I admit, I got myself confused and requested this ARC thinking it was a humorous book. This wasn’t! A dystopian feminist novel, where parents are punished for bad parenting by being ‘locked up’ by the state and made to learn the correct way to parent.

Now, I love a dystopian novel, however, I found that I couldn’t engage with this book. I found myself bored and not wanting to finish (although I did persevere). I didn’t like Frieda, the main character. I found her to be spoiled and self-involved - I never felt she actually felt remorse for what she had done and seemed to blame everyone else for her mistakes.

There were hints of Handmaid’s Tale, with different classes of women, women bullying women. But it just didn’t make it.

Thank you to Netgalley for the opportunity to read this ARC.

I'm not crying you're crying!

This book outraged me as much as it broke my heart. I loved the concept and thought it was brilliant. No wonder it's classified as dystopian — at some points I felt like I was reading horror. Not in the conventional sense, but in relation to what the protagonist goes through.

Frida brought me on a rollercoaster of emotions. Sometimes I sympathised with her, sometimes she frustrated me, sometimes I judged her. I was also surprised to find that there were even times when the rehabilitation programme made sense to me despite its extremities. Truly effective storytelling and wonderful character development. It's impossible not to get attached to Emmanuelle.

The book is also a fantastic deep dive into the impossibly high standards that mothers are held to, as well as how gender, racial and cultural inequality come into play. The author seamlessly weaves Frida's immigrant experience into the story. I love how so much of everything is morally ambiguous and that the characters are grey; no one is simply good or bad.

A haunting, heartbreaking and unforgettable read.

A case of, it’s not you it’s me. Chen’s dystopia lacked enough distance from reality in the beginning chapters that prevented me from suspending my belief in reality and allowing the oddities of the somewhat alternate reality come to life

A disturbing tale, skin crawling in places but I needed it to push further into the dystopia to beleive the characters instead of just wince in frustration. The books appeal for so many will be its close ties to current life/ views of mothering / surveillance state behaviours, but unfortunately didn’t work for me.

A dystopian look at parenting. Deemed a bad mother your child is taken away from you and you undertake training to overcome your shortcomings. Disconcerting

I struggled with this book. I really wanted to like it but I found I could not engage with Frida or her ex husband.....to me neither were very likeable. Frida 'forgot' about her daughter, leaving her alone when she went to work, then spent a good part of the book whining about it. Thanks to NetGalley, the author and publisher for an arc of this book.

I thought this book was fantastic but it was not at all what I was expecting from reading the summary. It was heart-breaking and devastating to begin with and then became increasingly disturbing. I will be haunted by this story for quite some time.

Many thanks to Netgalley/Author/Publisher for an advanced copy of this book.

This book left me with some strange feelings after finishing it.

It's a somewhat disturbing, dystopian story full of tension, heartbreak and will more than likely live in your head rent-free for the foreseeable future. (it has with me anyway)

I really liked the premise of this book, and it was definitely intriguing, to say the least.

Frida was having a bad day and has now been deemed an unfit mother. (her actions were troublesome, to say the least) but being mentally unwell, she has been unable to care for her child as well as she should have done and is now having to attend school to "train" to be a better mother.

All in all, this was quite a disturbing read however I did enjoy it, and will be purchasing this when the book comes out. It's not like anything I have seen before (maybe a few parallels to the Handmaidens Tale)

The book sounded like my type of read but I was wrong. It is far more strange than I anticipated and changes location/time within the same chapter that I was left confused. Even the end of the book was odd. Think this is a love or hate book. Unfortunately I am of the later but am grateful to Netgalley for giving me the chance to read it.

I had quite a visceral reaction to The School for Good Mothers. It’s the first book in a while that has filled me with anxiety while reading, and then left me in disbelief once I’d finished. A powerful, discombobulating read, to say the least.

Dystopian in theme, it explores a not wildly outside the realms of reality situation, where mothers who are deemed bad by society / a judge are separated from their children and sent to a correction centre.

Frida Liu lives in South Philadelphia. She’s separated from her husband Gus, who is now living with Susanna, the woman he cheated on Frida with. Gus and Frida share custody of their 18-month old daughter, Harriet.

Trying to balance a job and looking after Harriet, Frida finds herself physically and mentally pushed to the edge.

Frida is not a bad mother, she is a woman who makes a mistake (leaves Harriet at home for 2 hours on her own) in a high-stress, sleep-deprived state common to parenting young children. However, she pays monumentally for it. Sent to a correction centre for a year, she is separated from her daughter while she ‘learns’ to be a good mother.

The story follows what happens to her there and if she does enough to get Harriet back…

I’m always drawn to books about motherhood. Especially ones that give a slightly different spin on the subject, as happens here.

The premise of The School for Good Mothers is very clever, playing on the stupidly high expectations on women to always excel at being the ‘perfect mother’. It shows how while trying to ‘have it all’ women are often pushed to the edge and make mistakes. Yes, some of the characters here cross the line, but some, like Frida are more victims of their situation.

As a mother, it can sometimes feel like you’re always being told what to think and feel and this book takes this concept to a disturbing place. I really felt for Frida while reading this. As well as everything that happens to her, she has to watch as her daughter forms a close bond with her step-mother, which is heartbreaking too. The School for Good Mothers made me uncomfortable, as being sent away from your child really is a nightmare scenario, but its ability to evoke that feeling means it’s a great dystopian read.

This book is interesting, thought-provoking and takes a spin into thriller territory towards the end, to sign off with an unexpected and heart-thumping finale.

Thank you for NetGalley for providing me with this book for review.
Hmm, I'm left feeling somewhat uncomfortable and slightly disturbed by this book, but that is down to the imagination and skills of the writer. In time it's probably going to be one of those Marmite books, some people will love and some will hate it. Personally it's left an lasting impression on me, I'm going to be thinking about the content for many days to come.

💭 Ever read a book and thought W-T-F? I’m not sure how I felt about this book. A disturbing dystopian world 🤯 After being deemed an unfit mother by the government, Frida now has to attend THE SCHOOL FOR GOOD MOTHERS, where she will be watched + reformed. Will she ever get her daughter back? 😬

The premise was intriguing + promising but I did find the book slow and repetitive, and it took some dark turns. I’m not even sure how I’d rate this one!

Every mother has a bad day….

Frida Liu is struggling as a mother. She makes a terrible mistake… she leaves her baby daughter Harriet alone in the house one morning to go grab some important work documents. What harm will half an hour be? Frida is reported to the State who deem her unfit to have shared custody of her daughter with her ex-husband. If she ever wants to see Harriet again, she must re-train to be the perfect mother. But can she succeed?

This is Chan’s debut novel and it is a hard-hitting dystopian story full of tension, heart break and will undoubtedly leave you in pieces (or tears in my case)! It hit hard for me as a mother as I think we all struggle to be the ‘perfect’ parent who can do everything and deal with all the craziness that is having a child. Told from the perspective of Frida, you can’t help but feel sorry for her (although the act of leaving her baby on her own is clearly deplorable). Frida is lost as a mother and a person and her mental health is suffering from the blow of the break up of her marriage after her husband has an affair. Chan has created a very realistic and flawed protagonist with Frida and I really enjoyed seeing how she develops as a character in this story.

There are major Handmaid’s Tale parallels in Chan’s novel; the school that the mothers are brought to for ‘re-training’ and the pink lab coat-clad women who observe the women’s actions and constantly have them repeat a negative mantra is at times painful to read. These women are treated as pariahs, outcasts and themes of racism, privilege and sexism are masterfully threaded throughout the story by Chan. Don’t get me started on the dolls (I won’t spoil anything for you but it’s weird, disturbing and really unsettling to read about). There are many occasions where my blood literally boiled at the things the women were forced to do or say- it’s brain-washing and mind control at its finest and the women are always made to take the full blame. There is a constant sense of hopelessness throughout the story that never waivers and the ending left me speechless and an emotional wreck.

A chilling and disturbing read on the pressures of motherhood and parenting, Chan has created a story that will stay with you for a long time. I’m looking forward to Chan’s future books as this was a stunning debut for me! 4 stars

Thank you to NetGalley and publishers for the ARC. The School For Good Mothers is out on the 3rd of March.

"The School for Good Mothers" is a disturbing dystopian novel about a new mother, Frida, caring for her daughter while working full time and grieving for her marriage which has recently ended., her husband having left her for a much younger woman. She lives in an unfamiliar city without any supports, and makes a reckless decision to leave her baby alone for an afternoon. Her neighbours hear baby Harriet cry and call social services. Frida's ex husband and his new partner get custody of Harriet while Frida is placed under government surveillance. She is made undergo a year long residential course at a camp for bad mothers or risk permanently losing her daughter.
I found this a difficult novel to read, much like Margaret Atwood's ""The Handmaid's Tale" , where women are controlled and separated from their children. I put it down many times after feeling uneasy reading it. That being said it is well written and researched. It deals with racism, classism and child welfare albeit with a touch of sci-fi, a stunning debut novel that is sure to become a literary classic.

I really wish I could have enjoyed this book as much as other readers did. I have read other dystopian novels but this one just didn't grab me. I couldn't relate to the main character Frida, her attitude annoyed me, I didnt feel she felt contrite about her abandonment of her Daughter. Having said that I did feel for her about the attitude of the social worker assigned to her case.
Fans of The Handmaid's Tale will probably love this novel

The School for Good Mothers is a scary, almost dystopian, story about new controls and punishments given to parents who are deemed to have ‘mistreated’ their child. Frida is being sent to a training school for mothers for 1 year because she left her 2 year old alone for over an hour. Fellow mothers have been incarcerated for abandonment or neglect or abuse or simply allowing their child to walk down the block alone. Frida has to complete the training program and then be assessed to determine whether she can be reunited with her child or whether she will lose her parental rights forever. The story examines how much parenting should be policed and what makes a good parent. The premise is brilliant and I could not put it down despite finding the subject matter painful, sometimes hopeless, infuriating and enraging and uncomfortable. Sexism, racism, class, mental health issues and emotional abuse are all examined in this story that is perfect for fans of ‘The Handmaid’s Tail’ and ‘The Power’. It will stay with me for a long time.

I'm absolutely speechless. "The School for Good Mothers" is one of the most affecting and heart-wrenching novels I have ever read. It's rare for a book to make me cry; I can think of maybe three in my lifetime, and the last one was at least two years ago. Until this novel, which made me cry more than any other, and multiple times. I just cried again whie summarisig the plot for my husband! Anyway, don't take my word for it: go read it. It's a masterpiece, and I highly recommend it. Five stars.

I couldn't finish this book. I felt nothing for Frida or Gust. I thought the book dragged and the use of tense made it difficult to read.

Thank you to the publisher for my eARC copy of this book. Unfortunately I didn’t love this book and therefore didn’t finish, I just didn’t connect with this one. Not for me, sorry.

The central character of this debut novel is Frida Liu, thirty-nine years old and divorced. Husband Gust, a landscape architect, left Frida when their baby daughter, Harriet, was only three months old and has remarried the pretty, younger and capable, Susanna, more than a decade younger than Frida. As Gust did not earn a great deal, Frida leant heavily on her parents, but is now working again and has joint custody of their daughter.

This begins with a call from the police saying, “We have your daughter.” Frida, exhausted and stressed about work, her lack of sleep exacerbated by Harriet having an ear infection, has what is described as a lapse of judgement or a very bad day. The central problem I found with this novel was that, despite the circumstances, this lack of judgement was a pretty unforgiveable – and unnecessary - one. Had the author thought of a better reason for Frida to have done what she did or had her accused of something she actually hadn’t done, it might have worked better for me. Frida’s excusing of her behaviour left me feeling frustrated, and angry, rather than sympathetic of her. My own children are older now, but I was pretty neurotic when they were little, so perhaps I was the wrong audience for this book, to be fair.

Anyway, Frida is sent off for rehabilitation to prove she is able to safely see her child again. Despite the dystopian setting, I found the book wearing, Frida – although her cultural musings and the pressure on women to be good mothers were interesting enough – unsympathetic, whiny and constantly expecting people to accept her excuses as valid, when they really weren’t. It was an interesting premise, and well written, but I found the central character and central event of the book left me unable to engage. I received a copy of this book from the publisher, via NetGalley, for review.

So chilling and well-written; very much for fans of The Handmaid's Tale, but definitely more inclusively written with the author considering class and race as well as womanhood. I was so upset by the ending but in the best way!