Thank you to Tor Nightfire for providing me with an e-ARC of Just Like Mother in exchange for an honest review!

Content Warnings: Rape, cult, child abuse, infertility, miscarriage, murder

Just Like Mother got me back to wanting to devour every horror book in the world & for that I must thank Anne Heltzel. I miss the ~horror~ life so much & am so glad to be back in the mood.

There's something about stories featuring cults that really pulls me in. The characters are absolutely intriguing & the way their minds think is... wow. Is this the Psychological Major in me talking?

Just Like Mother has you questioning what's going on up until the very end & even then it's like "WTF?!@!@!" Sure, I figured out some things a bit quicker than that, but it was still so neat watching it all unfold & seeing what our main character Maeve is going to do. Some of this book had me feeling absolutely Stressed and hopeless for Maeve; the whole time I was pleading for her to make it through.

This book is absolutely Messed Up & saying I enjoyed it feels weird? Buuuuuuut, Just Like Mother is well-done & I'd strongly recommend it to anyone who's also interested in cult books & want to feel very uncomfortable.

Just Like Mother was a surprising book that came into my life exactly when I needed it. I could not put this book down. What starts out as a cult story becomes a suspenseful tale of navigating a relationship with a long-lost sibling. Are there ulterior motives? This book kept me guessing in the best way. Recommended if you want something to devour this spooky season

This. Has. Everything. Cult + Rosemary’s Baby Vibes = Just Like Mother and that is how I have been describing it to friends. It’s probably going to be a favorite for the year. It’s going to be a future purchase for my personal library as well.

OMG, what did I just read. This book was creepy and at times stomach turning. The ending was one too be remembered. This won’t be for everyone. I liked it but the main character kind of drove me nuts with her extremely poor decision’s. Trigger warning for rape and child abuse.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for a early release in exchange for and honest opinion. 3.5⭐️

I really liked this! I had been looking forward to reading it for months and am not sure why I put it off so long - once I started, I flew through it!! It has all the things I love - a creepy cult, tons of suspense, a murder thrown in here and there, as well as a few additional suspicious deaths to make you start to question things, and just the right amount of crazy! And that ending!! 😳😮😳

The brief gist of it is: girl escapes from creepy cult as a child, is separated from her beloved cousin by social services/ the foster system, has all sorts of expected trauma related issues, reconnects with said cousin as an adult, cousin is wealthy and runs a mysterious business making lifelike AI dolls, main character gets pulled deeper and deeper into cousin’s successful life as her life starts to spiral and crumble. Full of weird creepiness.

There are some definite trigger warnings here, but these might be spoilers, so just keep that in mind:
Cult survival, religious (sort of?) extremism, rape, sexual assault, pre-partum psychosis, self harm, trauma induced mental illness.

Thank you to NetGalley, Tor/Nightfire publishing, and Anne Heltzel for the advanced copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own.

Fair warning -- the contents of this book are just as horrifyingly delightful as the cover! It was equal parts creepy and super intriguing...I couldn't put it down!

I so wanted to love this book, but ultimately, it was just ok for me. I found a lot of the plot very predictable and frustrating, particularly with how Maeve reacts to certain situations. There were a lot of important conversations about women and their place in society, which I appreciated. I also enjoyed the last part of the novel where things got pretty crazy and fun, but overall, this just felt average.
I received a free copy of this book from the publisher in exchange for fair and honest review.

I wanted to loek this one but I didnt care for it. I didn't like the writing style. It was very confusing at first for me. I would give I 2.5 out of 5 stars

I enjoyed this book. It had a story that never stopped moving forward and plenty of twists. Thrillers like this are the ones I love.

Just Like Mother is an interesting thriller, but I couldn't tell if the writer was aiming for dramatic irony, or if the red flags throughout the story was just too obvious.

The plot of the book caught my attention. A book with cults and a lost relative from the cult that shows up out of the blue. What’s not to like? I have never read anything by this author so I was excited to discover someone new. The story moved along at a good pace and I kept reading to see where it was going. Which is always a plus.

I was surprised that there wasn’t any more information about the cult. So you’re not sure what it’s about, except it’s about motherhood. I would have liked to read more about that life that Maeve escapes. It might have given me an insight and I could have some sympathy for her.

The main character Maeve, is very hard to like, and she is very naïve. There is some information about the cult that is told in flashbacks, but it left me with more questions than answers. In fact, I found it hard to like any of the characters some you are meant to hate, so that is a plus for the story.

There are some sex scenes that felt very out of place since they were so descriptive. I’m not against sex scenes, but it seemed odd. I would have liked that detail about the cult and less about the sex. It wasn’t a deal breaker for me, but it felt like I was reading two different stories.

While I didn’t connect with this story, I would read more from this author. I received this arc from NetGalley for an honest review.

2.5 ⭐ rounded down.

I really wanted to like this one.

The cult aspect of the book is what drew me in and it wasn't nearly as fleshed out as I wanted it to be. The book itself was a quick read but I felt that the first half dragged a lot with Maeve's life as well as her and Andrea's newly rekindled relationship.

There were flashback chapters every other chapter or so that gave some insight into the Mother Collective, but we never really saw what their motives or goals were beyond hating men. It sure made the ending predictable.

Maeve was pretty naïve and seemed to take everything at face value. Even some moments where she seemed to question certain situations, she pretty much ignored the several red flags she was presented with and kept going on. Her relationships with Ryan and Tyler were almost interchangeable. Also the weird timing of several events throughout this book. At one point I stopped trying to make sense of it.

There was not a single character in this book that was likeable to me (not that there needs to be). The book needed you to suspend your beliefs a little too often, and with a cult having such simplistic albeit malicious goals, it makes for a very predictable book.

Wow! This book is completely bonkers. Maeve and her cousin, Andrea, were raised in a coommune/cult by a group of "mothers". After escaping, Maeve eventually reconnects with Andrea as an adult. Andrea makes some very unusual request of Maeve and this book takes off. While I love a good cult story and yes, some creepy dolls, this story was a bit predictable in the end and left me wanting more. It's a good book for if you want a quick fun read and are ready to suspend belief.

4.5/5 stars
I audibly shrieked by the end of this book! I saw the ending coming but it was done so well and just gave me the creeps. I knew most if not all of what would happen throughout the book and it was easy to piece it all together, but it was still so shocking to actually read it. It's like watching a murder documentary. It's grotesque and uncomfortable but you can't stop the feeling of sick fascination. Maeve is an amazing, strong, and personally, very relatable character. The concept is seriously wild and crazy but feels so believable. A thrilling and weird fast paced read, although it does have some heavy/dark content so please be advised. (TWs: sexual assault, rape, drugging, and death of loved ones and children) There are also some pretty explicit, consensual and non-consensual, intimate scenes I wasn't fully expecting and a lot of the book revolves around pregnancy, intimacy and especially rough intimacy. If you are ok with that and enjoy anything eerie, odd or to do with cults, this books might be for you! Thank you to NetGalley, the publisher, and the author for providing me with an e-arc in exchange for an honest review.

Loved this one! I’m obsessed with cult books right now and this one definitely secret he’s that itch! Predictable but still enjoyable!

Slightly creepy plot about a girl who manages to escape a cult run by women. In her thirties she decides to connect with her cousin from the cult. After some strange accidents happen she ends up moving in with her cousin and her husband in upstate NY. But all is not what it seems and things start to go horribly wrong for her. Kept me hooked despite the creepiness.

Just Like Mother is a fantastically creepy horror story! One look at the cover lets the reader know that they're in for an eerie tale. This book uses a matriarchal cult to set the stage for a twisty and suspenseful read. Cousins Maeve and Andrea find each other years after being taken from their families at a cult compound. Now, reuniting as adults, they are trying to see how they can fit into each other's lives again. Right off the bat, the reader can tell that something isn't right.

This story has a lot of gore and graphic violence and isn't for reader who aren't ready for a heavier story. Readers may want to look up content warnings before beginning the story. Overall a great and enthralling twist on a cult story. I would love to read a prequel about how the Mothers got started!

I wanted to like this book, the premise was there and at first I was very curious about Andrea and Meave but then it just sort of dragged on and stalled out

Maeve and her cousin, Andrea, escape a cult as children. They were separated and haven't seen each other since then. So when Andrea finally tracks Maeve down, they pick up where they left off. Andrea invites Maeve to spend time with her at her sprawling mansion and exposes her to her fertility business, which involves lifelike baby dolls. The more time Maeve spends with Andrea, the more disconnected she begins to feel with her real life. Until the unthinkable happens.

All I can say is – What the heck did I just read?! I tend to be drawn to books about cults, even though they really freak me out. Having a cult as the backstory in the lives of these characters made me question the motives of everyone involved. But even in my wildest imagination, I could not have guessed where this one would go. It was horrifying. Beware of Mother!

2.5 stars rounded up
As soon as a situation is set up you can probably figure out where the story is going, but it’ll still manage to sneak in a few surprises. Even if you know what is going to happen the writing manages to keep you engaged. Although the story is quite cliché the book uses the devotion to motherhood to create fear in an interesting way. It gets a bit heavy handed with the message, but the atmosphere of the scenes manages to balance it out.
The concept of motherhood carries all the tension so if you don’t find it scary you will be bored; it brings back the old argument that being a mother is the sole objective of a woman, but this time is disguised as progressive and empowering.
I didn’t like the ending, I already expected a cliché ending but the way it was delivered lacked a certain punch, it felt kind of lame and really soured the rest of the book for me.
Thanks to Net Galley for providing me an E-ARC in exchange for an honest review