Rating: 🌟🌟💫 (2.5/5)

Quote: “It’s hard to know what to do when the thing you’re afraid of is invisible. And you never saw it arrive, so how do you know when it’s gone?”

Unfortunately this one didn’t hit the mark for me. It took me months to finish. I was so excited to get an early copy because I loved her novel Baby Teeth. I’ll definitely give this author another try in the future though.

This one sort of felt disjointed and a bit all over the place. When reading the acknowledgments it made more sense. The author was dealing with a lot while writing this book. She would write and take a break for a a few weeks at a time and then come back and write again.

The pandemic is a big part of this book too. I generally try to avoid pandemic books (talk about Covid exhausted) but went into this one blind because I loved Baby Teeth so much. As much as I dislike books that mention the COVID pandemic, that aspect of the book wasn’t too much and didn’t irk me as much as I thought it would.

But, overall this book wasn’t for me. I reread several pages over and over again without realizing it because I just didn’t connect with the story or any of the characters. I’d say the premise was cool but I didn’t really get that entirely either. I will say there were certain aspects of the story that were cool…just didn’t feel…cohesive.

Some people might like this one but I just couldn’t get into it. I’ll definitely really something else by this author though just based on how awesome Baby Teeth was.

Gaaawd noooo why the dream sequence? That was my biggest irk with this one. I can't do unreliable narrators, and apparently, I can't do the whole "are they awake or dreaming?" This was also an issue in a book Stay Awake by Megan Goldin. I didn't realize this one would have that aspect, or else I might have passed on requesting this.

I actually don't mind the COVID stuff. It's not too soon for me at all, so that was completely fine. I understand if it might be for others. so heads up on that.

I LOVED Baby Teeth, so this might have just been a miss for me. I'll still give this author a shot in the future.

Many thanks to NetGalley and Thomas & Mercer for providing me with an eARC of Mothered in exchange for my honest review!

Mothered is one of the more unnerving and disorienting thrillers that I've dived into as of late. It takes this dysfunctional mother-daughter relationship and pulls us into all the anxieties, fears, and resentment that are seething within it. They're only exacerbated by the COVID pandemic that's unfolding around them and trapping them in a claustrophobic environment, followed by the numerous grisly and surreal nightmares that Grace suffers throughout the course of the book. Those nightmares were especially intriguing to read about, because even though most of them were obviously dreams right off the bat (which I believe is intentional on the book's part), that didn't make them any less disturbing to follow. I do think the plot could get repetitive at times, though, and I would have preferred it if those extraneous segments could have been trimmed away in order to tighten up the narrative.

All in all, my final rating is 3.75 out of 5 stars, which I'm rounding up to 4 stars. I'll be interested to check out more of Zoje Stage's thrillers.

I love everything Zoje writes and this one was no different! I loved reading it and the messed-up-ness that is Zoje Stage. She keeps me coming back for more every single time.

Hmm I was extremely excited when I got this book because I absolutely loved Zoje Stage's "Baby Teeth", so probably my expectations for this one were too high.

I reslly enjoyed it but I needed a but more of creepiness. I'm in the wrong because I was expecting this one to be as creepy as other of her books. That's my bad. Not the author's fault, at all.

The book is good!! There's moments where you wonder wtf is happening and I love when a book creates doubts and make me wonder everything. I had a problem with the dreaming part, as I hate to be reading and not knowing if the character is dreaming or it's actually happening. Makes me feel confused. And, in my case, makes me feel like I'm not drawn to the story as much as I wish I was.

Overall, I actually recommend it if you like creepy stories with stories where you wonder what's happening all the time. Ita a good thriller that will keep you guessing.

I really liked Baby Teeth but struggled with this one. I appreciate the ARC. The pandemic is still too fresh and I want to read about other things instead.

Mothered centers on Grace and her mother Jackie. Jackie moves in with Grace at the beginning of the pandemic which Grace only agrees to reluctantly because her childhood with Jackie was less than ideal. Growing up all the focus was on her now deceased twin sister Hope who had cerebral palsy. After Jackie moves in Grace begins to see things that aren't really there and have increasingly dark nightmares. The book just keeps getting more bizarre as it goes along and you are left wondering is Grace going crazy? Is there something more sinister at play? Is the childhood she remembers what actually happened? If you like psychological thrillers with a healthy dose of weird this might be your thing. It just wasn't my cup of tea.

Mothered ~ Zoje Stage

When Grace’s mother, Jackie, asks to move in with her, she’s not thrilled. But with the pandemic leaving her jobless and stuck at home, she figures it won’t be so bad to have the help and companionship.

Almost immediately, Grace and Jackie start to butt heads and new wounds are opened. Grace starts to suffer from nightmares and loses sleep over her mother’s behavior and accusations - “As the walls close in, the ghosts of Grace’s past collide with a new but familiar threat: Mom.”

“Compelling.…This disturbing yet addictive read will keep you wondering what is real and what is madness.”

In the author’s note, Zoje Stage thanks her early readers for reading this “bat shot crazy” book she wrote. When I read that, I thought, at least she knows what the book is! I started with high hopes, but as I read it just got more and more odd, confusing, and hard to read. I am sure there are people that will enjoy this crazy book and will delve into the dreams and notions presents, but for me it was just a little too out there. I would recommend it to the right reader though.

Grace isn’t exactly thrilled when her newly widowed mother, Jackie, asks to move in with her. . She is not thrilled about her mom moving in and she does need her moms help with mortgage . Grace thinks she may have more bonding time and have better relationship with her mom. "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'.
It started off good then it got little slow did like where this story was going.. I am not really fan of stories with the setting of the pandemic. Although I did like baby teeth from this author a little bit more than I did with this story.
Thanks to Thomas & Mercer, Netgalley, and the author in exchange for a review..
Published March 1st 2023.

OMG! This claustrophobic, pandemic thriller kept me on my toes from page one. Stage's story is all sorts of crazy in the best way and she truly captures the fear and anxiety we all had from Covid, as well as the nuances of dysfunctional mother.daughter relationships. I won't stop thinking about this one for a long time.

Thanks to Thomas & Mercer and NetGalley for the copy to review.

Mothered completely blew me away! Talk about a creep factor! As if trying to get through the pandemic wasn't hard enough, the Grace's elderly mother asks to move in with her. What could she doe but oblige? All is definitely as it seems in this creepy tale! Excellent writing and every page left me breathless!

In the acknowledgments of Mothered, Zoje Sage describes asking her friends if they want to read something “batshit crazy” that she wrote during the COVID pandemic. That pretty much sums up Mothered. It’s batshit crazy in the best way possible. (Note: I got into this book and I am not a thriller fan.)

During the COVID pandemic, Grace’s newly divorced mother, Jackie, moves in with her. Not great. The two don’t get along all that well and now they are stuck in the same house together. Old wounds are torn open and things get worse when Jackie discovers Grace’s penchant for pretending to be a man and catfishing women on the internet. What is real and what is imagined? Who is crazy and who has a hold on reality? The writing really gets you feeling for what it feels like when you are locked at home an every day is Groundhogs day.

BONUS: Sage has the best instagram marketing thing going on of her own creativity. “ON LOCATION WITH MOTHERED.” Check out her page where she takes you to the places in Pittsburgh that are mentioned in the novel.

For many, the COVID-19 pandemic still feels very much alive and real. Massive shutdowns, halted travel plans, and isolation from those that you love. But what if there was something else lurking beneath our fragile and terrified society; something as close to us as our own mother whose sudden appearance causes the past and present to collide?

Mothered is a psychological thriller that you didn't see coming. While the pacing was slower than I expected it to be, it does provide that edge-of-your-seat suspense that will keep you interested until the very end. Zoje Stage does a great job immersing us into Grace's world while giving us the kind of slow-burn thrills that made me gasp at the end. Highly recommend to domestic psychological thriller fans.

Thank you to the author, publisher, and NetGalley for the opportunity to read and review the book!

I wanted to like this a lot more than I did, but sadly, it fell short of my expectations. Grace is a hairdresser, and at the beginning of the pandemic, she's struggling to make mortgage payments on her newly-purchased house. Her mom, Jackie, just lost her husband, and suggests that she should move in with Grace to help with the mortgage, avoid loneliness, and quarantine together. Grace has a rocky history with her mom, mostly thanks to her sister Hope, who suffered from cerebral palsy and passed away when they were kids. But she reluctantly agrees.

Stage certainly did a great job of putting me back into the headspace of those first few weeks and months of the pandemic. I can't even describe what the feeling is - anxiety, boredom, confinement, something else? - but I felt right back there. I have to say I disliked pretty much all of the other elements of the book, though. There were many elements that I thought were messy, not well thought through, and distracting, such as Grace's friend Miguel, her catfishing hobby, and the rushed escalation and ending. The first two-thirds dragged, then things changed so quickly.

There are also a LOT of dream/nightmare sequences in this book. I know most other reviewers hated them - I typically also hate dreams in novels - but I thought they worked to an extent. If the intent was to confuse fact with fiction, help you understand Grace's frazzled mental state, and scare you, they worked - I just thought there were far too many dreams for my taste.

Overall, this was not my favorite Zoje Stage book, and I don't think I'd recommend it. Thank you to the publisher for the ARC via Netgalley.

As we get further out from 2020, it's interesting to continue to see a trickle of "Covid novels" coming out, as each author works through their own pandemic experience in their own way (at their own writing pace). Zoje Stage appears to have had a harder time of it than most -- in her afterword she reveals that her mother died of Covid, and to all apearances this novel is part working through the isolation and paranoia of quarantine days, part working through the grief of losing a mother (in a "Zoje Stage, winner of the Bram Stoker Award" sort of way). Certainly we're due for some "Covid thrillers," even if the pandemic in this book is avowedly different from Covid in subtle ways, so I was open to liking this book but it didn't quite connect for me. It's got some very good creepy and/or unsettling moments, especially early on, but it leans much too heavily on a "now we have a very creepy thing happen, and then a chapter break and we discover the previous chapter was a nightmare" sort of pattern. Over time it defangs any creepy bits, as you know they'll be consequence free, and I ended up a little impatient to get to the next chapter whenever anything started to get too obviously dream-like. I look forward to reading Stage's other works, but this one was a miss.

Sadly Mothered was not for me, I enjoyed Baby Teeth a lot and would highly recommend that novel, however this book was too long

I haven’t read Baby Teeth but I’ve heard great things, so I was keen to check this one out. The unreliable narrator in this one was completely unreliable! Is Grace the unwell one, is it her mother?
For most of this book I didn’t know what was what and although it kept me somewhat engaged, I needed some direction as to what was real and what was imagined. I’ve tried to avoid novels written about the pandemic but I see how this worked well in this case. The isolation making the situation that much more challenging.
Will definitely be reading more from Zoje Stage

Grace’s mother, who has just lost her husband, is moving in with her, during the early days of Covid, to share the lockdown. Grace has reservations about this, but since she’s been downsized because of the pandemic, she could use the help with her mortgage, and maybe the company during this terrifying time. But things go wrong quickly—Grace starts having nightmares, mostly about her dead disabled sister, and starts to lose time and hallucinate. And she sees her mother as the source for much of this anguish in her previously stable life.

This is a haunting book, melding the current fear of the pandemic with familial trauma and portrayed in a hallucinatory prose that makes you question yourself, just as Grace questions herself throughout the book. I really loved this, even though it was a little tough to be projected back into the beginning of the pandemic.

Did you ever wait to read a book because you know you'll love it and know you won't have the chance to read the book for the first time again? That was me with this book. 🤷🏻‍♀️

This book starts off from a psychologist's POV. He is talking about how interesting his next appointment is that day. Yep, at this point, I'm totally hooked. I love books that have psychology or really anything about the mind involved. Y'all know the more twisty and turny the better. (Are those even words. If not, I just made them up, and we will contact Webster about it later today 🤣)

As I was reading, I honestly couldn't tell the nightmare chapters from the real-life chapters. They both sound so real and equally messed up. The whole time, I couldn't figure out if Grace was sane or not. I love it!! I don't want to mention more about this because I don't want to give anything away. Just know it was creepy and claustrophobic!!

I do want to mention that it is set during quarantine. It helps set the scene as to why Grace let her mother, Jackie, move in with her. Jackie is passive-aggressive and judgmental. Another character does get the virus but recovers. I know that this won't be for everyone. I felt it was necessary to put in my review.

This book is 100% worth the read!! On my scale of Buy, Bargain, Borrow, Bud, or Bust, this one is a BUY!!! I added the paper copy to my wish list because I absolutely need it on my new shelves!!

Read This Book If:
✂️ You want to read a book to hook you from the beginning
✂️ You love books where you can't figure out what is real and what isn't
✂️ You like horror novels

Thank you @zoje.stage_author, Thomas & Mercer Publishing & @netgalley for an eARC of this book!!

Already posted to Goodreads, Storygraph and Amazon