Zoje Stage is an auto-buy author for me. Wonderland is a phenomenal examination of motherhood and identity. Getaway was one of my favorite reads of 2021, and The Girl Who Outgrew the World is a stunning portrayal of the violent beauty of coming of age. When I saw the Mothered cover reveal, I couldn't wait to get my hands on this and FINALLY got to read it last week.

From Goodreads: Grace isn’t exactly thrilled when her newly widowed mother, Jackie, asks to move in with her. They’ve never had a great relationship, and Grace likes her space—especially now that she’s stuck at home during a pandemic. Then again, she needs help with the mortgage after losing her job. And maybe it’ll be a chance for them to bond—or at least give each other a hand.

But living with Mother isn’t for everyone. Good intentions turn bad soon after Jackie moves in. Old wounds fester; new ones open. Grace starts having nightmares about her disabled twin sister, who died when they were kids. And Jackie discovers that Grace secretly catfishes people online—a hobby Jackie thinks is unforgivable.

When Jackie makes an earth-shattering accusation against her, Grace sees it as an act of revenge, and it sends her spiraling into a sleep-deprived madness. As the walls close in, the ghosts of Grace’s past collide with a new but familiar threat: Mom.

Phew, I loved this book.

Grace is such a good character. Layered in deceit and the desire to find her place in the world amidst the backdrop of the pandemic and the forced interaction with her mother, it was difficult to either fully dislike or like her, and that made for a deliciously entertaining read.

Stage is the master at examining the toxic edge to mother-daughter relationships. The nightmarish imagery juxtaposed with the claustrophobic atmosphere between Grace and Jackie creates a palpable tension that resonates through the very last page.

Terrifying, visceral, and un-put-downable horror, Mothered is a must-read.

Huge thanks to Thomas and Mercer for providing an eARC in exchange for honest review consideration.

This is a quick read from the author of Baby Teeth.

Grace’s mother is moving in with her. It’s during a global pandemic (but not Covid, according to the author), so they spend a lot of time together at home, and Grace is forced to confront a childhood that she’d rather forget.

This book has some very creepy moments, but overall it just never came together for me. This is one you can probably skip unless you are a rabid Baby Teeth fan, and if you are, it publishes March 1st.

Thank you to @netgalley and the publisher for my complimentary review copy.

I might have been more into this if it wasn't so pandemic-centered...So toward the end of the pandemic, (June-ish) hair-stylist, Grace, gets a call from her estranged mother hoping they can reconnect. Jackie wants to come back to Pittsburgh to live with Grace, and reluctantly Grace agrees. It doesn't end well. While this novel was fairly easy to get through, I did not enjoy it. Was Grace actually delusional? Was Jackie a sociopath? A bad mom? Clearly that, however, she seems to be making poor Grace even more unstable than perhaps she was before. Again, this did not end well. And Grace is a very unsympathetic character. This was my first Zoje Stage novel and I don't know if I want to go back and read Baby Teeth.

*Special thanks to NetGalley and Thomas & Mercer for this e-arc.*

of things that may or nay not have happened. I liked the way the story was framed. If not for the beginning, I would have had trouble following the story through to it’s conclusion. I also liked how it ended. I didn’t expect the psychiatrist’s confession at the very end of the story. That's not a spoiler because it has little to do with the story up until then.

I did not enjoy entering the world of lockdown again, but I must say that is a brilliant setting for a book.
Grace lives alone in her new home, when her newly widowed mother Jackie needs a place to live. Mother and daughter are estranged and their past is overshadowed by Grace's twin Hope and her death 25 years ago. Grace has lost her job due to covid and is desperately trying to find a new job. Her only comfort is her best friend Miguel and his cat Coco.
The atmosphere is claustrophobic and unreal. We have an unreliable narrator and horrific dream sequences. There are just a handful of characters and Miguel is the only one I really liked. Grace is a great character, though, independent and driven, even though she has one questionable hobby. I quite enjoyed the story. There was a moment in the middle, where the story dragged a little, but it picked up nicely afterwards. The ending was mindblowing.

2.5 stars

This book is a bit difficult for me to review because as I read it, I became increasingly confused as to what the heck was going on. I love psychological thrillers with unreliable narrators, but at times, I felt like I needed a psychology degree to figure out the plot of this book.

I thought this started out pretty strong, but then it went downhill. I got tired of trying to figure out if Grace was dreaming or living in reality, and I found some parts to be repetitive. I'm not sure how her internet catfishing hobby was relative to the plot. I have a theory, but I'm not sure I'm right. 🤔

I did like one of the plot twists at the end. It was unexpected and shocking. I was happy to see that there was an epilogue. I was hoping it would clear up some of my confusion, but it only added to it.

Thank you @Netgalley and Thomas and Mercer for the e-arc of this book.

An interesting read - very dark, and I'm left with no real answers. It was compelling enough to keep me reading, but also felt a little flat in places.

Buckle up, dear readers, because Zoje Stage is back with another absolutely wild ride. The tone is set in the beginning, and Stage kept it up, relentlessly, leaving me breathless, bewildered, and absolutely delighted.

All the stars ever.

Thank you to NetGalley, Zoje Stage and Thomas & Mercer for the free e-book in exchange for an honest review.

I’m still thinking about this one, which I guess is a sign of a good novel. But I’m still unsure where I stand. It was definitely dark and twisted; I didn’t know what was going to happen next but I definitely didn’t expect the ending. The ending I loved. It was a quick read and you definitely feel like wtf the whole way.

Thoughts

Okay okay... I was a little annoyed at some parts of this book. But it did pull through. This book will not be for everyone. There are dream sequences where you don't know if it's a dream or real life. And it kind of leaves you with an unanswered question. But this is the fastest I have read a book in months.

I really had trouble putting it down. It had me completely engaged because I just needed to know what was going on. It does focus heavily on the pandemic, which makes it a little hard to read but also adds to the creepy factor.

I am not even sure what to say. It was a wild ride, just like Baby Teeth. Stage will definitely be an auto buy author for me from now on.

Thanks to Netgalley and Thomas and Mercer for this eARC in exchange for my honest review.

This one started out so good, but eventually got so boring and slow. I could not put it down the first 30% of the book, but then it got very repetitive and just in general, strange. At first I enjoyed all the COVID-19 lockdown references, but then it just became annoying. Along with the mother constantly talking about the MC's deceased sister.

I was blown away by this author's debut novel, Baby Teeth. So intense, and yes, a bit creepy. Mothered was just as intense and creepy, maybe even just a little bit more so. And so disturbing! I loved every single bit of it! What does that say about me?

Grace has taken in her mother Jackie as they are both struggling and hoping that by being together, things will be easier for both of them. What they didn't factor in was the fact that there were a lot of issues between them that had never been resolved, as well as the fact that the world was in crazy-time mode with the pandemic out there.

Grace's struggles and dreams turn into nightmares, literally, and honestly, they had me sitting on the edge of my seat, cringing. I had to stop every once in a while to catch my breathe. But again, like I said before, I loved every minute of this story!

And then the ending had me sitting back in my seat wondering what the heck I just read. And where the characters and the story could go from there. Mind-boggling!

I highly recommend Mothered—even with it's somewhat disturbing cover—if you like edge-of-your-seat, troubling, twist-and-turn types of stories. Mothered is that kind of story for sure and you will not be disappointed.

So I will Preface this review with I LOVED Baby Teeth.
This one not so much. From the start it was missing something. It did not grab my attention and the writing was just not the best.
The story line sounded really interesting but it just did not do it for me.
It was a DNF at about 100 pages in.

Mothered
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Genre: Thriller
Format: Kindle eBook
Date Published: 3/1/23
Author: Zoje Stage
Publisher: Thomas & Mercer
Pages: 317
GR: 3.51

I requested a digital advanced readers copy from NetGalley and Thomas & Mercer and providing my opinion voluntarily and unbiased.

My Thoughts: This is a creepy atmospheric disturbing (in a good way) thriller. This is a slower burn build up, but absolutely a psychological thriller. This book has all of the elements of a fantastic thriller, creepy, dark, disturbing, reality distorted, twisty, and suspenseful. Grace’s mother asks to move in with her. Their relationship has been strained and estranged, but Grace is putting a positive spin on it, hoping that their relationship can change. Things begin to go south when Grace begins to have these nightmares that distort her reality. I loved the supernatural element to the story.

The story is narrated in both a past and present timeline. Grace is x. On the other spectrum, Jackie is very passive-aggressive, extremely critical of Grace, and judges Grace at every turn. The storyline has a subplot of the pandemic, for those that may be sensitive or triggered by the pandemic, please know this going in. The characters were well developed with depth, were mysterious, and the dream sequences were very creepy. The author’s writing style was claustrophobic, twisty, suspenseful, and just brilliant.

I love a good psychological thriller that has twists upon twists. The mother-daughter relationship is throughly tested throughout the novel. I highly recommend picking up this novel!

Thanks to Netgalley and Thomas & Mercer for allowing me to enjoy this title early in exchange for my honest review.

There is something so casually unsettling about Zoje Stage's stories and I always appreciate that but I had a hard time connecting with this book.

I think multiple things are to blame for this: the pacing, the language and the fact that it's pandemic fiction. The pacing was very slow going and it took a long time for the story to really hook me. Around 53% into the book, I realized that I didn't feel immersed in the story nor did I connect with any of the characters. I think if it went a little quicker and was a little tighter, I could've been swept away. Then we have the language; the overuse of the word "mommy" and the juvenile dialogue that was used in memory scenes had me so irritated. It read so whiny to me that it pulled me out of the story every single time. Also... the pandemic is still too close for me to fully appreciate a pandemic psychological horror/thriller.

This book started off a little slow, and I wasn’t sure how I felt about it. But then I reached the second half of the book, and I could not put it down! Following the slow descent into madness during lockdown, Grace has difficulty distinguishing between dream and reality. Not only does this madness led to an unexpecting end, but the epilogue left me with a wicked smile on my face because of how cleverly Stage left the ending. I highly recommend this book for fans of psychological thrillers but be warned that this does bring back a lot of the fear associated with the beginning of the pandemic. Zoje Stage used that to her advantage with this book and it worked brilliantly together to create this work that causes the reader to use their own fear surrounding the global pandemic with the mental instability that we all feared it would lead to. 4.5 out of 5 stars, rounding up to 5 on goodreads.

Thank you so much to NetGalley, Thomas & Mercer, and Zoje Stage for providing me with this gifted copy in exchange for my honest review.

I found this one confusing and super dragged out. Not much really happened and I’m still not sure what was dreamt and what actually occurred. I do not recommend this one.

Zoje Stage is a wonderful author! A pandemic setting but not a pandemic book, Mothered examines the dangers of drudging up the past, the tribulations of a strained family dynamic, and the nature of fear. Great book!

Sadly, I just couldn't get into this one. It was SO weird. I feel like there were so many plot points that didn't make any sense to me, didn't add to the story and were left unfinished. I especially don't recommend reading if you're looking for an escape from the pandemic!

This is a rather dark story about a woman who grudgingly lets her estranged mother move in with her during the pandemic. Most of us remember what it was like having restrictions imposed upon us and not being able to go about our lives in ways we were used to but for Grace and her mother, Jackie, things are extra stressful. Living with mother brings up a lot of bad memories for Grace. The additional worries about money and what will happen after the pandemic cause Grace to begin to unravel, and with bad dreams and her mother;s snippy attitude Grace finds it impossible to tell what is actual memories and wart is her stressed mind warping reality. An engrossing story that is quite sad at times but with little flashes of wry humour, and a cute cat. Recommended.