This book triggered everything about my relationship with Mother. As much as I love my own mother, I could never imagine having to live with her again. We can have a beautiful relationship as long as we are apart. Some people have it better than others. So when I started reading this rollercoaster of emotions for Grace. I disturbingly hooked. Like Dr. Pimple Popper's type of videos. LOL

I really wanted to like this one as I did her other works but the covid thing was just maybe too soon for me. Thanks to the publisher and netgalley for this copy for review

Ty @netgalley • 3 ⭐️

I loved “Baby Teeth”, by Zoje Stage, I grabbed a copy of her newest novel.

“Mothered” is a slow burn thriller that makes it difficult to distinguish dreams from reality.

Grace, a hairdresser with an unreliable income, bought a a home. after signing the mortgage, the pandemic starts and everything is locked down. In light of these life changing events, Grace allows her mother to move in with her. This has always been a turbulent relationship. Her house, her rules? 🤔

Stage hints that something bad has happened. This keeps me turning the pages. It invested me in the book until the end. As I was reading, there was this lingering feeling of claustrophobia and anxiety in the novel. Questions increased as the book progressed.. I had a difficult time connecting the dots for the plot. Sadly, the ending fell flat for me. It left me confused.

This pandemic-era slow burn filled me with dread and took me back to those mid-early days of the pandemic when everything was unsure and everyone was tired of being locked up at home. A truly disturbing read, especially because Stage draws you into connecting with Grace, the protagonist. Her flaws become more and more apparent as the book goes on, but by then it's too late.

What’s worse than creepy kids? A creepy elderly lady! I really enjoyed this book.. so much so that I didn’t want to put it down. The ending gave me actual chills. Will definitely recommend this to all thriller & horror lovers.

Time for pandemic fiction!! This is set in 2020 during the pandemic and Grace has to stay with her mom during lockdown.

This is kind of like watching a car accident and you can't look away. It just was so much chaos, Grace has trouble differentiating her vivid nightmares to reality and honestly me too. Did I ever know what was going on? Unsure. I like when books are unsettling, but I don't like when its paired with confusion. I might just be the wrong audience, but I know there are people who would eat this up!

3 stars.

Having loved both Baby Teeth and Wonderland, both by Zoje Stage, I was extremely enthusiastic to read Mothered.

It is a coincidence, but completely appropriate that I finished it on Mother’s Day!

I liked how Stage wrote about the pandemic and the feeling of isolation I think most of us felt. It felt… real, in that aspect.

But about half-way through the book, things got weird. I couldn’t tell what was a nightmare and what was real. I didn’t understand the motivation behind some of the things characters did or said, and the characters… well, they just lost their character to put it plainly.

It just kind of spiraled out of control with no explanation or reasoning.

I still don’t know what was wrong with Jackie. I don’t know what happened to Hope. I have no idea why Grace behaved the way she did. And I really, really have no clue who Silas is and why his personal life is put out there at the end.

I thought the plot was suspenseful, and it made me keep reading, but I was disappointed in the end.

Since finishing Baby Teeth, I have vowed to read everything Zoje Stage writes. I was that impressed!
Mothered was not a disappointment, either.
Grace, our hero, finds herself locked down with her recently widowed mother, Jackie. Their relationship has never been great, but now it slides into a miserable state.
Jackie eventually accuses Grace of a terrible act, sending her spiraling into a weird madness the reader will not soon forget.

Mothered was my first read by Zoje Stage but won’t be my last!

First impressions:
I loved the cover and was curious about the pair of scissors; were they a weapon? An implement of torture?

The mother/daughter main characters, Jackie and Grace, are getting to know each other as adults and as roommates. There’s a whole metric ton of trauma to unpack. Including Grace’s twin sister, Hope, and her death. Unreliable narrating galore.

This book has a ton of Dream sequences, which I usually hate. I did not hate them in this book and read them all thoroughly. There were moments where I didn’t know what was dream and what was reality.

Familial trauma, mother/daughter issues, Covid 19 isolation and some amazing dialogue. Loved this one!

I found this book super confusing and way too long. I really loved Baby Teeth so I was excited about this but I had to DNF at 40%. I tried but just couldn't do it

In the time of the pandemic, Grace's recently widowed mother asks to stay with her for awhile. The two have always had a rocky relationship, but Grace is hoping that maybe this will bring them closer, plus help to pay the bills since Grace lost her job. But she soon regrets it since Jackie is just as judgmental and critical as ever. To make matters worse Grace begins to have dreams of her deceased twin sister and as the dreams become stronger, Grace begins to descend to madness.
This book had such a creepy vibe throughout with the isolation of the characters, the flashbacks of her twin, and the unreliable thoughts of the narrator Grace. This is the craziest psychological thriller I've read in a long time.
I voluntarily read and reviewed an advanced copy of this book. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

Grace's first home purchase couldn't come at a worse time. She is laid off due to the pandemic shut downs, and finds herself with little choice but to allow her estranged, recently widowed mother to move in with her.
Initially, it seems like they might do okay. There is a little thawing of the cool relationship they've had since Grace's twin sister's death when they were children, due to complications from CP and pneumonia.
But... maybe it's the lockdown.. maybe it's her mother... maybe it's something else... Grace is suffering from increasingly vivid and disturbing nightmares that begin to take over her waking life.

I have enjoyed several of Stage's previous books, but this one.. left me a little disappointed. It never really took off for me, or felt resolved in the end.
There were some very creepy scenes, and I really enjoyed Grace's relationship with her best friend, and his sweet little cat. Overall, it felt very slow moving.

Enjoyed this book by Zoje Stage. First time reading her, and will need to read more. I enjoyed the characters, the plot, and the pacing with this book. #Mothered #NetGalley

Wow! This read really quickly and was super intense! I devoured it in a day! The covid/pandemic stuff a lot for me and all the dream sequences! But I really enjoyed the twist at the end! Will be recommending as a super tense thriller! (I'm also glad nothing bad happened to the cat in this one ) 3.5 stars rounded up to 4

💉✂️Book Review:
Title: Mothered
Author: Zoje Stage
Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️/3 stars

I wanted to love this book so badly! I loved "Baby Teeth," and I was hoping this one would give me the heebie jeebies too! Sadly, it did not. I was confused, lol! I couldn't keep up with all of the main characters' visions/dreams/whatever the heck they were! Bummer.

Grace-daughter
Jackie-mother
These two are riding out the quarantine from the pandemic together. Times are difficult, especially financially, so Grace allows her mother to come live with her. They already struggle with their relationship, but Grace is hoping that this new living situation will help to mend bad feelings. It, in fact, does the opposite.

Thank you to @netgalley and #thomasandmercerbooks #thomasandmercer for this ARC in exchange for my honest review

Were you, too, terrified of Zelda, Rachel’s sister who suffered from spinal meningitis in Stephen King’s Pet Sematary? Well, this book is for you! Grace remembered playing paper dolls with Hope- “Take the scissors. Cut off an earlobe. It will be soft, the perfect clutch. Do it now." Grace remembers the night Hope died. She was left alone by Jackie to watch Hope, and Hope’s games became too much. As Grace and Jackie weather the pandemic, nightmares plague Grace and she begins to wonder what role her mother played during their childhood and why she was left alone with Hope so often. Loved this book-we don’t often associate kids with such childhood disorders as capable of being “bad” so this was an interesting storyline. With the issue of Cerebral Palsy, I could see others labeling this book as being "ableist." It's a sensitive subject to paint a child with a congenital disorder in a negative light because you don't want people to assume that ALL children with that disorder are that way. I don't think we often hear enough of the family members' journeys with taking care of those children, and that's what this story is more about-the emotional toll it takes on a parent, and how harrowing it can be for siblings of the child with a neurological condition. So this is more Grace and Jackie's history-Grace should have never been left alone with Hope. In this, Jackie is complacent in everything that unfolded afterwards whether she cops to it or not. All in all-Great book. Zoje Stage does a chilling job of making readers uncomfortable with children, and I'm here for it! Will definitely await further books from them. Thanks NetGalley and Publisher for the ARC!

*eARC provided by the publisher via NetGalley for review

🔪Claustrophobic Thriller
🔪Set During a Pandemic
🔪Tense Mother/Daughter Relationship
🔪Fever Dream Feels

Mothered is a bleak look at a woman’s slow descent into madness during a pandemic. This book was like one long fever dream. The main character, Grace, is a thirty something woman whose life is turned upside down when her widowed mother comes to live with her. Grace has a rocky relationship with her mother, and she’s not really excited to have to share the house with her. Soon, Grace starts having strange dreams and it becomes hard for her to tell what’s real and what’s not.

This is the first book I’ve read by Zoje Stage and I really liked her writing. Stage really develops a sense of dread and unease throughout the story. Reading from Grace’s perspective made me anxious as I kept waiting for something horrible to happen. The tense relationship she had with her mother was not fun to read about, and they were both pretty horrible people. Mothered was a slow build of a story with more happening towards the end of the book, and I did become bored at times. I wanted more from this story and I was let down by the ending. I still look forward to reading Stage’s other books.

3/5 stars

This isn’t my favorite Zoje Stage book but dang she is such an amazing author and story teller!

Great book! Thank you!

Zoje Stage is a vital part of the fiction community. Her books contain seemingly domestic mysteries, but contain just enough delicious weirdness to fit comfortably into the horror category. Mothered, Stage’s pandemic novel, is her most disorientating yet, and captures the uncertainty and strangeness of the period that many would rather forget.

Hairstylist Grace finds herself indefinitely unemployed when COVID-19 brings the world grinding to a halt. Struggling to pay her mortgage, Grace reluctantly welcomes her widowed mother, Jackie, into her home. Things quickly go awry, and Grace is reminded of her traumatic childhood, and her dead sister, Hope. And the lack of peace in her house means Grace can no longer commit much time to her strange hobby; catfishing women online.

So many things happen in this book, and the reader is never fully on safe ground. Grace had a difficult childhood, caring for her unwell sister, and navigating a life with a physically and emotionally absent mother. So her uneasy reunion with Jackie brings up a lot of unresolved issues, and it is unclear what is real and what is not. A lot of the novel recounts Grace’s nightmares, and the whole book has an erratic, dreamlike feel.

I think the reader will decide within the first chapter whether they will enjoy this book or not. This was not an easy read, it made me feel very claustrophobic, which is a testament to Stage’s writing. Mothered is intriguing, and offers no easy conclusions or answers.

Mothered - Zoje Stage

“If the pandemic had taught her nothing else, she knew that life—a life, or even normal existence—could disappear with little warning.”

A claustrophobic psychological thriller about one woman’s nightmarish spiral while quarantined with her mother.

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.

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

Right, there’s unreliable narrators, then there’s bat sh*t crazy, psychotic unreliable narrators as is evident in Mothered. Off the back, this is not going to be a book for many. Those of you, that (like me) like messy, terrifying, disturbing and twisted, this one is it!

“I had to do it. She was contagious.”—her greeting as she’d opened the door to let the police in. A miasma of decay had wafted out like a poisonous cloud, making the uniformed officers gag. How had she lived with the stench? And why?

Ultimately this is the story of a Mother and daughter’s complicated relationship and traumatic past, pushed to its limits during the (a) pandemic. Chaotic scenes blur the lines between nightmares and reality, ending in horrific violence.

I really, really liked it - love it? It’s a hard one to love due to the subject matter - I couldn’t put it down and will be reaching out for Baby Teeth to read - if that’s an indicator.

A glimpse into Stages’s writing - Grace is playing paper dolls with her twin sister Hope, who says her doll needs a handbag - something small and soft. “Cut off your earlobe,” she tells Grace. “It will be perfect.”

TW’s - Mental health trauma.

My mind is still spinning 4 ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Many thanks to @netgalley #thomasandmercer @zojestage for a #gifted advanced reading copy. Pub date 1 March 2023 🔥