The Mother Fault by Kate Mildenhall is about a wife who risks everything to go in search of her missing husband. The book's setting is futuristic but the challenges and emotions in the book are relatable. Mim, Ben, and their two children live in a dystopian society where their every move is monitored. Ben works away from home and when he fails to return home with no explanation, Mim decides to search for him. The story gets complicated by the fact that all the citizens have been inserted with a chip to control their movements. Mim with her two children in tow and the help of family members whose lives have been put at risk with her contact make this book a gripping thriller. I find the book both engaging and inspiring as we follow Mims' quest to find answers to her husband's disappearance.

This one was a little bit slow to get going but once i was in I was hooked. When they were on the boat, I was incredibly tense reading through the pages - there were so many worrying moments - Nick's foot, the football overboard and then when they arrived in Indonesia ...
The revelation about her husband at the end was really good and when her kids went missing I felt as stressed as she did.
It felt quite chilling to be reading the book in these current times and I loved the setting - Australia and Indonesia. While this did feel very bleak in parts, the writer had a really captivating writing style and she is definitely one I will be watching in future.

The story is set in Australia a little in the future where everyone had been, microchipped to keep them safe. The only drawback with it is the government has everyone under surveillance 24 hours day. Anyone found to be disobeying the rules is placed in camps.


When Mim’s husband goes missing while working away in Indonesia, she feels like the walls are closing in on them. Her husband hasn’t been in touch, and she feels that time for her and her children is running out. Mim removes their microchips, and they set off to find out what has happened to him before it is too late, and they disappear as well.


It is a massive road and sea journey, where at times, it is a matter of joining under the radar to avoid detection while at others being larger than life to be passed by. I enjoyed the second half of the book the best, the sea journey. I felt the characters were well developed, especially how the children reacted to situations.


I liked how the characters changed and grew through the story, adapting to situations and gaining confidence. Mim wasn’t the most likeable character, act first think later, but she did make it reading.

I wish to thank Net Galley and the publisher for an e-copy of this book which I have reviewed honestly.

The Mothers fault by Kate Mildenhall is set in Australia in the near future. The country suffering from the effects of climate change and they are microchipped so they can easily be tracked down.
Mim lives with her two children and her husband Ben works for the Golden Arc in Indonesia. When an explosion erupts at the mines he is working at and he is declared missing. So instead waiting for news of his whereabouts Mim set of with her children to go to find him. At first, she gets rid of her chip with the help of a friend and then goes and visits her mother to tell her what she is doing. Whilst she is there, she meets her old boyfriend Nick, and he offers to help her get to Indonesia with the help of his boat the Sandfly. But things don’t go smoothly along the way.
Thank you NetGalley and Harper Collins for a copy of this book. I was looking forward to reading this due to the blurb. This is a beautifully written dystopian novel set in Australia which I did enjoy the first part of this book but I found it hard to connect to the characters and the ending didn’t live up to the hype of the rest of the book. Three stars from me.

This has a lot of promising ingredients, but somehow the final result doesn't quite hit the spot for me.

Set in a near-future dystopia where the sinister 'Department' controls everything from movement to information, The Mother Fault is part spy thriller and part family drama. It's a solid and popular concept, but unfortunately neither part seems fully explored, and I'm left with a rather unsatisfied feeling, despite the high drama of the final few chapters. The ending is one of the weaker parts of the novel - the journey across the sea is quite thrilling, but I did get the feeling after they landed that the author perhaps shared the feeling of the main character, Mim: now what?

One element that I did really like was the dynamic between Mim and her two children, Essie and Sam. The kids - roughly 11 and 6 years old - are realistically endearing and irritating, fluctuating between eye-rolling pretension and sweet vulnerability, a confused and roiling mass of "I hate you", "I love you", "I need you" and "leave me alone". 'The mother fault', indeed.

3.5 stars

Thanks to HarperCollins and NetGalley for the ARC.

This is not my normal kind of book but it looked interesting.

A dystopian thriller set in the future in Australia.

The book was easy to read but quite slow. Enjoyable and very different to what I normally read

This is a book set in the future and what if mode. In this book babies are chipped when born and adults are chipped if they want to but are normally forced to do so. This enables the government, police and any other alphabet agency know your movements and what you are up to. A husband disappears and a mother and two children set out to find him, getting their chips removed illegally with horrific consequences. A book that can grip you and draw you in. Good read

As I started reading this book I had really high hopes. I thought I was going to get a story full of suspense. A story set in future Australia, where global warming has taken its toll on the earth. Mim, along with her two children, goes in search of her husband her who has gone missing whilst working abroad. But far from being full of suspense it meandered quietly along. The finale of the book seemed really rushed and was a real anticlimax.

Set in Australia in a dystopian future, Mim’s husband has gone missing and she must do everything in her power to keep her children safe from the powers of government.

A bit of an insight into a potential future reality, where there is no control of what the human race can and cannot do. Controlled only by the power of the government, that track and control our every movement with attempts to break away are savagely dealt with.

Could we be facing a reality like this? It seems all to likely that this may be the future for us and our future generations.

I actually rather enjoyed this novel, a little different to what I would usually read. But it really got me thinking about alternative realities.

This book is one set in the future with an edge of scifi but not so unrealistic of far in technology from what we migh imagine will be our world during our lifetime. With that in mind and our current world predicament, i found this rather chilling and rediculously realistic. The whole issue of climate change is one which we will need to face with more force in the coming few years and the thoughts of land distruction as portrayed in this novel are all too possibly too likely.
The plot was quite complex to understand at the start as the reader is unaware of the rules of this future society. Indeed so are the characters! I'm not sure i could say I enjoyed my reading experience..... Overall I found this read rather too close to realism to just be an enjoyable thriller and yet it has that element too. Well done to Kate for getting such a balance.

Started off well and then I struggled as I started to find the main character annoying. Left open so wondering if there will be a sequel. Not sure I would read it.

A dystopian novel, with the feel of 1984 about it, this was fast paced and despite not overly liking the main character Mim I still found myself wanting her to succeed. A great book that makes you think about what you would do.

I really enjoyed this book.

The premise is so different to any other book I’ve read and the writer makes it real by including every day events and family like to make it plausible.

Well written and exciting.

The setting in Australia is wonderful. It shows how even in sparsely populated vast areas are the only place one can escape fleetingly a controlling regime.
I truly rooted for this mother despite the fact that she endangers friends and family in her quest to find answers and her missing spouse, 2hilst fleeing with her difficult kids.
I received a free copy from the publishers of this book and my only niggle is how a novice ends up in such a short time able to navigate and sail a small vessel with no real assistance across a dangerous ocean... as a qualified sailing crew this jars.
Despite this minor point the story is well written and gripping.

Loved the blurb, loved the idea, a dystopian thriller set in the future. Mim’s husband is missing. No one knows where Ben is, but everyone wants to find him – especially The Department. And they should know, the all-seeing government body has fitted the entire population with a universal tracking chip to keep them ‘safe’. Sounds very intriguing and just the thing I would enjoy

However about 3-4 chapters in, it went a bit wrong for me, there's so many flashbacks you don't know if you're coming or going. If the story just keep rolling forward it would have been fine. They were useful at the very beginning, but after that you had no idea where were with it. One minute Mim is an adult, then a child and then an adult again all in the same chapter. I ended up not caring is Mim found her husband or not because it made me switch off.

I would have enjoyed it but for the numerous flashbacks, they became too distracting, The mother of all faults with this book for me was the flashbacks, otherwise an an entertaining storyline.

I can’t say I particularly enjoyed this book. Based on a theory of what would happen if we are totally controlled by our governments. I suppose some would say we already are. A hint of 1984 and Big Brother about it. Mim’s husband who is working away on a project goes missing. Rather than wait for news and do as she’s told, Mim takes her children on a journey to find Ben. Trying to stay one step in front of The Department causes more problems than solutions and she quickly finds herself in deep water. Literally. I didn’t particularly like the character of Mim who seemed quite selfish and therefore could not warm to her. A long, long journey and a rushed conclusion with unanswered questions left me slightly disappointed.

Well this book is a bit different. Not what I expected at all. That’s not to say I didn’t enjoy it. I did enjoy it very much. Set in Australia and the Southern Hemisphere in a dystopian future where the new way of life has crept up on everyone so slowly that it happened before they realised it. Makes you think.

Kate Mildenhall is one to watch in the future.

This book started off with dystopian elements and reminded me of Orwell's 1984. Half-way in, the theme shifts completely and the dystopian element is almost completely abandoned.

There were also a lot of unnecessary themes and topics explored on the side which did not contribute to the plot at all - the most frustrating one being the excessive detail on how to sail a yacht. The author did her research, but we do not need to see it all or be so thoroughly convinced, seeing as this is supposed to be a fictional work and not a manual. I also disliked how crude this book was, and the excessive, unnecessary swearing that makes its way out of the speech of the characters and into the narrative and description of the story itself.

I cannot recommend this book enough!!! A dystopian story that keeps you gripped from start to finish, superbly written, absolutely fantastic read

I was invited to read this book by the publisher but the amount of swearing
put me off and I gave up on it.