Ok first off, this cover - I’m obsessed with how creepy it is! I saw this one described as the Handmaids Tale meets the Stepford wives and knew I needed it!

This modern gothic sucked me right in and I was furiously turning the pages as I needed to know more about this disturbing and unusual cult with an obsession with motherhood.

Now this may not appeal to everyone as there are certainly some trigger warnings and some spiciness but it totally worked for me! What a solid debut by Heltzel, I can’t wait to see what she comes up with next!

Many thanks to NetGalley, Macmillan/Tor-Forge, Tor Nightfire, and Macmillan Audio for gifting me both a digital and audio ARC of this creepy book by Anne Heltzel, perfectly narrated by Elizabeth Evans - 4 stars!

Andrea and Maeve were raised in a women-centered cult; Maeve was able to escape and was adopted by an older couple. She hasn't seen her cousin in decades until a DNA website brought them together. Maeve is an editor and has closed off her true feelings about her past, not letting anyone get too close. But she longs for the closeness she used to have with Andrea, so when Andrea pulls her into her orbit and her business as a wellness guru in the Catskills, Maeve feels herself slowly opening up. But at what cost?

I loved the creepy vibes in this book - cults, remote mansion in the woods, disturbing dolls, people who just aren't who they seem. There's also lots of themes to unravel in this book - feminist views of motherhood, men's roles, societal expectations of women. The end has lots of twists and turns!

The audio narrator did a good job with the narration, but wasn’t enough to keep me invested with this story. I would listen to another audiobook by them in the future.

This was a captivating and unsettling read that was just a little too predictable.

The ratcheting intensity in this book builds slowly, but before you know it, you’re deep inside this horror show of events. I love books surrounding cults and I was so eager for this book. I wish they incorporated more of the past involving the cult that our protagonist gets away from as a child. I wanted more, but I also respect that focus being mostly on the current timeline.

This book is terrifying in the way of the unknown element of what could be going on around you while you’re unaware of it. And I am finding that horror based around motherhood and babies is something that I find incredibly scary. The scary that you can’t help but keep wanting to subject yourself to. This book made me so uncomfortable, but in a way that I almost enjoyed because horror that actually scares me is so hard to find. And this was that!

I think the ending of this book was perfect for THIS book even if it made me absolutely furious.

The narration in this book was a big factor in my enjoyment. I thought the narration was done really well and leant to that unsettled feeling this book gives.

Super strange story. Reminded me of handmaid tale sort of. Wasn't feel the cult thing but I pushed through and I did I fact enjoy the ending. Thank you NetGalley for this ARC

I believe that the summary comparing this to Rosemary's Baby was accurate, but spoiled some of the reveals. That being said I still found this a captivating read that made me binge it in one day.

Maeve was raised in the cult of the mothers until she was 7. Looking back the main thing she feels she lost when she was rescued from their compound was her best friend and cousin Andrea. Now in her 30s she finally finds Andrea through a DNA ancestry site. She is then sweeped into her cousins wealthy lifestyle. She only wants that family connection and find where she belong but does not realize what family she is becoming a part of.

Thank you to NetGalley and MacMillan Audio for an advanced audiobook for review.

This was a disturbing story, especially if you believe it could happen, which I do! This is a story of a woman (Maeve) who was born to a group of women who believe that only women should be on earth and man's only purpose is procreate. The "mothers" were abusive to the children, and boys were neglected, if they survived they were put to work for their purpose, if they died, no big deal boys are useless. Maeve gets away at the age of 8 saving a boy and the "mothers" are disbanded.

20 years later Maeve reconnects with one of her cousins. Maeve who has been a lost sole for 20 years is joyous over the reunion, until she's not. Does her cousin have an alternative motive for finding her or is she truly the saint that is bringing Maeve out of her shell, allowing love to enter her heart again.

Although you will guess the ending early on, it was a unique story, not the same old mystery so it keeps you engaged. Characters were well developed, there were no plot lines left hanging and it kept you wanting to read more.

Just Like Mother by Anne Heltzel was a pretty creepy read. I found it a bit predictable though. I loved the creepy twisty ending.
Maeve and her cousin Andrea were raised in a cult of women “Mothers” until one day Maeve escapes and is put into foster care. Later in life Maeve and Andrea come together again, but is Andrea who she says she is?
I would recommend this book.
Thank you NetGalley for the ARC in return for an honest review.

Tw: death of a child, gaslighting, pregnant drinking, sexual harassment, toxic relationships, abuse, miscarriage, suicide, attempted murder, rape, abortion talk, death of a child

About the book:A girl would be such a blessing...The last time Maeve saw her cousin was the night she escaped the cult they were raised in. For the past two decades, Maeve has worked hard to build a normal life in New York City, where she keeps everything—and everyone—at a safe distance.When Andrea suddenly reappears, 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. Maeve doesn’t even mind that her cousin’s wealthy work friends clearly disapprove of her single lifestyle. After all, Andrea has made her fortune in the fertility industry—baby fever comes with the territory.The more Maeve immerses herself in Andrea’s world, the more disconnected she feels from her life back in the city; and the cousins’ increasing attachment triggers memories Maeve has fought hard to bury. But confronting the terrors of her childhood may be the only way for Maeve to transcend the nightmare still to come…
Release Date: 05/17/2022
Genre: Cult horror
Pages: 320
Rating: ⭐ ⭐

What I Liked:
• The cover is creepy but pretty
• The plot sounded interesting
• Book is very easy to read

What I Didn't Like:
• Micah ew
• No surprises in the book
• How naive Maeve is
• The ending
• Rip off of Rosemary's Baby

Overall Thoughts:

Micah didn't seem too bad in the car but after the baby talk with Maeve he's pure evil. And now Emily is crazy.

We can retire "drink the kool-aid" now? It's a terrible thing to say about people who were murdered.

By the time you know that Andrea mentions her baby she lost you kind of know that she is going to ask Maeve to help her have a baby.

By the 30% mark you kind of know what's going on.

Maeve is so completely confusing. She spends 20 years searching for her cousin and when she finds her she acts as though she's some annoying person. She gets excited when they stop texting even saying she won't hang on every word Andrea says like Emily does. What happened to the excitement she had to reconnect with her?

So Ryan dies in a mysterious fire which is quoted as being burned from the top down, but somehow they're able to wheel him out and he still has a body left and his shoe flies out. Which I think they would have put him in a body bag not just a sheet over him but whatever. Maeve then proceeded to drive around town not knowing what to do because she's rented her apartment to some Airbnbers. She makes out like she doesn't have a house but she does just go back to the house after your Airbnbers leave and remove your ad. You can go stay in a hotel until then. You still have a place to live and you have money to pay your rent right now and you have a job coming up. I don't know why she thinks she has nowhere else to go.

I think it's disturbing how Maeve isn't weirded out by Tyler's stalker ways. They met and hung out 1 time and he keeps calling and texting. She never questions how obsessed he is with her that it borders on stalker like.

It is grating on my nerves how a naive Maeve is. She just lets everybody tell her what to do and goes with it. She even acknowledges red flags and STILL ignores every single one of them. I find that annoying and frustrating.

What happened to Maeve's apartment? Us there still airbnb people in it? Doesn't she clean when they check out? Does she answer if the have problems? Did she lose the apartment?

What is the timeline of Tyler and her seeing each other? In chapter 24 she mentions seeing him for 2 months and then a few pages later she says she's not going to rush Tyler into seeing his place - it's only been a week it would be weird if he was spilling all his secrets this early on. A week of what? 2 months is too early to want to see where a dude lives? It's not! It's very suspicious. She then let's Tyler tie her up, hears the door open & close and he doesn't talk the whole time. No limits are talked about before being tied up. I knew where this was going. They Rosemary's Babied her! She's not even worried about pregnancy when he comes in her. Go get plan b! You could get pregnant, which is the last thing you want! Why isn't she taking this seriously?? Again the time line makes NO SENSE! Maeve has sex with "Tyler" and he leaves around 5am. She goes back to bed till noon wakes up and talks to Andrea. Maeve mentions that evening that she is helping with the retreat. Skip to after everyone has already went to bed Maeve pulls out a stick in her toilet that shows to Andrea that she is pregnant. How? How could a stick already show she is pregnant??? It's been like one day! It takes 6-12 days for a fertilized egg to travel to the uterus and attach. There is no way it would show she is pregnant. She's so stupid that she buys that it would show you're pregnant that fast. Is this women 33 or 15?

The cop coming to the house makes zero sense. Tyler was drunk and his breaks cut out so he hit a tree. Why would he go to Andrea's house? Tyler kept it all secret so how would they know that Maeve was at Andrea's house or that they are related just because Maeve was at a restaurant eating. They lie to the cop and say she is in the city.

Turns out Andrea is running a fundamentalist pro-life religion like The Mothers. The whole point of living is to birth girls and kill men.

The ending with the search warrant is so ridiculous! Talk about deus ex Machina. Rob takes her to the tunnel and she runs off. She says she can barely see but I doubt she can see at all since it's a dark tunnel, no light, and she has no light - so no you can't see at all enough to even run. It doesn't make sense for Rob to walk through the tunnel in the dark when he has a phone with a light on it. Maeve manages to find Micahs knife, cut herself free, get his phone, get the flashlight app open on a phone that's not hers (I have to struggle to get mine open and I've had my phone for a year) and blind him - all without Rob knowing she has the phone. "With that, I shone the flashlight bright in his face, bright enough to make him blink, startled, and to illuminate all I needed." The next page she says that she's now using the home locked screen to show where she is going. What happened to using the flashlight? Also how is the phone still working? Micah mentioned that the battery case he had only gave him an extra day of battery so he's only been dead a few days then?

We finally figure out why Andrea hates Maeve so much. It's because Maeve left with the boy and didn't come back. She had the cult people arrested, breaking up Andrea's family. I find it hard to believe that an eight-year-old could drive a car without adjusting the seat or anything or even reaching the pedals and seeing over the wheel. There's just no way.

The mothers somehow manage to overrun all of the police and kill them. Like how? Did two cops only show up and didn't have guns?

We find out that really she's 27 weeks pregnant and she never noticed she didn't have a period for 3 months??? She then decides to give the babies to a single working mother. Why would anyone do that. Being a single parent to one child is stressful enough but two babies? And then after Maeve is so dead set on not having children the book fucking ends on her being pregnant!!! Plus her kids were given to a woman that is working with The Mothers 🤦🏻‍♀️

Final Thoughts: This book just puts the nails in the coffin that women choose to ignore the alarming things that people do as not to bother people. Maeve reminded me so much of Rosemary from Rosemary's Baby. The way she just takes EVERYTHING at face value. Ah.

Book turns into everything I thought it was from page 10.

That ending... This book... No. No.

Book: Just Like Mother
Author: Anne Heltzel
Narrator: Elizabeth Evans

Summary:
The last time Maeve saw her cousin was the night she escaped the cult they were raised in. For the past two decades, Maeve has worked hard to build a normal life in New York City, where she keeps everything—and everyone—at a safe distance.

When Andrea suddenly reappears, 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. Maeve doesn’t even mind that her cousin’s wealthy work friends clearly disapprove of her single lifestyle. After all, Andrea has made her fortune in the fertility industry—baby fever comes with the territory.

The more Maeve immerses herself in Andrea’s world, the more disconnected she feels from her life back in the city; and the cousins’ increasing attachment triggers memories Maeve has fought hard to bury. But confronting the terrors of her childhood may be the only way for Maeve to transcend the nightmare still to come…

Review:
The book cover is what initially drew me to this book, but then when I read it involved a cult, I was sold. Without giving anything away, this book was creepy, in so many ways, and I loved it. This is definitely a book where trigger/content warning should be checked prior to reading.

I received an ALC in exchange for an honest review

The plot sucked me in immediately, but the narrator was not as engaging. I loved the twists and turns and will be recommending this to many people.

Thank you Netgalley and Macmillan Audio for this alc.

This was such a fast and enjoyable read. And, yes, I am going through a phase in my life in which I have been enjoying reading creepy stuff.

Just Like Mother is a feminist thriller/horror story that critiques societal expectations of motherhood, how women are expected to have community-oriented roles, depicting myths such as “motherhood is the fulfillment of womanhood”, “pregnancy is a wonderful and enjoyable experience”, and “motherhood is natural and intuitive”.

In the story we follow Maeve, a 30-something year old woman who works in the publishing industry in New York City. She is a lonely woman with a dark past. Maeve grew up in a matriarchal cult led by radicals called The Mothers. Somehow Maeve managed to escape the cult, contributing to bringing it down. With no one to fend for herself, Maeve enters the foster care system.

Many years later, through a DNA test, Maeve reconnects with her cousin Andrea, who was also raised by The Mothers of the cult. And then, things start to make a turn and the story gets very creepy. I could not put this novel down. The writing is fluid and engaging, and you catch yourself wanting to know more and more of this story.

I would say the book reads more like a thriller with some horror elements. To me, eighty-five percent of the story read more like a thriller, and only at the end things started to go crazy, and that was the only thing I disliked about this book. I wanted more dark, more blood, more horror. But I really enjoyed the ending.

The narration was excellent. The book is narrated by Elizabeth Evans, who perfectly captures and heightens the novel’s suspenseful tone. Overall, a creepy ride with relevant subject matters that would make a great discussion. I can’t wait to read more adult novels written by the author. I would recommend it to all fans of the genre.

Super creepy and to be treated the way Maeve was is one of my biggest fears. Think an isolated incident of the Handmaid's Tale driven by a cult. While the majority of the book did keep me guessing, I did see the ending coming and I feel like anyone paying the slightest bit attention would too, so that was a little anticlimactic I think.
One thing that did make me think was the way the author seemed to have a disdain for female-only (as in people who can get pregnant) spaces. She was concerned about them not being inclusive... but in a world where rights to control what happens to your uterus are under fire, female safe-spaces are needed. Inclusivity should not be of concern when we are under constant threat of having our bodily autonomy stripped away. As much as trans women are women and also experience misogyny, they will never have to fear that aspect of being a woman. What do you guys think? Should there be exclusive, female-only spaces?

This book is so hard to rate. The writing was good. The story was good. But the subject matter was triggering. I also just wanted to know more about the cult. Like why? I felt kind of in the dark about it & left wanting to understand it more. I think a bit of it was predictable too and sometimes it bugs me how naive the main character can be when they suffered so much trauma to not see the signs when it’s clear, it kind of makes it unbelievable.

The ending also left me bothered. I can see why many will like it, but i just didn’t want that ending. I just felt a bit heavy and sad after finishing.

The narrator did a great job with the reading and definitely pulled me in.

"The last time Maeve saw her cousin was the night she escaped the cult they were raised in. But when Andrea suddenly reappears, Maeve regains the only true friend she’s ever had."

I could tell from the cover of the book I was in for creepy vibes and was not disappointed in that aspect. The book gave me several "what the heck" moments but honestly, I feel like a good portion of the story is very predictable, but I still found it enjoyable and had moments of shock.

I feel like if you're going into this book you probably already have a good idea of the possible triggers that lay ahead, if not I would check into those before going forward. *infertility, child loss, S&M sex, and rape featured*

I don’t even know what to say. This book was so amazing I don’t want to spoil anything for anyone. I want to thank @netgalley & @macmillan.audio for the audiobook ARC.

Just Like Mother by @anneheltzel on May 17th 2022 and you all need to order your audiobook, ebook or physical book today! Seriously even when I knew things I couldn’t look away and it was interesting to see what all I did not know. And just like with The Mary Shelley Club I never wanted this book to end. Even at the end I was like you can’t end like that!!!!

Well done Ma’am! Well done!! #bookreview #bookrecommendations #netgalley

Summary: The last time Maeve saw her cousin was the night she escaped the cult they were raised in. For the past two decades, Maeve has worked hard to build a normal life in New York City, where she keeps everything—and everyone—at a safe distance. No dwelling in the past.

When Andrea suddenly reappears, 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. Maeve doesn’t even mind that her cousin’s wealthy work friends clearly disapprove of her single lifestyle. After all, Andrea has made her fortune in the fertility industry—baby fever comes with the territory.

The more Maeve immerses herself in Andrea’s world, the more disconnected she feels from her life back in the city; and the cousins’ increasing attachment triggers memories Maeve has fought hard to bury. But confronting the terrors of her childhood may be the only way for Maeve to transcend the nightmare still to come…

This audiobook was poor quality. I could barely understand it. It wasn’t the narrator, it was the echo of the voice. It was highly distracting and I don’t know if I liked the book or not because I couldn’t finish it.

4 stars! Thank you Netgalley for the arc. This was a wild ride. It was definitely unsettling at times but I would classify this more as a thriller than a horror. The only drawback as that I wish there were more flashbacks to her childhood.

I listened to the audio version and it was delightfully creepy! The beginning was a little slow but once it got going, I was hooked and couldn’t stop listening for all the twists and turns.

Just Like Mother by Anne Heltzel was billed as a horror and had the cover of a horror novel. Listening to it, it seemed to fit the bill as the situation was truly horrifying. I know there are a lot of people who will love this novel and its originality. There were parts of it I really enjoyed, too. In fact, there were some ideas postulated in the novel that had me really thinking about the nature of being a woman and even about the idea of being able to carry a child being seen as "powerful". I have often seen the idea as a sign of strength or privilege, but I don't think I have seen it presented as a "power" in a novel.

The story of Maeve and Andrea HINGED on them being children together in a cult-like situation they were eventually rescued from. I was disappointed at how much of the novel was RELATED to that shared experience, but what that cult was about was mostly just hinted at and pieces of information were dropped here and there throughout. To me, the novel would have been stronger if we had known more about it. Its not always a bad thing to be kept in the dark, but to me, after finishing the novel, I feel disappointed about that.

The book is being marketed as a Feminist Horror and it really is a horror in the vein of something like Misery by Stephen King. I would have enjoyed it if I weren't so reactive to the idea of gender-hate or gender-subjugation or even the idea that one gender is more important than the other. I see that too much these days when people try to correct past prejudices by just reversing them and creating new ones. As a Enneagram 9 Peacemaker, books about -isms are painful for me to read. So I was extremely entertained, but also didn't enjoy feeling as disturbed as I did throughout.

Also, I have seen reviews where people thought the ending rocked and was one of the best of all time and other reviews where the ending was HATED. For me, I was fine with the ending, though did not experience either extreme opinion.

Side note: The narrator was great.