A chaotic story about an equally chaotic single mother, Florence, whose son is implicated in the kidnapping of a class mate on a school trip. Florence is a bit of a train wreck and difficult to empathise with and although I didn’t hate her, it made the story a bit heavy going at times. Probably a bit of a marmite book to be honest.

Thanks to NetGalley for the advance copy of this book to review.

I wasn't sure I'd like this one but it was witty, mysterious, and a good read. I liked seeing Florence's progression throughout the book and I would read another book by Harman again!

Many thanks to NetGalley, 4th Estate | Fourth Estate and the author for the ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review.

As an avid music lover, I was intrigued by the summary. The main character was very unlikable, but in Florence's defence, she's been through a lot. She used to be a pop star but couldn't make it; she used to be a wife but couldn't make it - neither of those were really her fault, but as usual, there was a MAN. So all she wants is to keep going with her little balloon business and take her son to school. However, what ends up happening is that she has no choice but to become an amateur sleuth to save her son from having committed a serious crime. But did he, though?

We have a missing boy from a rich family, and everybody is losing their minds about it, and Florence happens to find that the last person who had seen the boy was her son. Not only that, but she also finds the lost boy's backpack in her son's room. Now Florence has no choice, does she?

What follows is a hilarious narrative of a woman trying to make sure that she saves her son! All while making friends for the first time, actually starting to care about things, and unravelling a lot of things she never thought she would. This was dark, hilarious, and funny in a way that you cannot help but root for the main character even though she is possibly doing everything wrong.

Comical amateur sleuthing
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Florence is probably on her third or even fourth act in life, and she’s only 31. Daughter, pop-star, wife (briefly), mother (more than ten years), washed-up pop star (too long): what’s next? As it turns out, mother is right at the forefront but also amateur sleuth: on a school field trip, the boy Florence’s son was partnered with vanishes, the finger of suspicion falls on her son. So Florence rolls up her sleeves and gets to work with her wholly non-existent detective skills, but aided by an Asian Tiger Mom (why?) and her buff upstairs neighbour, she starts pulling at strings until the whole thing starts to unravel; however, has Florence bitten off more than she can chew?

Do not come expecting a lot of the other mothers in the title: it’s almost mis-sold, given that there’s more on the unsuitable men in her life, as well as one potentially suitable one, and the significant help of one of the other mothers, a relationship that comes with its own dramas. The school run stuff is almost by the by, since the book really only focuses on three mothers (Florence, her friend, the lost boy’s mum), and there’s some underhanded financial stuff at the school. Instead, stay for the comical (but not outright guffawing) shenanigans as Florence blunders her way through.

👩‍👧 All the Other Mothers Hate Me by Sarah Harman started off strong, and I really enjoyed the first half. Sadly, the second half didn’t quite live up to my expectations. A 3⭐️ read with a promising start but a disappointing finish.

#BookReview #AllTheOtherMothersHateMe #SarahHarman #ThreeStarRead #FamilyDrama #BookstagramUK

Definitely a solid debut! Whilst our main character is definitely unlikeable and you may not be rooting for her throughout it was packed full of twists, turns and plenty of questionable decision making. 3.5 rounded up.

Thank you to netgalley for providing an ecopy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Our main character in this book is struggling through life and things get worse when her a child goes missing and she fears that her own child might have had something to do with it. The whole point of this book is that our main character is unlikeable however sometimes I did find her choices a bit questionable. Having said that it was a fun ride to be on.

Sharp, addictive, and darkly funny 🎭. All The Other Mothers Hate Me captures the competitive, anxiety-inducing world of modern motherhood with biting wit and razor-sharp observations. Sarah Harman expertly peels back the polished surface of playdates and school gates to reveal the insecurities and rivalries lurking beneath. I was completely hooked by the drama, the humour, and the relatable portrayal of feeling like an outsider. A clever, page-turning read for anyone who enjoys smart, socially observant fiction with a twist.

I picked this up expecting a fun read with a hint of mystery, and that’s exactly what I got. It’s not super heavy on the thriller aspect and pretty lighthearted read, exactly what I was looking for! I really enjoyed reading this book, it was entertaining from page one and a very fast paced read. The main character is just absolutely chaotic and her story is so entertaining to follow, though I wanted to yell at her a couple of times for the decisions she makes. This was hard to put down, a book full of humour with a side of mystery thriller. I’m not sure bow realistic this was when it comes to the legal process, but I didn’t mind one bit while reading it and just let myself get pulled into Florence playing detective while somehow managing to create an ever bigger mess of her life.

I have mixed feelings about All the Other Mothers Hate Me as I enjoyed the first half but the plot became increasingly chaotic and lacked any cohesion so that I completely lost interest. The main character, Florence, is living chaotically after her career in a girl band fell apart. She adores her son Dylan and is determined to prove his innocence after a boy goes missing from his elite London school. It’s set in the world of the upper classes and Florence an outsider, is an unsympathetic and selfish character. I enjoyed her relationship with Jenny, another mum on the outside of the clique but even this couldn’t save the increasingly ridiculous plot.
Many thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the opportunity to read and review this digital ARC.

You know as soon as you read the title of this book that Florence, our main mother, is going to be absolute chaos. She’s unreliable, she’s selfish and very immature. Not exactly a likeable MC. But she loves her 10 year old son, Dylan and would do absolutely anything she can for him. Which is why, when he is the prime suspect in the disappearance of a classmate, she will go to any length necessary to clear his name.

I loved the premise of this book and I especially loved Florence’s blossoming friendship with Jenny Choi, a new mum at the school. Because…well…all the other mothers hate her. But, I just found Florence’s constant thoughtlessness really frustrating. For example, she left her 10 year old son at home alone while she could go on a date.

Yup.

Most of the events were entertaining and I could get on board with them for the purpose of her whole state of being but leaving her little boy alone at home at night for something as trivial as a date just contradicted everything I understood about how much she loved her son. If that doesn’t annoy you as much as it annoys me, you will probably love this one a lot more than I did.

Sadly this book I had to throw in the towel at 50% I no longer cared about the plot I do think this book is marmite

When Florence was just about to launch a pop career with her girl band, she finds herself pregnant. Unceremoniously dumped following Dylan's birth, she has to put all her dreams behind her. Dylan is her whole world now.

Fast forward ten years and Florence can't be said to be living her best life. Fuelled by energy drinks and simply trying to make ends meet, she is lonely and feels out of place with the other mothers at Dylan's prep school. A school Dylan's father insisted he attend.

Following a school field trip, Dylan's nemesis Alfie goes missing. Having had a previous altercation, Florence questions whether Dylan knows more than he's telling her, a suspicion that becomes more concrete when she finds Alfie's backpack hidden under Dylan's bed.

Teaming up with a fellow American mum living in London, Florence and Jenny begin their own investigation. And it will lead to far darker discoveries that put lives at risk.

Smart, acerbic and flawed, Florence was a fantastic leading character. The story was dramatic and entertaining with twists and turns that ensure the reader keeps turning the pages to discover the truth.

Florence Grimes stood poised on the brink of greatness; she had the looks, the voice, the fame and the money. Then she got pregnant, got dumped, and quickly found herself depressed, unemployed and alone - apart from a newborn son and a teenage sister forced to take care of them both. Ten years later, Florence feels stuck. She adores her son, Dylan, but worries about his lack of friends, while she feels isolated among the married, fabulously wealthy mothers at the exclusive private school Dylan's father insisted on funding. And, with thoughts of a triumphant musical comeback seeming more and more far-fetched as she drifts through her thirties, Florence is painfully aware that her life has no particular purpose. That is until an uber-rich classmate of Dylan's goes missing on a school trip, and Dylan is implicated in his disappearance. Now Florence must rediscover the drive that once propelled her into a moderately successful mid-tier girl band in order to find Alfie Risby and save her son.

If you're looking for an easy beach read which combines rich people behaving badly with a light mystery and a touch of pathos and social commentary, then you may well enjoy Sarah Harman's debut novel.

Florence is an undeniably tragic character, and her impulsive, irresponsible behaviour is no doubt rooted in her childhood trauma. Forced to grow up far too early in order to care for her sister while their erratic mother worked all hours in an effort to prevent them from slipping further into poverty, she has never had a model of a consistent, reliable parent, or even a healthy, functioning adult, so is it any wonder that she struggles to be these things herself? She is also a haunting reminder of the way in the which the media - and society - treated young women in the 2000s; she has absorbed the message that her value is in her attractiveness according to horrifyingly rigid metrics to such an extent that she cannot see what else she might be capable of.

All that said, she is still incredibly frustrating and hard to root for, especially when her actions put innocent people in harm's way with no real repercussions or character development. No wonder all the other mothers hate her! Even the title is a perfect reflection of her tendency to blame other people for things not going her way rather than taking literally any accountability. The other characters are thinly drawn (perhaps reflecting Florence's self-absorption, as we only see them from her perspective), making it difficult to speculate about their motives or possible involvement in Alfie's disappearance. I would have preferred it if the author had included chapters from some of the other mothers' points of view as a counterpoint to Florence. Even Dylan, the son whom Florence would do anything for (apart from arrange a suitable babysitter when she wants to head off for another bleak night out), is not so much a character as a collection of identifiers: vegan; eco warrior; loner. Thus, it is difficult for the reader to speculate on whether or not he is capable of harming his classmate. Meanwhile, the friendship between Florence and Jenny (the other American mother who doesn't quite fit in) never feels fleshed out enough for the conflict between them to carry any believable emotional weight.

Despite focusing on the disappearance of a child, All the Other Mothers Hate Me feels decidedly frothy and low stakes. I never felt that Alfie was in serious jeopardy and, because the plot relies on Florence being preposterously oblivious to suspicious behaviour and things that don't quite add up, any big reveals come many pages after the reader has already figured out for themselves what is going on. I think the author was aiming for a humorous tone, but I never really found Florence's chaos amusing.

Harman makes some astute observations about celebrity culture, class and school run politics, but ultimately I found Florence's character too off-putting and dimwitted to overlook, and the ending is both tonally dissonant and even more unlikely than the events which precede it.

Finally, Dylan's pet Greta is very clearly a tortoise! Why does everyone, including the English characters, insist on referring to her as a turtle?

Thank you to NetGalley and 4th Estate for the opportunity to read and review an ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review.

The first thing that attracted me to this book was the title.
This debut novel offers drama, mystery, humour and much more. At times I felt like the story was progressing really slow, but midway it picked up the pace again. If you like mysteries with unlikeable main characters, this might be the book for you.

📖 Synopsis: Florence is a 31-year-old American single mom living with her 10-year-old son (Dylan) in Britain. She is broke, immature and pretty unreliable, and none of the other mothers at Dylan's school like her. When a boy in Dylan's class disappears and she suspects Dylan might have had something to do with it, Florence decides to protect her son at all costs.

Not for me - too over the top, jumping on the Motherland chaotic/scummy mummy trend and lacking in cohesion.

This is a book you are either going to love or you are going to hate - I've got my feet in both camps so it's a 3/5 from me! On one hand the storyline was very interesting and kept you captivated as Florence and Jenny tried to figure things out... but on the other hand, it did sound like a load of waffle at times that was only there to fill up the pages.

Super relatable and very funny, would definitely recommend as an easy read with some laugh out loud bits. Thanks to Fourth Estate, Sarah Harman and NetGalley for the ARC.

This was a witty and entertaining read! The Fmc was an unhinged mess but she had her reasons! Can’t wait to read more from this author.

Florence is a single mother raising her son, Dylan, while juggling a chaotic life filled with balloon arches, unsuitable dates, and the judgment of other school mums. When a boy goes missing during a field trip, Florence is thrown into a whirlwind of suspicion after discovering the boy’s rucksack in her son’s bedroom. Is Dylan involved? She sets out to find answers, uncovering secrets and facing several unexpected twists along the way.
While the plot is entertaining, I struggled to connect with Florence as a character. The story is packed with a large cast, making it a bit challenging to keep track of everyone, and some of Florence’s parenting choices felt questionable, pushing the limits of believability at times.