The School for Good Mothers: A Read with Jenna Pick

Heavy. Haunting.The School For Good Mothers, though dystopian fiction, really highlights the ways in which motherhood can be judged and dismissed. Mothers are expected to be perfect all the time, but the reality of motherhood can be isolating, exhausting, and overwhelming.In this story, our MC Frida is deemed a bad mom by social services and her 2 year old daughter is removed from her care. Frida is placed in a year-long motherhood training program where her decisions and actions are monitored and scrutinized alongside a group of other bad moms. They are degraded and dehumanized, forced to relearn how to feel in talk circle, graded on their parenting styles, and ultimately denied the right to be with their own children.The book focuses on the pressure mothers face to give up their identity to be “good moms”, and I think it is an unfair expectation that hits too close to home. A country that doesn’t support motherhood should not have the right to control it.As a mother, this book really resonated with me and left me feeling disturbed and outraged. It’s a scary idea that the government can step in to decide what makes you a good or bad mother. This book demonstrates the danger of letting government draw that line for us.

This is a fascinating, in depth examination of authoritarianism, xenophobia, female oppression and motherhood. The more rigid and hateful the US government becomes under Trump’s greedy grasp, the less dystopian this brilliant novel seems to be.i am eager to read Jessamine Chan’s next book!

This book does some things right: it's an interesting concept, emotionally gripping and it's quite funny in parts. It also illuminates--in a hyperbolic way--the impossible standards to which mothers are held. However, it needed better editing both for length/pace and to ground the narrative. The story is extremely dystopian without mentioning the date or giving any hints at historical or future context, so it feels disorienting to read. I realize that may be the point, but having experience working in the child welfare system, it's strange to read such an inaccurate portrayal of how it operates without some indication of this happening in another time. If the story was meant to be rooted in concern about any present political or cultural shifts, that could have been made clear. Ultimately, the book just depicts an alternate universe without any reference points to ground it, and at the same time, it depicts present day Philadelphia very accurately, which makes it feel even stranger. It's important to know this book could be triggering for mothers, especially new mothers. I don't say that lightly as I rarely struggle with dark material, but the story is incredibly sad, rage-inducing and stressful.

Characters are relatable and interesting. The writing is wonderful but the book is really hard to read. I kept bouncing between two distracting ideas. (1) The story is completely impossible in the inplausible sense—no government could fund this, no staff could enforce a system like this for a year, no judges would be this clueless/heartkess. I mean where is the press in all of this? Especially after the suicides? Then (2) the other thought is that its completely impossble in the unthinkable sense—the horrors happening to these families are crimes against humanity that demand outrage and justice. Having subjected myself to the despair and depravity of this world, I feel like I should at least have been rewarded with a point, a moral or maybe even a glimmer of hope…but no. Not getting any of that. That said, I will look for other books by this author.

Repeat after me, "I'm a bad grandma, but I'm learning to be good".If this book wasn't so well written I would have put it down after chapter 1. However, the author is clearly gifted and she kept me going to the very end, despite the fact that it literally gave me nightmares. I'm often haunted by the mistakes I've made with my own children over the years, and even now with my grandchild. But for the grace of the benevolent universe, I would have been one of the mothers in this book. It was difficult to read, but I can't stop thinking about it. In some way it is helping me to forgive myself for the things I could have done better.

I am trying to push myself to read new types of books. I love literary fiction so this fit the bill—-even with the dystopian feel.There was so much that was hard to digest and read—but I do think I’m still glad I gave this book a shot. It was a lot to think about.SPOILERI would have given it a higher rating but the ending felt rushed and unclear. I don’t think Will would have actually left Frida alone with Harriet at the house. And then…I could not figure out what the deal was with the picture and the ending, etc. I had to look up stuff on Goodreads and Google to get clarity.

I hated this book. The only reason I finished it was because it was picked as the choice for our book club. It is a dystopian example of parenting and being judged as a parent. I felt furious through the entire book because of the injustice and misogyny. If I hadn’t been reading it for book club, I would have put it down after the first chapter. I gave it three stars because it was well written and definitely elicited emotion. It was one of the most depressing books I have read in a long time. With all of the horrible things happening in our world today this book was anything but an escape.

While i don’t think anything precisely like this could ever happen, it’s a harrowing tale of government overreach. If you added in a bit of artificial intelligence, it could start looking like some plausible future.The protagonist was a bit annoying as she goes back and forth from minimizing her actions (which were not ok), to berating herself, yet, never seems to have true insight. That left her feeling a bit shallow which is why i took one star off.Still, it was an entertaining read.

I began this novel because Jenna Hager recommended it. And beware, there may be some ***spoilers*** in this review.The beginning was sadly realistic, with the main character having a REALLY BAD day. Mom's have THE HARDEST job in the world. AND they make mistakes. This book magnifies the huge mistakes and minimizes the good qualities of this Mom. I'm not condoning her behavior. It almost reminded me of a futuristic novel as to how society will be in 50 yrs.What i didnt particulrly like-The "retraining" this school put Frida & many other Moms through was arduous, demeaning, oftentimes cruel and horrendous. But they formed friendships that helped them endure all of that. The AI children they're asked to mother was bizarre; but the way our world is moving I can see this happening as well. As can happen in any relationship, divides form and awful things happen.The reason I liked this book was because of the ending. One could say this was the REAL Frida- one who who reaches the end of her rope,reaches the place of no return and makes one last ditch attempt at having her daughter. Or one could say it was Frida showing the excitement, spirit, resilience, and how Mom's will stop at NOTHING to keep them from being their child...... just my food for thoughtI'm sure there are many other themes I missed or looked over (womens empowerment & place in work & family, or the mental health crisis and its orogins- through DNA or societal,- also how women are still marginalized. It also could refer to the inadequate state our justice system is in, etc). I could sense the author trying to be neutral and wrote about all of these topics.Love to know what everyone else thinks!

So as broken as our juvenile court system is I liked the idea of a total revamp. The partnering and sponsoring with a large tech company feels plausible. So here’s where it doesn’t feel real at all. With so many dire transgressors in the system why would you chose to have these women? With no proof? Then why was there no oversight, the ability to change on a whim, and no transparency. What child psychologist would ever think it was best for children to not be able to see or talk to their mother? I could go on and on. I did think the writing was good and the story was interesting enough that I HAD to finish. Also, the ending was unexpected for me.

I really wanted to like this book. In fact, I liked the first chapter or two and I enjoyed the writing throughout the book; that’s what kept me from abandoning it. However, as someone who works “in the system,” I just couldn’t suspend my disbelief. It was utterly implausible what happened to the main character. I don’t want to ruin this for anyone so I won’t give anything away, but, there is no way funding would be available for the type of program the author has the main character in. Also, in my experience, again, not to give anything away, but the system is intent on educating parents so that they can be reunited with there children. They try in every which way to have the child go back with the parent—-sometimes this is not in the best interest for the child but definitely the state intends for families to be together. So, The School for Good Mothers has a good premise but I feel loses a lot in fantasizing about what CPS and remediation would look like if there actually was funding for a monumental “experimental” program in the book. If you are looking for a fantasy read, this is it. I thought there would be a sci fy twist, that’s how outrageous some of the book seemed to me and actually, that would have been welcomed. The writing is very good, descriptions mixed with dialogue so I do give this book 3 stars.

I read this book from start to finish in one sitting. Once I’d read the first chapter I was unable to put it down. The series of events that leads this mother to be separated from her daughter Harriet, an 18 month old toddler, the punishment in which she is ordered to endure by the authorities in order to ever see her baby again is absolutely devastating and several times it was beyond difficult to finish reading what she was enduring let alone process it. This is an extremely eye opening experience that certainly deserves to be shared and appreciated as one can undoubtedly determine the outrageous boundaries from which authorities have no regard for, that circumstances are not all the same nor are choices or situations from which others choose from. Individual rights and responsibilities must be taken into consideration when assessing a mothers rights to raising her child and I’ve always been wholeheartedly supportive with the mothers having the custodial time and rights but the courts aren’t always fair in their decisions or handling individual cases such as ensuring these mothers have access to all resources necessary to support their child and themselves while raising them without the financial resources needed and the financial resources they had once available to them when together with the other parent. If her finances are halved or altogether taken away it makes a very stressed and impossibly impoverishing lifestyle and hardships that are compounded by the stress of raising children to her very best ability it is impossible to parent at best levels when extremely stressed beyond belief with financial difficulties or perhaps she is unable to find work having given her whole life to raising children and keeping household responsibilities strictly to her own responsibilities relieving the male of any external factors or pressures enabling him to be focused on only his job career and successes within his career awarding him financial compensation and stability as well as excellent credit and years of experience and participation in career development. She is not currently able to find a job that compensates her equally nor does she have the years of experience because she sacrificed everything for his betterment and her children’s lives by being at home. When the males leave I think it’s deplorable they should be considered for any kind of custodial rights until children are in teens and during academic year no sleeping outside their mothers home nor on weekends until they’ve reached high school levels. All the more, she and her children should be given the same financial compensation that they’ve always been used to and that this man can absolutely afford. Moreover, she should be given promise that he will use visitation while she’s on trainings or in school to ensure she has a career and the opportunities that her husband had solely due to her sacrifice and enabled him to work while she handled all household matters. This is one of these cases in which the male leaves her so extremely ill equipped to find substantial work, financial compensation or even the time the child care and the support system in which he received from her while he was beginning his own career in job force. He wasn’t emotionally or mentally concerned stressed or worried and distracted by raising his newborn, a toddler or any children. He didn’t need to remember or make the doctor dental and all other appointments that are necessary and required by the authorities for children to attend. This was a mother who prior to her husband leaving she had been an exemplary mother and caregiver. Had it not been the case, why 18 months later did this man wait to speak up? Perhaps she made an extremely poor choice yet why hadn’t he been held accountable for being checked out prior to this? Why not order him to provide more financially? To ensure her strength is on children not stressing about finances or shelter or job security? This book will make your heart hurt and your brain philosophize.

Trigger Warning - child abuse, child removalI literally read this book in a day. I found the book originally on my Kindle and downloaded a sample months ago, then added it to my book reading list.Frida wants to be a good mom, but like all moms, gets really stressed out. Unlike other moms, though, she leaves her 1.5 year old in an exersaucer and heads in to work. She only meant to be gone for a moment.... but it turned into more than two hours. Neighbors heard baby Harriet crying and turned her in for child neglect.Frida regrets her decision, not only for leaving her child, but also for getting caught doing so. She has to jump through CPS's many hoops, be monitored in real time through live video feed in her home, and then when the hearing comes up is sentenced to a year at the School for Good Mothers."I am a bad mother, but I am learning to be better" becomes the mantra by which Frida now lives her days. Stripped of everything making her unique, she has to relearn how to be a mother through some very harsh lessons and obey what seems to be impossible rules. She becomes a mother to an AI robot type doll the same age as her own biological child. Then, in a year, a judge will review all of the data collected, and IF she is deemed to be fit, she might get her child back.Will Frida be able to do what is necessary to regain custody of her child? Will her own upbringing hinder her progress? Will she, in the end, become a good mother?

Frida has a great life- a handsome husband she loves very much, a good job. But when Frida becomes pregnant, her husband leaves her for a much younger woman leaving Frida to have this newborn on her own, a challenging job situation, etc.In the beginning of the book, Frida is sleep deprived, behind on a work deadline and she makes the horrible choice to put her daughter Harriet in her exersaucer and run out to grab coffee and go by work to pick up a file she needs. Two hours later, the police let her know they have her daughter and she has to go through supervised visitation, cameras placed in every room of her home, constant surveillance in order for the judge to give her back shared custody of her daughter.However, when Frida finally goes before the judge months later, she is not given back any custody but is sent to a prison-like “school” for neglectful mothers for a full year. Mothers are there for not having their child’s immunization records ready for the first day of kindergarten, for babying their child too much, and the reader starts to see that the government is setting extremely strict laws about what makes a good mother.I started out despising Frida. I had no sympathy for her. I felt this book reminded me of The Handmaid’s Tale, with women given impossible laws to obey.This book was disturbing. It was like a car accident you can’t look away from. It was heavy reading. I can’t say I enjoyed it. I didn’t hate it. I struggled with this review, because I have such conflicting thoughts on the book. I gave it three stars-right down the middle.

I could not finish this book. I kept asking myself why do I care about these characters. The premise is promising but I was distracted by the vulgarity and lack of character development. As a mother I fully understand the pressure society puts on mothers to be perfect and have perfect feelings and how reality is that motherhood is a struggle and that there are not enough support systems and unrealistic social pressures. But the tone of the book is distractingly vulgar. I can do without the graphic sexuality in the first third of the book. Yes the protagonist is needy but the author fills so much time with graphic sexual description that I lost sight of the overall theme. While I get the protagonist is disheveled and her life is spiraling, the character was drifting before she became a mother. If having the child was the tipping point as opposed to the catalyst the story becomes less impactful. As a reader it’s easy to “other” this character. While I could understand the unspoken pressure that transforms new mothers, I could sympathize less with this character’s other life choices. I lost interest in the character before any momentum had been achieved in her story. Highly disappointing because I was looking for a dystopian thought-piece not seedy sexually graphic filler. Needs a new editor.

I have seen this book all over bookstagram since its release on Tuesday and had to see what all the hype was about. I really liked this book, if liked is even the right word for my feelings. This story is uncomfortable and scary, probably even more so for people who are currently parents, which I am not.Frida is a complicated character. What she does at the beginning of the book (leaving her daughter alone for over 2 hours) was absolutely, but the punishment was too extreme, in my opinion. She has complicated feelings about her ex-husband’s new girlfriend and is figuring things out in that relationship, especially when it comes to parenting her daughter, Harriet.The school that the characters are sent to is frightening, yet close enough to reality that it seems possible it could be a real place. The mothers there work with very lifelike dolls and are watched and evaluated at all times. The instructors and counselors at the program don’t really seem like they want the mothers to succeed. The mothers are able to connect and form relationships with each other. The best parts of the book were getting to see them support each other.

I've got to admit. This was hard to get through.I'm not mother, but just as a woman, this hurt. I have a few friends who work Social Work services and they often detail how physically and mentally exhausting it is, taking children from poor living situations, and truly just trying to do right by them, but they get sucked into a system that doesn't have their side, and therefore the downward spiral ensues.I really did cheer for these "bad mothers" at times, because it felt like the government was too hard on them and expected them to some 1950s version of perfect to their children. Gust was mostly blame... and I feel like he deserved more criticism, here. I mean who cheats on their pregnant wife?There isn't really a mothering school in the real world, that everyone has the financial stability to have access to, I feel like mothers learn from experiences, not AI-enhanced life-size dolls and million-dollar government rehabilitation programs. I was my parents "guinea pig child" I got bumps and scrapes along the way, but I feel like my parents and I grew together, and with every kid that came after, they got better. I know this is Science Fiction/Dystopian Fiction novel, but I just felt like those women in lab coats were so hard on some of the mothers, now yes the physical and emotional abuse is not okay, and that shouldn't be tolerated, but still.I enjoyed the book, but it made me very sad and I'm upset about Frida's outcome, because it's not looking very bright where she's headed. I'm definitely in search of a palette cleanser now.4/5 Not for the weak-minded/hearted

The premise is good: without giving away too much of the plot, women (and, to a lesser extent, men) that fail to be "good parents" are sent to an en experimental facility where they will spend a year away from their children learning how to become better. It's clearly a dystopian novel, a genre I'm quite fond of and enjoy.My problem was just how unbelievable everything was. And this comes from a reader that particularly enjoys reading science-fiction and dystopian novels. I take absolutely no issue with alternate realities, where even our wildest dreams (or nightmares) can become true. The book, however, falls short of not convincingly building a world where this insane experiment feels realistic, which makes it difficult for the reader to connect to the story.The anguish of the mother can be felt throughout the book and the infuriating circumstances she must face are depicted in all their horror, but it was hard to get into it because of how unrealistic it all felt. Found myself rushing through the middle of the book just hoping to be done with it, which is rare for me.As I said, there are some great things to it: both the beginning and end are good, the family and racial dynamics are poignantly expressed, and the anguish of our main character is clearly there. I just wished someone had done a more thorough job at editing this book, cause it could have been great.

When Jenna Bush described this book for her book club pick, it sounded interesting. However, I was not prepared for how disturbing I would find it.Let me mention the positives about the book first. It is well written and very readable. The characters are well developed, and I found myself sympathizing with them and angry on their behalf. The point of view is different - it is told through the eyes of what some would consider the “bad” character. So, it was interesting to see the situation through her actions, emotions, and desires. While this would be classified as a dystopian story, it was eerily realistic.This realism is what made it so disturbing - the overreach of government, the high tech monitoring of every aspect of your life and being, the unrealistic expectations placed on mothers, the unequal treatment of males and females, the promises made and broken, the severe judgment of one’s feelings and actions, the “brainwashing”, the loss of hope.This was an interesting book to read. It is one that will stick with me for a while.

HOLY COW! “The School for Good Mothers”, by Jessamine Chan, is a GUT-PUNCH to everyone who may be “looking away” from how authoritarian our society/government is becoming. That the author is a Chinese-American woman lends this dystopian shocker additional credibility. Could this happen here? You betcha.Set in the not-so-distant future, single-mother, Frida Liu, is having a very bad day with her toddler Harriet, who has been up all night sick and crying. She makes a horrendously bad choice to leave Harriet to go get coffee, and stays away much too long.Chan was smart to have Frida’s transgression be bad enough that the reader DOES judge her. Frida does need help and to realize how utterly inappropriate her choices were that very bad day. Frida does realize this, but it’s too late, and not enough for the “new CPS” which has established “schools” for parenting.The “school” that Frida is sent to for one year (with the hope of gaining her parental rights back at the end) is clearly a “re-education camp” run like a prison (the fence is electrified). If Frida fails to become a “good mother” within the ridged parameters of the curriculum, her parental rights will be permanently terminated and she will go on a “registry” very similar to the current sex offenders registry.Things that can land a mother in the school: failure to vaccinate your child, complaining too much on Twitter, allowing your eight-year-old walk a few block home alone from the library.The idea that “every child is different…every parent is different” is blasphemy in this super-creepy world where there is only ONE WAY to raise American children and it’s the way the government says. Chan even takes on Critical Race Theory and its ramifications.I couldn’t put this book down and I’m so glad it’s getting additional attention due to Jenna’s Book Club; its timely and important.