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A review by presleymarie85
Motherthing by Ainslie Hogarth
3.0
This is a weird one for sure. I think it is a solid 3 star "I liked it book", but not loved it.
Labeled as "horror" but it reads more as an over the top fiction. What really drew me to this book was the cover. It is rich and vibrant and based off the 3 pictures on the cover, you are compelled to read the synopsis, which in itself is intriguing. A dead mother in law haunting not only her daughter in law, but her beloved son, and who is refusing to leave their basement. Who doesn't love the concept of the evil mother law plot, we have seen so many films and books with this plot made. Personally I have a very loving mother in law, whom I enjoy and love dearly, but for my sister in law, my mother is that mother in law who would haunt her. So of course I had to read this!
From the start you meet Abby who has not had a loving relationship with her own mother, and her husband Ralph who very much is the apple of his mothers eye. So when Ralph's mother hits a rough patch in her life, Abby is more than willing to help and give that love she so desperately wants to give to a mother figure. But Laura rejects that love leaving Abby frustrated and rejected. Laura comes to a quick demise leaving Ralph in a spiral of all too consuming grief, and Abby desperately trying to save her husband and pull him out of his depression. But the ghost of Laura has come to stay in their basement and will not leave until Abby feeds Ralph a meal that is up to her standards of love, or she will leave with Ralphs life.
There are not really any likeable characters in Mothering. Abby is desperate and needy craving attention from a woman that clearly rejects her and feeds into her insecurities. But she also causes a lot of her own problems. There are just so many unspoken rules in life. We all just know you don't disrespect a grave, you don't disrespect the dead, and you NEVER steal off a dead body. So if I was Laura I would haunt Abby too for stealing my ring off my barely cold dead finger! Ralph is a little more likeable but is such a background character that all you really know about him is he loves his mother and has a severe history of family depression. Laura is just Laura. She hangs out in the basement, appears as a hazy figure to Ralph and a voice to haunt Laura.
The first three quarters of the Mothering were engaging, but I am not gonna lie to the reader of this review, the last 30 pages I just skimmed because I was just over it. Even by skimming, you get the gist of the conclusion to Mothering.
Sometimes it pays to judge a book by its cover, and other times despite the vivid and rich cover, it doesn't. I would recommend this book to someone who isn't looking to get bogged down in a detailed and long plot, someone who just needs a filler book. Something that will keep the reader on track for their reading goal.
Labeled as "horror" but it reads more as an over the top fiction. What really drew me to this book was the cover. It is rich and vibrant and based off the 3 pictures on the cover, you are compelled to read the synopsis, which in itself is intriguing. A dead mother in law haunting not only her daughter in law, but her beloved son, and who is refusing to leave their basement. Who doesn't love the concept of the evil mother law plot, we have seen so many films and books with this plot made. Personally I have a very loving mother in law, whom I enjoy and love dearly, but for my sister in law, my mother is that mother in law who would haunt her. So of course I had to read this!
From the start you meet Abby who has not had a loving relationship with her own mother, and her husband Ralph who very much is the apple of his mothers eye. So when Ralph's mother hits a rough patch in her life, Abby is more than willing to help and give that love she so desperately wants to give to a mother figure. But Laura rejects that love leaving Abby frustrated and rejected. Laura comes to a quick demise leaving Ralph in a spiral of all too consuming grief, and Abby desperately trying to save her husband and pull him out of his depression. But the ghost of Laura has come to stay in their basement and will not leave until Abby feeds Ralph a meal that is up to her standards of love, or she will leave with Ralphs life.
There are not really any likeable characters in Mothering. Abby is desperate and needy craving attention from a woman that clearly rejects her and feeds into her insecurities. But she also causes a lot of her own problems. There are just so many unspoken rules in life. We all just know you don't disrespect a grave, you don't disrespect the dead, and you NEVER steal off a dead body. So if I was Laura I would haunt Abby too for stealing my ring off my barely cold dead finger! Ralph is a little more likeable but is such a background character that all you really know about him is he loves his mother and has a severe history of family depression. Laura is just Laura. She hangs out in the basement, appears as a hazy figure to Ralph and a voice to haunt Laura.
The first three quarters of the Mothering were engaging, but I am not gonna lie to the reader of this review, the last 30 pages I just skimmed because I was just over it. Even by skimming, you get the gist of the conclusion to Mothering.
Sometimes it pays to judge a book by its cover, and other times despite the vivid and rich cover, it doesn't. I would recommend this book to someone who isn't looking to get bogged down in a detailed and long plot, someone who just needs a filler book. Something that will keep the reader on track for their reading goal.