). I hope that maybe a few people who have made statements as rudely put like "you aren't truly female until you've had a baby" or "you haven't lived until you've felt the love for your own child"; will have some reflection on how ignorant, elitist, and downright awful their statements are when said to a childless woman or someone transgender. Fertility is not a given for all humans and we should not covet it above all else (especially given that our world is over populated and children die starving each day). Just Like Mother could easily go hand-in-hand with A Handmaiden's Tale and make a wonderful comparison paper/essay about how different, and yet the same, being fertile is treasured over the last 30 years.

For those that had trouble with the gore or concepts in this book I have to say you should stick to your rom-com's then. I found it to be fairly mild in comparison to a lot of horror and fantasy/sci-fi novels I've read over the years. Also eating the placenta is a time honoured tradition in many cultures; so I just don't see that one as being as awful as others do. The forcefulness of the scene is torturous for sure; but the actual consuming (for me) not so much. The ending however... is very psychological and made me kind of want to put the book own like it was a plague that would infect me. Needless to say, the ending is absolutely brilliant. And it's not often I get to say that about a horror novel!

Overall Anne Heltzel has taken what society reveres as a magical treasure, Motherhood and fertility, and turned it on it's side. Showing the reader that anything put to the extreme is bad. That anything coveted above all else creates a cult. It doesn't matter if it starts with the best of intentions; it only matters that it ends with a distinct resolution that coercion and manipulation is truly at the root of all evil.

Finally, I'd like to point out that there are many women, like myself, who are perfectly comfortable with their infertility and happy for their friends to have babies over them. I do not begrudge any of my friends their lovely children, and treasure that they allow me to a part of each child's life. Occasionally I have moments of heartache or regret; but I believe those are more that I didn't meet societal expectations as a woman than anything. Hence why Just Like Mother speaks to me so clearly in it's condemnation of prizing Motherhood above all else. My only ask, of anyone but especially fellow women and mothers, is that you not degrade me (and others) for being unable (or choosing not) to be a mother ourselves. All women have value, all people have value; and we should never ever put one person's biological capacity above another's when it's the luck of the draw that ultimately determines your ability to bear a child or not.
Please note: I received an eARC of this book from the publisher via NetGalley. This is an honest and unbiased review.

This book had a fascinating premise, but the execution let it down. We never find out just how the Mother Collective got its start, and it isn't until about halfway through the book that we even know where it's located. While it's not necessary to include the origin story of the collective, there aren't enough details on its background to tell readers why the Mothers believe what they do (and, subsequently, why readers should be freaked out by them in Maeve's story present.) In fact, the principles of the collective really aren't even that clear. Do they flat-out hate men? Do they believe men are a means to an end? Do they want to eliminate men entirely? (And if so, how would they have more babies in the future?) Who started this cult and why? How did they keep it going when it went underground all those years ago?

While elements of the real-time story about Maeve are kind of creepy, without this essential background information the story doesn't quite level up in its creepiness factor. Knowing a few more details would have grounded the book that much more, made it even more compelling, and would have contributed to making it downright scary. As such, the way it reads now, it just seems like a bunch of crazy women have had it with men and are organized in their extreme, somewhat deranged maternal-empowerment cult.

Some of the character development, particularly where Emily and Micah are concerned, is uneven and confusing. Also, in the beginning it's easy to see what would draw Maeve into Rob and Andrea's home and what would keep her there. After a while, though, the story seems to stretch its own limits of disbelief. The end, too, was predictable and somewhat of a let-down. Even if Maeve didn't see it coming, most readers probably will.

There are several other questions I had that I won't ask due to spoilers, but all in all I think the plot needed some major bolstering. What started out keeping me up on the first night I read the book just made me shake my head by the end of it all.

Ah yes, creepy cult, we do love creepy. This book definitely left me feeling unsettled by the end and I was intrigued every step of the way, I have to agree with a lot of other readers this book was good but very predictable.

This is my first read from Anne Heltzel and I will be reading more from this author in the future and recommending this to friends and my library.

Hmmmm... Oh myyyyyyyyyyy. For those who don't know, I absolutely HATE dolls. Hate them. Like decapitated my Barbies and threw various body parts in trash cans across my neighborhood so they couldn't reassemble and come after me. Yes, yes... it's a wonder I've made it this far in life. But hey, you must FACE YOUR FEARS right? Not as if this cover watched me wherever I went. Nope. It DID NOT. *shiver*

Now, the cover is very apropos of this storyline and lemme just say... cult vibes with creepy lifelike dolls... how could I say no? All my happy horror nerves were all a tingle. But how, oh how, do I review this? Ok. Lemme give it a go. Maeve and Andrea grew up together in a nightmarish childhood and then were forced apart against their wills. Growing into adulthood, they took two drastically different paths. And what a bang their reunion ends up causing.

Uff. I loved this book but also had some tiny issues with it. I wasn't to shake Maeve so many times but if all characters made the best choices, where would all my entertainment go? I felt like things were pretty obvious and knew where the story was going to go chapter after chapter. But all of this also fascinated me so I was hungry to feed myself page after page. All the red herrings filling me up and pointing the way to the obvious conclusion. And surprisingly not *quite* as creepy as I expected it to be considering my attitude towards dolls though there are certainly a couple of scenes that will stick with me for quite some time.

While I wish this wasn't as predictable as it was for me (and had one pet peeve moment of mine....), I definitely had a fun time reading it and look forward to reading more by Heltzel. Suspend the belief and have yourself a good time. And keep an eye out... they're EVERYWHERE.

Weird? Felt unnecessarily slow but once it ramped up it was wild. Not the best but still fun. I wish there were more flashbacks.

Love me a cult book, especially one with a dystopian angle. Just like Mother is akin to The Stepford Wives but with mothers and infertility. This is a super skin-crawling read that hit the gas right from the beginning. There are a ton of creepy moments and eerie situations that had me squirming in my seat. Though it is horror, it's low on the gore scale and higher on in psychological just messed up category.

The plot moved at a steady clip with some good twists and some definitely unsettling moments. Creepy dolls will always be a winner as a trope device for me. There is some decent predictability, so I wasn't really exposed to any effective jump scares, but I was definitely disturbed by the characters and their weirdo actions and convictions.

Maeve was a good character and I appreciated how strong she was in her own beliefs, but there were a handful of times that she was just dumb. Seriously. She made some ridiculous choices and was totally oblivious to some strong "this is a trap" vibes.

But...I still had a good time with my read and enjoyed it overall. There were some things left unresolved and I definitely could have used more to the wrap up, but it was an effective novel with some good intrigue and some excellent ick character.

-I’m usually disappointed by thrillers and this surprisingly didn’t disappoint me
-Engaging
-Creepy
-Page turner

This one was a super fast - if a little bit predictable- read for me. I am fascinated by cults, and wish That it would have gone into a bit more detail Into the cult itself, but all in all I found it to be pretty good. Would definitely read more by this author!

First off I want to thank NetGalley for a copy of this book for an honest opinion.

A mystery novel build around a cult called “The Mother Collective,” the beginning really drew me in and that ending… on man, the ending was the ending that a book like this needed to really leave you with your jaw hanging to the floor.

But that’s just it though. The beginning and the ending. The middle just didn’t do it for me. I kept going hoping that it would pick up and suck me back in (thank goodness it did) but by the time it did, I wasn’t as invested as I was when I first started. The mood was ruined, and a great book was just ok by that point.

3 stars (raised from 2) for an amazing ending

Taking a star off because she didn't abort the hell-babies. I wish there had been more about the cult's origins, but the modern iteration was an interesting take.

BY: WILLIAM SHAW
ISSUE: 27 JUNE 2022

January Fifteenth coverIt is an old chestnut among science fiction fans, coined by Isaac Asimov and distilled by Frederick Pohl, that “a good science-fiction story should be able to predict not the automobile but the traffic jam.” It's a cliché for a reason: at its best science fiction can explore both the unintended consequences of new systems and the ways in which they interact with society at large. So it is with January Fifteenth by Rachel Swirsky, a book which sets out to predict not the by now widely discussed idea of Universal Basic Income (UBI), but rather the expanded dole queue, and the cascade of social consequences it might unleash. Characteristically of Swirsky, the result is a spare, well-observed story about complex human beings, which does not concern itself with providing clean and simple answers.

http://strangehorizons.com/non-fiction/january-fifteenth-by-rachel-swirsky/

I loved this novel so much!
As someone who loves Rosemarys Baby this gave me everything i wanted and needed.
I loved the cult aspect also.
I could not put this down and had to get to the end !

One can't help but wonder just how many times Anne Heltzel and her partner fielded the age-old, awfully presumptuous, and always shrilly delivered question of "So, when are you having kids?!" before sitting down to pen this shockingly good work of cult horror revolving around motherhood.

Raised in a cult compound by women known only as Mother, Maeve eventually escaped and entered a foster home where she learned to reorient herself in society. Her cousin, Andrea, wasn't so fortunate, but eventually made a name for herself in the wake of the police raid that upended her life. She's now incredibly wealthy, having made a name for herself as a life coach to moms-to-be. Separated from each other for decades, the women reconnect via an Ancestry.com-like website and begin rebuilding their relationship. After tragedy befalls Maeve and she finds herself jobless and on the brink of homelessness, she moves in with Andrea and her husband in their palatial home in the Catskills, and discovers that her troubles are only just beginning.

Just Like Mother is a cunningly insidious slow-burn. Although it's unlikely to truly surprise readers who have read more than one book of horror featuring cults, Heltzel navigates the twists and turns with sure-footed confidence, keeping readers on the edge of their seats not with the question of what will happen, but rather when it will happen, and what depraved form it will take when the inevitable finally occurs. If you're a fan of cults in your fiction, you'll immediately know who the victims are, who the betrayers are, and will sniff out Heltzel's various red herrings right from the get-go. What it lacks in surprises, though, is more than made up for with its suspenseful games of cat-and-mouse, psychological (and eventually, physical) warfare against our narrator, and pointed, razor-sharp social commentary. Told in first-person POV, Maeve never seems to see the writing on the wall until it's too late, and readers who know the all the tricks of Heltzel's trade will be telling her to watch out, to get out, but what fun would it be if she could listen? And even though we know all too well what to expect, the fact that Heltzel still manages to make those reveals dreadfully chilling is truly impressive.

What makes this story unique, though, is the subject of cultish worship here, with pregnancy and motherhood itself the subject of fright. Heltzel aims her sights squarely on the fetishization and weaponization of motherhood, the cliquishness of procreation, the commodifying of pregnancy to the demands of capitalism (at one point, Andrea shows just how much of a rich capitalist she really is with her expectations that not only can anyone, and anything, be bought, but that it's even owed to her!), and the societal expectation of what a woman's body could and should be reduced to. Reading as women inch their way into Maeve's life proselytize child-bearing, one can't help but think of the fervor with which Jehovah's Witnesses go door to door Sunday mornings, or the zealousness of the right-wing conservatives spouting their pro-birth demands. In fact, reading this book in the wake of recent Supreme Court rulings and GOP victories to strip away women's abortion rights only make Just Like Mother all the more terrifyingly potent.

If published at any point prior over the last 20 years, this book would have been deemed horrifyingly prescient. Now, it's just another frightening look at what we should likely expect as America continues to backslide into the Dark Ages of religious zealotry and conservative authoritarianism. This is the future Republicans want, with women stripped away of careers and health care, forced into pregnancy against their will because of the demands of their cultish beliefs, and reduced to nothing more than vessels for childbirth. Just Like Mother may not pack many true narrative surprises, but it sure does offer up a hell of a lot in the way of warnings.

Just Like Mother was BANANAS and I mean that in the best way possible. They build-up was a little slow, but it gradually became creepier and creepier until the suspense and dramatic irony were making me want to yell at Maeve. A truly horrifying, unsettling, and vile read - I loved it.

Loved it! It was creepy, it was compelling, and the sense of dread was palpable. I loved the fixation on motherhood throughout, especially as I go through my own new journey in life as a mom. Important to check trigger warnings before reading, but altogether I thought it was a great story.

This was a great horror novel! I read it in one sitting! I couldn’t put it down! Highly recommend! 5 stars for sure!

Just Like Mother is horror story told by Maeve, the survivor of a cult ran by women. They felt that they had the divine power of motherhood and it was there sole duty to live up to this expectation.
Maeve has left all this behind but still misses her cousin Anne whom she was separated from when the cult was shattered by the police. A chance DNA ancestry alert reunites her with her cousin who is now a successful business woman.
I really enjoyed this book. I normally don't ready many thrillers but the plot intrigued me. Definitely could see some of how this story was gonna go down but there were many twists that kept me on the edge of my seat. Will definitely be recommending to friends and library patrons who enjoy a good thriller.