Another excellent title, which will challenge readers and writers alike. Excellent choice of protagonists and plot line that will engage all.

This is a twisty dystopian book. The world building lacked some detail and I felt that the ending was poor
The main character was unrelatable so I wasn’t invested

The Mother Fault is a chilling dystopian thriller that follows Mim, a mother of two, who goes on the run to find her missing husband, Ben. In a near-future Australia, the government has fitted everyone with a tracking chip to keep them ‘safe’, but Ben has somehow gone off the grid. Mim is threatened by the sinister Department, who wants to take her children away and send her to a re-education camp. She decides to risk everything and escape, embarking on a perilous journey across the outback and the sea, with the help of some unlikely allies.

The book is well-written, with a gripping plot, believable characters, and vivid descriptions. The author creates a realistic and terrifying scenario, where climate change, surveillance, and authoritarianism have taken over the country. The book also explores the themes of family, identity, love, and courage, as Mim faces her past and discovers her inner strength. The book is the third in the Detective Gaby Darin series, but it can be read as a standalone, as the author provides enough background information and references to the previous books.

The Mother Fault is a compelling and thought-provoking thriller that will appeal to fans of Margaret Atwood, George Orwell, and Aldous Huxley. It is a book that will make you question, fear, and hope for the future.

Dystopia is my catnip. I can’t resist it. But as I’ve said before, I have to be careful how much of it I read (overactive imagination alert!). And even more so with these dystopian novels that seem plausible and could actually happen sooner than you think!

The Mother Fault is one of these books. It’s set in the not too distant future in Australia - but a very different Australia. The country seems to be under the control of an organisation called BestLife. They even make sure that babies are implanted with a chip. The adults all have them, and life is made more difficult for those who opt out.

Mim’s husband goes missing whilst working in a mine in Indonesia. But instead of care and support, BestLife respond by asking for Mim’s and her children’s passports, offering to ‘take care’ of the children. It’s a barely veiled threat.

Mim responds by trying to drive away as far and as fast as she can. Everywhere she goes, she’s surveilled, and everyone she sees or visits is in danger.

The descriptions of an Australia ravaged by climate change are haunting. The decisions Mim makes can be questionable, but that just makes it more interesting!

It’s a really tense read, I continually felt that they would be caught, even when they were at sea (especially so really, because who would be there to witness whatever BestLife would do?!).
The part of the book that took place in the boat was so frustrating at times, and really helped to put the reader in Mim’s shoes.
This was a great read, and I’ve added another writer to my watch list!!

This was a very clever and interesting dystopian thriller set in Australia and Indonesia. I found this book to be a real page turner with an interesting plot and character development. Thankyou to Netgalley for the advanced copy

This was a good book and good storyline and I apologise for not reading it sooner. The characters were good and I liked the writing style.
Recommended

This was a bit hit and miss. There are some aspects of the story that are brilliant, and scary, and very, very human. Mim is a great main character and her fear for her children and her need to keep them safe are really relatable.

The future world in which she lives feels, unfortunately, very real, and it isn’t hard to imagine things going the way they have in her life – with the government taking over everything, tracking every move, and those who don’t fit being sent off to ‘BestLife’ facilities. It’s all very eerily believable.

The novel moves at a pace to begin with and is very dramatic and exciting. but once Mim is at sea, it all slows down a great deal and the details about the technicalities of sailing drag the story down, unfortunately.

When Mim is back to tracking her husband, the pace picks up again, and the ending is really good, very exciting and fast-paced.

While there was, in my opinion, too much detail of the intricacies of sailing, there were other aspects of the story that I felt didn’t get the depth they needed. There were hints that Mim was frustrated and unhappy at home, that things in her marriage weren’t all they appeared, and I felt this could have been explored a little more, as could the relationship she had with her brothers. I do thin this would have helped me to care more about Mim, and what happened to her.

So definitely worth a read, but not quite as gripping as I’d hoped – but I’d certainly read more by this author.

I tried with this one. I love Aussie fiction and dystopian thrillers so I expected it to be a big hit. Alas I found the main character to be quite unlikeable and the main plot failed to engage. It's an interesting notion particularly given the real life political and climate upheavals within Australia today - some of the actual corrupt politicians are wilder than anything fiction could dream up - but it still slightly fell flat. While the oppression was reasonably well-drawn, the ideology behind it was not and felt rather bland. Still the children characters were well-drawn and there were moments where the writing was reasonably compelling.

This was a fast paced dystopian thriller set in Australia and Indonesia in the near future. Very clever plot, excellent characters and the story was a real page turner. I was really rooting for Mim and her children!

I have to admit that I was a bit underwhelmed by this book. I think I expected it to be a bit more than it was. A bit more dystopian. A bit more thriller(y)? Instead, it was just a mild version of those things and so I just really struggled to get into it. Mimi wasn't the most relatable character and I wasn't a fan of some of her choices. As a Mother myself I just couldn't relate to her or follow her logic (or lack of it).
I really enjoyed the dystopian scene setting at the beginning. Mothers being monitored, people being chipped and the government tracking them, what's not to love. But then those dystopian elements sort of faded out as the story moved on and I think that was where I started to struggle with my level of interest. The mother and her children embark on a journey to find the father all whilst trying to avoid the Police. The book then just became a very average thriller.

The Mother Fault is a dystopian thriller, set in the near future. Climate change has caused a huge shift in conditions, how people are forced to live within this harsh new reality, and the way in which the ruling power deals with this new reality.

Mim, lives with her two children, Essie and Sam. Ben, her husband, is due to return home from his overseas work in Indonesia, but, he doesn’t come home.
The Department, the ruling power with decidedly Orwellian overtones, has a way of dealing with situations and people, to make problems simply disappear.

I found Mim tricky to like, I found her decisions hard to understand.
For some reason, the book didn’t grip me. I found myself distracted. I wasn’t desperate to read what would happen next. I really hoped the end of the book would make me love it, but it didn’t feel satisfactory sadly.

Thrillers are my genre, and I’m partial to a dystopian setting, but the pace was too slow for me. I just didn’t gel with the book, I don’t think I am the right reader. I’m sure many others will love the writing. The frequent timeline changes, sometimes led to confusion. Just 3⭐️⭐️⭐️ from me.

Very gripping and exciting. I was on the edge of my seat throughout. Great characters and plot that kept me engaged.

This was an interesting book but the genre was not one I was used to.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for the ARC in exchange for my honest review.

I quite enjoyed this book in the way that this could be our futures one day! Chipped and monitored ! I found it hard to get into at first but after a while it picked up pace for me and I found myself page turning like a mad woman!

Thank you Netgalley and the publisher for the opportunity to read and review this book. Unfortunately this book was not for me and I was unable to finish it. I am sure other reader will enjoy it.

Sadly this was a DNF for me. That said I’m sure it will appeal to others but not my vibe at all. Thank you to netgalley for this arc in exchange for my honest review

I really enjoyed this book, the story kept you on your toes and in the world we live in today, not totally out of reach!
However I found the ending rushed, I did enjoy it but I also felt it was way too rushed.

Mim gets the phone call, her husband Ben has gone missing whilst working on a project in Indonesia, but something isn't adding up and her and her children could be in danger. So she runs.

I devoured this book, I thoroughly enjoyed it and the suspense was great! I felt alot of the book was spent on the boat and the ending felt rushed which was why it dropped to a 4 star review for me but the premise of this story was brilliant, its something I could envision being made into a movie and one I would watch.

It portrays a world that could be not far for us with houses that respond to you as you walk around and chips in your hand to access houses, pay for this, travel places. It portrays conspiracy theories such as the government are watching and listening at everything we do and how corrupt they are.

I really enjoyed this book, and would like to thank Harper Collins for reaching out and asking me to review this book and be a part of the tour.

This was a brilliant, a fantastic thriller set in the near future in Australia.
In Mim’s world the Government is watching you and your family, especially a part of it called The Department who oversee all aspects of your life including your passport, banking and your chip, and I’m not talking about potatoes! Everyone is chipped, well nearly everyone.
When Mim is told that her husband is missing, and that The Department want her and her kids passports, and is then told to not leave the family home, she realises that something is very wrong. She wants to find him, but isn’t sure how she can when the chips in all three of them will tell The Department that they’ve left home!
Well this gripped me so much! I loved the writing, and loved getting caught in Mim’s journey to keep her and her kids safe, whilst looking for her husband. It was fraught with danger but also with kindness from family and friends. Mim wasn’t a super mum, she was very ordinary, she struggled to make decisions and worried constantly about whether she was being a good parent or not. It made a nice change to have a character who felt so real and made me like her even more,
I really didn’t know what was going to happen, whether they’d find Mim’s husband or if it would just be a wild goose chase. I’d definitely read or listen to more by the author.
I definitely recommend this one if you enjoy thrillers set in the near future.

To keep her children safe, she must put their lives at risk …
In suburban Australia, Mim and her two children live as quietly as they can. Around them, a near-future world is descending into chaos: government officials have taken absolute control, but not everybody wants to obey the rules.
When Mim’s husband Ben mysteriously disappears, Mim realises that she and her children are in great danger. Together, they must set off on the journey of a lifetime to find Ben. The government are trying to track them down, but Mim will do anything to keep her family safe – even if it means risking all their lives.
Can the world ever return to normality, and their family to what it was?

Every time I read a new dystopian novel I end up feeling a little disturbed about how close it is to the world we’re in now. Especially with the extreme weather events, potential for WW3 and the lingering pandemic all competing for our attention. Yet for some reason I’m drawn to them and when they’re done well they blow me away. There have been a few dystopian novels sitting high on my ‘Books of the Year’ list for the past two years running.

This was another novel set in the near future, where severe climate change events and continued terrorist attacks have made the government take drastic action. They now have a totalitarian government, run under the sinister title of the “Department”. Humans have been installed with the type of microchips anti-vaxxers are terrified by, allowing the government to keep tabs of every single citizen. All civil liberties and freedoms have been swept aside for the false promise of round the clock security provided by their privacy being invaded. Any dissent is dealt with quickly and without mercy, and there are purpose built compounds ready to house anyone who speaks out. Many go in, but nobody comes out again, a though that fills me with dread considering I’m writing this as Russia is dismantling any left-wing TV or radio station and announcing new laws to curb anyone even labelling their invasion of the Ukraine as a war instead of a ‘special military operation.’

So when officials from the Department tell Mim is tell Mim that her husband Ben is missing, she has to think quickly and tactically about the best plan of action for her and their children Essie and Sam. When officials arrive at her home to department to "help and advise’ she knows that she’s being trapped. Their advice warns her to stay home and they offer her some official looking forms to sign, but without giving her a chance to read them. Finally, they’re asked to surrender their Passports. This might be run of the mill stuff in a dictatorial regime, but Mim isn’t so easily controlled or fobbed off. Ben had been working in Indonesia, at a gold mine, so Mim is used to him being away from home, but he’s never been unexpectedly delayed or kept at his place of work without some notice. However, his return ‘in the next few days’ allows Mim time to think and delay telling anyone they know. The only other person who. knows the truth is Raquel - a foreign, independent journalist who had happened to ring because she had heard Ben had disappeared on the grapevine. Mim decides to run, knowing that officials will take them as security to lure Ben to them if they don’t already have him.

The story of this family on the run makes a great thriller, the pace is mostly superb and I was rooting for this family. The Department are relentless though, and Mim finds her way blocked, not just by the confiscated passports, but by frozen bank accounts and phone calls where her children are threatened if she doesn’t return home. I felt torn about Mum’s decision making. I applauded her for sticking to her principles and the belief that her children are in more danger living within this totalitarian regime than by running any. The other half of me was thinking she was crazy to risk their lives this way. An old friend of Mim’s takes the family on a treacherous sea voyage to find Ben, but I kept wondering whether she could trust her friend or if there are ulterior motives. I found some of Mim’s choices here difficult to understand and the story seemed to slow as they tried to reach Borneo. However, once there and towards the end the pace changed suddenly and my only criticism of the book would be that this huge change in pace made the final section feel like it passed too quick, giving me a bit of an anti-climactic feel. I thought the Big Brother elements of the novel were well established and the government felt truly terrifying in their scope and methods of punishment. I enjoyed the fact that it made me think, not just about the politics, but about being a mother in this oppressive situation and the decisions I would have made for my children. Was it worth putting their lives in immediate danger to avoid the potential future consequences of staying put? I found it involving, intelligent and eerily prescient, with the ability to start a few nightmares.