I'm so glad I picked Mothered by Zoje Stage up on a whim. I read the author's earlier book Baby Teeth and was underwhelmed by it, so I had low expectations for Mothered and was blown away by how much I loved it. It follows Grace, who has agreed to let her estranged mom move in with her during the pandemic, and how they slowly drive each other to be the worst versions of themselves. As someone with a complicated relationship with my mother it was a wild and sometimes cathartic read. If you're looking for a thriller this one is non-stop bonkers in the best way.

I hardly know where to start with "Mothered" by Zoje Stage. Grace allows her mother Jackie to move in to her new home at the start of the Covid-19 pandemic. Jackie was just released from the hospital (unrelated to Covid) and has nowhere else to go, really. Though the two don't have a great relationship, Grace has to admit she could use the help with the mortgage since she just lost her job in the service industry at the start of lockdown. Almost immediately, Grace regrets the decision. Her mother quickly rearranges the kitchen, hangs her own photos on the living room wall, and takes Grace's favorite spot on the couch as her own.

Not long after her mother moves in, Grace starts experiencing intense nightmares that seem very real. Many of the nightmares are focused on her twin sister, who was born disabled and died when the girls were young. Jackie seems obsessed with the dead girl, who Grace hardly thinks about anymore. When Grace's best friend becomes sick and Jackie and Grace have to quarantine again as a result, the feeling of foreboding grows stronger. An explosive accusation leads to a shocking act of violence that will change everything forever.

I'm not someone who typically remembers my dreams, but while I was reading this book I had some of the most intense nightmares I've had in my life. Some echoed a bit of the plot in the book, honestly. Since finishing the book, I've gone back to not remembering my dreams. I think this story seriously messed with my head in a way that has never happened to me before now. I've rarely, if ever, had that sinking "something is wrong" feeling in my gut as when I was reading this novel. It was creepy and it really got under my skin in a strange way. I'm definitely excited to read more by this author and have already picked up "Baby Teeth" because I loved this book so much.

Love this author, definitely excited to get a chance to read this book as ARC.
Set during during quarantine but yet it didn’t take away from the story. The tension between mother and daughter is very present. There a bit of a slow burn feel here and there. The end makes up for any doubts you had while reading.

Kept me more engaged than I have been in a while. A lot of what’s going on is relatable when it comes to mother/daughter dynamics.

4 stars for me! A really good family drama thriller. Grace and her mom are together during covid and all their past issues come to light. Captivating and creepy thriller that I could not put down

Graces mother, Jackie, moves in with her during the pandemic. They did not have the best relationship growing up, but Grace is hopeful that will change. Well, they don’t and they seem to be the same as they were when she was younger. Grace starts having nightmares about her twin sister that died when she was younger, and then Jackie makes an accusation against Grace that they cannot come back from. 4/5 stars. I loved Baby Teeth and I loved this story as well!

Zoje Stage once again proves she is the queen of creep. Each page of Mothered leaves you unsettled, uncomfortable, then BAM smacked in the face with the 'oh shit' moment, and it's a wild ride from there. So grateful to get my hands on an early copy of this book. She will forever live on my 'buy it without needing to read the blurb' list.

My expectations were high with this one since I really enjoyed Baby Teeth. This one didn’t live up to the hype I was hoping for. It’s very slow paced, lots of descriptions, very little dialogue. The storyline doesn’t have much to it. Grace has nightmares and is quarantined during the pandemic with her estranged mother who has come to live with her. Nothing else extraordinary really happens. I thought there would be an explosive ending to bring it all together but there wasn’t. It just ended abruptly.

Zoje Stage strikes gold with her pandemic novel--of course, while it's never mentioned to be COVID, through the context clues we can tell that's what is being hinted at. But, there is something more sinister laying beneath the surface.

Grace, lovingly nicknamed "Gray" by her mother, finds herself in a lockdown situation most of us wouldn't be fond of; her recently widowed [for the second time] mother comes to stay with her while Grace is dealing with being recently unemployed. Throughout the novel we get a sense of just how messed up her relationship with her mother is, and that there are dark secrets lurking in the past regarding Grace's twin sister, Hope. The novel is told between past, present, and a dream world where everything is sinister and against Grace.

By proxy, Grace is not a reliable narrator. By the end of the novel, the reader is left unaware of what was real, what was a dream, and what was purely her imagination...but even Grace isn't sure.

Mothered does a great job of telling the mental effects of the COVID lockdown, and just how claustrophobic it felt. But, as hinted at throughout the novel, there is another sickness coming to the surface. As the reader, we have no idea if it's a real thing or not, but are made aware that now multiple people have encountered this "sickness," one that is more mental than the physical toll of COVID-19. One that could possibly drive more people to Grace and her mother's end in the long run.

Zoje Stage has never, ever, ever let me down and I'm so honored to have been able to read this early on NetGalley. This is right up there with her other three novels, and exceeds the "messed up" category of her other books completely. Stage is a master in psychological horror, and when it comes time for her to be up to bat, she never misses a home run with her swings.

A special thank you to Thomas & Mercer for providing me with this ARC for reviewing purposes. The publication date on this book is March 1, 2023!

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for an ARC of "Mothered" by Zoje Stage. I raced through this book in a few days as I really felt at first that it was going somewhere. What isn't to like about a 30-something being stuck quarantined in a house during COVID with their overbearing mother? I know for me, that sounds like a horror. While I really wanted to enjoy this book, the ending pretty much ruined it for me. A number of things that happen throughout the book were never explained or given any weight. The side story of the main character being into catfishing women online served no real purpose. This had great potential but I felt as though the execution was just a little off. Overall, a fast read but I wish things had been wrapped up differently.

4 stars wow! A fast paced, tension filled book detailing the relationship of a mother and daughter forced to live together during the pandemic, I could not put it down! Thanks to NetGalley and Thomas and Mercer for the ARC!

I really enjoyed this book and I honestly couldn’t put it down! A combination of the pandemic and living with her mother has made Grace blur the line between fantasy and reality. What are dreams and what’s real life? Some of the pandemic parts to the book were frighteningly relatable. While I thought the book was fast-paced, I thought that it ended too abruptly and I was looking for more of a surprise ending. Otherwise, it was a solid 4.5 star book!

This was a very strange yet intriguing thriller. Zoje Stage is an amazing writer! Her stories always have me at the edge of my seat. This one was no different! The story takes place during the pandemic which adds a new twist that readers can relate to. After the pandemic hit and the economy suffered, it made sense for Jackie, Grace's mother, to move in with Grace and help pay the bills. But, Grace has some crazy habits that she would rather keep secret. When Jackie finds out what Grace is up to, secrets are revealed and the plot begins to unravel. This was a strangely twisted story that kept me addicted to turning pages!

I enjoyed this author's first book "Baby Teeth", and was kind of hoping that this would be the sequel.
No need to worry, the story was able to hold its own with Grace and her cat fish personalities, as well as her mom who ended up moving in with her during the beginning stages of Covid.
It explores their rocky relationship as a child with her, and trying to get past that now that her mother's husband has passed away and needs a place to stay. It was interesting to see how the initial shut downs, and covid safety protocols played out in the book, now that we know the world wide pandemic that this turned into.

"Baby Teeth" is one of the darkest horror novels I've ever read and something I recommend to anyone looking for a dark dark dark domestic novel, so I was thrilled to be granted a copy of "Mothered". Zoje Stage is incredible.

Personal rating:
2🌟


I felt like I wasted my time, if I am to be truly honest. I was so excited to start this story too because I read Baby Teeth before and that was such a fun story to binge on. So with that in mind, I have quite an expectation for Mothered. Boy, oh boy was I wrong.

The story here moves slowly but has great potentials. Normally I don't have a problem with books that are slow burn but when you couple that with numerous nightmare scenes—which all started out feeling normal but gradually spiraled out into pretty gory outcomes—the plot started feeling repetitive. The mystery kept me reading until the end because I really wanted to know what actually happened. Then the ending came and it made me feel blah about it. There's no fun plot twists, not even any kind of plot twists.

I kinda like the way Covid-19 was used in the story, though. It did make me feel a little weird but after I adjusted myself, it's pretty good.


Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for providing me with a free digital copy of this in exchange for an honest review.

4 *

Disclosure: I was provided an advanced copy of Mothered via Netgalley.

Mothered was a strange read for me, and didn't quite grab me until the halfway mark. Once we hit a certain high (low?) note in the story, I couldn't put the book down. It's a strange story about grief, messed up family dynamics, and isolation. I think this is the first pandemic related horror story I've read, and it added a very real spin to the story. Ultimately, I'd strongly recommend this for fans of horror that like a slow burning descent in to madness.

I am drawn to psychological thrillers that revolve around mothers. I identify with the plot personally. So, naturally, i had to read this. I was so pleased with this book's prologue as Silas s a man after my own heart--a psychotherapist who sees murder cases, killers, and the identities and mental illnesses and back stories of killers as puzzles. Macabre puzzles. Grace fascinated me in that way--a macabre puzzle. She has unpacked baggage from her childhood, poor adult relationships, multiple online identities which she uses to catfish needy women, and during the pandemic, lock down, she reluctantly invites the mother she can barely converse with over the phone to move in with her. I was hooked from the start.

Reality is blurred with the past, with dreams--nightmares. Is it somehow her mother behind it, who seems to bounce from one mood the next. Or is it Grace? Has she gone mad? Insane?

The story fell apart a bit in the last 20% or so. There was a lot of unnecessary stuff that was so nonsensical it didn't add to or forward the climax. It could have been significantly shortened and therefore had a much more impactful punch.

In the early stages of the Coronavirus, Grace finds herself forced to invite her estranged mother into her home. But as a sickness unlike Covid seems to ravage their home, things go from bad to worse.

Stage's premises are always interesting and filled with just enough creepiness/gore to not be over the top. The way she analyzes mother/daughter relationships and writes about severely twisted ones is also entertaining. However, just like with <u>Baby Teeth</u>, Stage's newest novel suffered a pacing issue and a just slightly too absurd conclusion. There are a lot of tense scenes and situational build-up between Grace and her mother, Jackie. But by around the 50% mark these scenes get very cyclical in nature and there's very little payoff until the somewhat abrupt climactic conclusion. And while this conclusion was oddly somewhat satisfying (also similar to the conclusion of <u>Baby Teeth</u>, in my opinion ie. everything is how it should be...), it still felt a little too open ended. Three stars for this being an overall entertaining and original read, but the slow pacing killed the second half of the book for me.

This book was really good in the beginning and the end was pretty good but the middle was kinda meh for me. I never knew if she was dreaming or if was real life and I kinda disliked both the main characters. I LOVED baby teeth but this one just wasn’t for me. Thanks NetGalley for the ARC