Holy Narccsism Batman!!! This woman was psycho!! And the scary part is, even thought this is a fictional character, I know someone very much like her. Very well researched book from a psychological standpoint and very well written. Told from the perspective of two children in the family, one a boy and one a girl, you can see the level of mental destcruction this causes on people and how it could effect them for the rest of their lives. The father in the story is on the peripheral but you can also see how someone can become so used to this type of behavior after so many years that they don't even realize what's being done to them or to those around them. This book is sometimes a little disturbing but very hard to put down. ( )

I really didn't want to like this book, but it kept building in suspense and terror until I was hooked.

A psychological drama that will leave you mesmerized, although I felt deflated by the last chapter (hence, the four not five stars).
( )

I won this book through Goodreads First Reads.

To be hones this really wasn't my kind of book. I can see some people enjoying it but it just wasn't for me.

The whole mystery was not very mysterious and there were no unexpected plot twists. I knew what would happen long before it did, which resulted in less enjoyment and less attachment to the characters. Also, some of the scenarios seemed a bit unrealistic to me. They just weren’t things I could see happening or that you'd expect from the characters.

Speaking of characters, they were all a bit duller than expected. The synopsis makes them out to be all very interesting but in reality I found every one of them to be too flat for such a character driven story.

It wasn't all bad though. There were a few interesting parts and I very much enjoyed all of Will's long words, which are scattered throughout his parts. They add to his character and were very interesting. In fact, the best and most memorable thing I got out of this book was the word eellogofusciouhipoppokunurious. It means good. ( )

When I first picked this book up, I wasn't sure I was going to finish it. In one explosive night, a family ends up with one kids in a nuthouse and another in the hospital to repair the damage the sister did. Or is that what happened? I thought I wouldn't finish it, because I really didn't like Josephine, the mother of the family. She was just vile. And then I realized that was the point. I think this portrayed narcissism expertly. While they aren't all this dangerous, they are so hard to deal with. Good read. ( )

Koren Zailckas doesn’t waste any time. In her first novel Mother, Mother: A Novel she takes no more than one hundred pages to pull the mask off Josephine Hurst, a woman who believes she is the pinnacle of modern motherhood—raising two lovely daughters (one destined for Broadway) and a son so gifted she has to home school him. Whether this is true or not seems beside the point to Josephine—it is what she believes. Unfortunately for her, Zailckas’ brilliantly schizophrenic prose shows otherwise and by page 120 I had developed a nervous tic from Josephine’s soft smiles followed by psychological torment the North Koreans would admire. She is a jackhammer against the concrete of her children’s sanity.

The intensity vibrates from Zailckas’ writing. Josephine has ensconced herself so firmly in the role of matriarch that getting to the bottom of her twisted psyche is a task beyond her husband, who secretly attends AA meetings because his life is such hell but, rather than expose that weakness, lets everyone think he’s having an affair. The oldest daughter, Rose has run off to NYC with her mysterious boyfriend in an attempt to have a life of her own and Violet, the second daughter is in a mental institution after ingesting some all-natural herbs that were supposed to provide the high of LSD without the side effects. While high there is a huge family fight and the youngest, twelve-year-old Will, gets his hand slashed. Due to his epilepsy, Violet’s altered state, and their father’s blackout (relapse into drinking), Josephine provides the only script for what transpired and it plays Violet as a psychopath who hates her brother. In order to protect him, Josephine has to check Violet into a psych ward.

One would expect, with Josephine’s delusions of grandeur, that she tells her own story, but instead Mother Mother is divided by chapter into two viewpoints: Violet and Will. Zailckas seems to know that letting us into Josephine’s head would end in a psychotic break for the most levelheaded reader so she leaves it to the rebellious (but ultimately very sane) Violet and the ‘laden with disabling diagnoses but brilliant’ Will, to render the story as best they can. She enhances the disparity between the two children by writing in short chapters that bounce between the Hurst household, where Josephine dotes on her loving son, the only one of her children not to betray her, and the hospital where Violet is trying to find reality and get someone to listen to her.

The rest of this review is at: http://gilmoreguidetobooks.com/2013/09/mother-mother/ ( )

More meh than whoa with a little bit of ick thrown in for good measure. Joan Crawford has nothing on Josephine Hurst. While reading this book I felt like I do in a horror movie; I want to scream at the girl to not go downstairs to check out the sound because you are going to get killed! Essentially what I am trying to say is you (as the reader) can see exactly what is happening long before it is "revealed" by the author which I don't really enjoy. This was, however, a fast read. ( )

Usually I’m pretty well tuned to the thriller market, especially the psychological thriller, but this book passed me by a few years ago when it came out. Recently it must have landed on some list or other because the premise instantly attracted me and so I picked up a copy for short money. It was harder for me to get into than many books of its ilk, and there were parts I wasn’t quite sure of, but in the end it was good. Things are and aren’t what they seem and I think part of what kept me from settling in was that I kept looking for the twist. There really isn’t one as such. No happy ending either, but the end was oddly satisfying and haunting; especially Will.

The writing is snappy, pithy and full of shorthand, some of which will stand the test of time (memory being swiss-cheesed, going Planter’s Peanuts) and some won’t (someone going all Rick Santorum on someone else). At first it gave me pause, but it worked with one of the narrators and seemed to be limited there so I went with it. There are only two narrators and that, too, gave me pause. How could a complex family scenario be told by only two people, both of which not so much unreliable as flat-out untrustworthy and possibly mental. After a while, and a few conveniences, this too didn’t matter anymore. However, I do think that both Will and Violet had insights and analysis that was too advanced for their years.

It’s a slow burn though. Quite slow. Josephine doesn’t do anything that I’d characterize as devastating until almost 150 pages in. If you’re expecting something closer to Mommy Dearest, this isn’t the book. It is chilling and so without getting into spoiler territory, I’ll just leave you with this -

“...it is more or less common wisdom that having a narcissistic mother is one of the worst things that can happen to a kid. Her inability to empathize, her persistent misreading of her child’s inarticulate but urgent social cues, her tendency to feel criticized by her child’s discomfort, her desperate need to come off like a good mother, at the risk of actually being one...all these things severely disrupt a child’s development. Children of narcissists tend to feel guilty and dangerous even if they’ve never stood up for themselves, never committed a crime.” p 212 ( )

Mother, Mother is a fascinating book. Once you start reading it will be close to impossible to put it down. The characters are so well developed. It is a nonstop physiological thriller. Here is a taste of a small bit of a huge hit.

The book is about a dysfunctional family the Hursts. The mother Josephine is a ball of crazy while the father Douglas is an alcoholic. The three children Rose, Violet and Will all have their own set of problems. Josephine wants her and her family to appear impeccable to the rest of the world at any cost. Rose is the eldest daughter who is Josephines ballerina doll that will be a star one day no matter what. Is that what Rose wants to do with her life? Violet is the middle daughter who has taken to a religion called "Jainist", shaved her head and is starving herself. Violet is a huge embarrassment to the family. Why would Violet act that way? Is she crazed too? The youngest child Will who has been diagnosed with Asperger's and has seizures. Will will do anything for his mother to make her see how smart and perfect he is to obtain her love. Will made my skin crawl.

Mother, Mother, is full of twist, turns and surprises. You might think you know what is going to happen next but you will be dead wrong. Is the whole family crazy? That would be for you to read and see.

"I received this book from Blogging for Books for this review." ( )

This book was not what I expected. It's been on my to-read shelf for months now, and I wish I would have read it sooner! I think it may have been trying to be a psychological thriller, but it didn't quite get to that point for me. It was, however, a wonderfully-written exploration (and dramatization) of mental illness and what it can do to a family.
It was slower moving than I expected (the entire book happened within a week or so, not counting for flashbacks and the hasty epilogue). Nothing was a surprise, exactly, but that didn't make any of the events or plot twists any less terrifying.
The end could have been developed a bit more, but alas! A reader can't be picky about what an author decides to divulge after the main plot has ended.
( )

A perfect family is very rarely as it seems, and the Hursts are no exception. Told in alternating voices of 16-year-old Violet and 11-year-old Will, the story slowly unfolds much like peeling layers off a rose. Big pieces with a sweet fragrance, until you get to the ugly core.

Violet and Will's voices are very different. Will is eager to please his mother, and sees the best in her. One of my favorite paragraphs describes Violet's perspective:

"Violet developed an almost pathological need to point out whatever the rest of the Hursts wanted to sweep under the rug and parade it around like a skull on a stick." p 26

She knows something is wrong, but because of her youth and immaturity, has trouble not only expressing it, but being taken seriously by others; especially when her mother's voice is the other one in the equation.

Masterful at manipulation, backhanded compliments and insinuations, Josephine is the perpetual victim. Zailckas writes this character to perfection. Unfortunately, she has first-hand experience from her own childhood, as told in the notes at the back of the book. Jo is cunning, understated in public and over-the-top in private. She is truly a character that you will love to hate.

I was cheering for Violet the entire time I wondered what became of Rose. An absent character in her own right, the revelation at the end of the book of how Rose finally did escape her mother's clutches was somewhat predictable, but that didn't take away from the impact. The highlight of the story for me was the end, where the light at the end of the tunnel turns out to be a freight train, headed right for me.

A very satisfying read and highly recommended. ( )

Josephine Hurst has done a stellar job holding up the facade of her perfectly successful family until her oldest daughter, Rose, runs away with an elusive boyfriend. Soon, her daughter Violet has joined her hippie friends in taking hallucinogenic drug trips and exploring Eastern religions. Convinced her husband is involved in a torrid affair, Josephine turns to her young son William as her pillar of strength, keeping him under strict control in a last ditch effort to save her family.

As the Hurst family secrets are slowly revealed in Violet and William's alternating chapters, it becomes clear that the reliability of Mother, Mother's narrators and their caretakers stand on shaky ground. Following a violent incident in the home, Violet is hospitalized under psychological care, unsure if she committed the crime her family is accusing her of. Will, recently moved to homeschool for his own safety, feels crushed under the pressure of pleasing his mother without alienating everyone around him.

In a carefully layered, dark tale of psychological control, Koren Zailckas twists her American family to the breaking point. A perfectly creepy book for snuggling up through Fall, Mother, Mother becomes compulsively readable as the Hurst's secrets and lies collide in its bold conclusion.

Blog: www.rivercityreading.com ( )

Pretty good ( )

Kind of disturbing to imagine that such a "mother" could exist. ( )

This book was a stunning story of how you never upset your mother but all in all loved this book not even half way throw the story and I wanted to really slap the mother repeatedly the end on the other hand could have been better but this didn't hamper the story in any way so saying that I would recommend to all my friends and I would like to thank the author for bring this book to fruition and I will be looking out for more of her works with that all said keep smiling and happy reading with love from wee me.xxxxxxxxxx ( )

"Mother, Mother" is a mystery novel, a very unique one. It tells this elaborate family mystery through the eyes of two very different but equally tortured teens. The daughter is the typical rebellious girl who feels unloved and misunderstood. The character that really got me hooked was the son, the beloved slightly autistic child who can't cope without his mother’s love?!? (The word love is debatable).

Part of what made this a unique mystery is a big mish mash; young teen characters, broken family and psychological disorders all thrown into a giant blender with a huge dash of mystery and puzzle solving, this concoction makes for a fantastic story. I’m not an avid reader of either the YA or mystery genre, mostly because I feel like you have to sift through so much to get something unique. However, this is something unique and I believe it’s mostly due to the Author, a girl who herself has personal experience with teenage struggles. I haven’t read her other books but I plan to, especially now.

Sorry Koren, but I never had an interest to read another tortured teen telling her life story…. BUT one who writes, and does it with passion… yes, I will. Thankfully you had a booth at BEA this year and with a successful book already behind you… I was more inclined to check out this fictional one. I’m ever so glad I did! If you’re like me (sifting through dozens of upcoming YA or mystery Authors just feels exhausting and not worth the time) you’ll want to give THIS one a chance, it’ll be worth the time.
( )

Oh say, can you see, a more dysfunctional family? I doubt it. This was a slow-building trip on a madly twisting road of anger, violence, and some bizarre family dynamics. It was very entertaining, a little unsettling, and I loved it. ( )

Talk about a psychological thriller! Koren Zailckas does not disappoint with this book. I have never heard of this author before receiving this book from Blogging for Books. The idea of a very controlling mother, to the point of craziness is a topic that has always intrigued me. As a mother, I truly understand the desire of wanting your family to appear "perfect" to others. Of course, I am not like Josephine, as I have learned that being imperfect is the fun of being a parent.

This story is told through two different points of view - Violet's and Will's. Violet is a typical teen who is trying to find her way, but realizing that she can never be what her mother wants her to be. To counteract this, Violet seems to go to extremes in avoiding the mess her life actually is. She lands in a psych ward and through friendships that she forms there, Violet begins to understand herself, her family, and even why her mother is the way that she is. The unfortunate part is that, Josephine can never truly be understood.
Will is Josephine's last child - her baby. He still lives at home and is only twelve. His story is told through his eyes, and they do not always understand what he is seeing or hearing. Will does not seem to understand how the world works, how people function, and how to be "normal". He does what his mother tells him to do, wears what she picks out for him, and he even lets her brush and floss his teeth. Needless to say, Will and his mother seem to have a very bizarre relationship. This is a major playing point throughout the story.

After a strange, crazy, horrible event that lands Violet in the psych ward and Will trying to understand things, the story does not slow down. Both characters draw you in to their side of the story and I found myself wanting to keep reading to find out what happens next. This is a book that I could not put down. The craziness, emotional, psychological ride that Zailckas takes the read through is unbelievable. Out of 5 stars, I give it 4.5, and that is only because the ending seemed quickly done and when I was done with the book, I found myself still wanting more. An excellent read for ages 14 and up.

I received this book for free from Blogging for Books for this review. ( )

Before you begin this book, make sure you have lots of free time because you will not be able to put it down! Did you like Gone Girl? I thought this was even more of a cliffhanger. When it ended, I kind of hoped that there would be a sequel to follow.
In order of age, there are three children: Rose, Viola and William. Rose has disappeared, run away from home, Viola (Violet) is rebelling, she is on a weird starvation diet, and William is being home-schooled as a result of bullying. He has recently been diagnosed as both epileptic and autistic. Douglas, the father, is an alcoholic. Josephine is the mother, and you will soon get a picture of a family with dysfunction, a family in which Josephine appears to be the only one who is put together with all the right parts in the right place. But you will keep wondering, is she?
Violet, Will and Doug, all have some kind of blackout episodes: Will from stress, Doug from drink and Violet from drugs. Whenever a traumatic incident occurs, Josephine takes charge, assumes the position of authority, makes the decisions, and relates the details to everyone. She creates the narrative everyone believes. She seems to be the only one who has a clear-head and a complete awareness of events.
Nothing, however, is what it appears to be. Trompe l’oeil, sleight of hand and misdirection appear in every chapter. Each chapter is labeled either William Hurst or Violet Hurst, and the tale evolves through their eyes, through their interpretation of events with sudden insights and/or mistakes of judgment. It is their conclusions that ultimately define the events that occur.
Violet has a really good friend named Imogen. Her mother, Beryl, is suffering from Cancer. Beryl and Josephine represent two sides of a coin, two types of sickness, the head and the tail, the good and the evil; in a way, both are extreme representations of the dominant quality of their own personalities. One is perhaps, a little overly empathetic, kind and interested in others, while the other is, perhaps, a narcissist, only interested in herself and the attention she can attract.
The author’s writing style relates these events in such an easy-going manner that everything that happens seems plausible, albeit from different and opposing vantage points. There is no evidence to disprove anything any character believes, so conclusions, right and wrong, are drawn with whatever evidence is provided.
Who is the favorite child? Is it William, Rose or Violet, is it a double entendre? Is it the child that once was Josephine or Doug? Who can tell? Read on and try and find out. It is a story about relationships, emotional and mental illness, learning disabilities, overreactions, parenting styles, healthy and unhealthy environments and the growing pains of children as they mature. All of these subjects and more, are a bit hidden in the pages, but they are subtly explored within the diabolical, Alfred Hitchcock type plot; you can almost hear the theme song. The story is addictive, written in an almost matter-of-fact, conversational tone, so that once you begin, you will be drawn into the conversation, and you won’t want to stop reading until you find out who is the villain, who is the cruel and sadistic, cold and calculating liar, the puppeteer orchestrating all episodes.
Enough said, or I will give something away. You must read this book for yourself to discover the truth or, perhaps, what appears to be the truth! The minds of the characters are explored so thoroughly that you may want to jump into the book and throttle one of them, shake some sense into them, change the course of action, but you can’t! The tale will march on to its own conclusion with you as its captive. ( )

A book that keeps you reading in the way that you can't help but look at a fatal accident...this is the story of what the underbelly of a dysfunctional family looks like. It is hard to say that I enjoyed it exactly, but it definitely is a book I will not forget. ( )

I loved the way the chapters alternated between the narration of Violet and Will. Each reveals a little more information about family life in the Hurst household, but you’re not sure how much of it is the truth.

My favourite character was Violet as I felt sorry for her and how her life was panning out.

Overall I really liked the book. There were a couple of twists I didn’t see coming and the ending tied up a few loose ends for me, which I like. You’ve invested time in getting to know the characters and it’s good to know what happens to them and where they are going after you have turned the last page.

I received a copy of this book from lovereading.co.uk in exchange for an unbiased review. ( )

This had me glued to my chair until I finished. Zailckas has written a thriller with all the elements of suspense you look for but also a lot of depth within the family dynamics. Pieces of the plot are somewhat predictable, but that didn't stop me from enjoying the ride. Told in alternating chapters by two of the Hurst children, Zailckas slowly unfolds a frightening tale of a mentally ill mother who will go to extreme lengths to keep up appearances. ( )

I really wanted to like this, but I feel like it was a little too on-the-nose for me. I had figured out almost everything that had happened by a quarter of the way in. Worse (because a mystery is one thing but poor characters are something else), I just couldn't believe in Violet. She was too self-possessed all the way through; I didn't feel like she had a chance to grow. Or rather, all her growth happened in the first ten pages, and from there on out she was just proving to everyone else that she was a real person. Will, on the other hand, was very well done - although he did read a little older than twelve to me. ( )

Different and uncomfortable. You will read this knowing there is something not quite right, but you can't turn away. Oh, and that perfect mother next door? About her...... ( )

I picked up this book expecting an interesting psychological thriller. What I got was a psychological thriller that knocked my figurative socks off. A book to rival Sharp Objects or Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn, which is near blasphemy coming from me. But holy cow - Koren Zailckas really delivers with this book.

The story centers around Josephine Hurst, mother to three children and wife to a brilliant tech guru. On the outside, they look perfect. But within a short amount of time, Josephine's older daughter runs away, her younger daughter turns to drugs and is eventually committed to a psychiatric hospital, and her only son has recently been diagnosed with autism and epilepsy. Josephine does everything in her power to keep her family's image intact, but a visit from Child Protective Services threatens Josephine and her family's secrets.

Since we are very much aware that Josephine is a manipulative, narcissistic sociopath from the first chapter, the shocks and surprises come as we start to realize just how manipulative Josephine can be. When her oldest daughter, Rose becomes pregnant, Josephine is horrified and tells her daughter that she will ruin her image as well as the family's image if she goes through with the pregnancy, essentially driving Rose towards an abortion that she doesn't really want. But weeks afterwards, Josephine plants a graphic photo of an aborted fetus in the house, waiting for Rose to stumble across it. As Rose says, no matter what course of action she takes, she will always be punished for not being her mother's perfect child anymore.

The entire story alternates between two points of view: Violet, the middle child who is forcefully committed to a psychiatric ward, and Will, the son who has been recently diagnosed as autistic and epileptic. The reader's entire perception of Josephine comes from these two characters: one who is desperately fighting against her mother's manipulation, and one who is unknowingly pulled into it. As a result, Josephine becomes a more frightening and unpredictable adversary. We can't know her thoughts, but we can see how she changes her personality and reasoning depending on who she's interacting with. We start to see the discrepancies that she has kept hidden from her family. It’s the kind of book where you want to pull your hair and scream at the characters. “Don’t you see what’s going on?! Don’t you see she’s lying to you?!”

Someone described characters like these as characters you love to hate. Like Nick & Amy from Flynn’s Gone Girl, the Hursts are not a particularly likeable family. Besides Josephine, Will is a naïve, yet manipulative boy and Douglas, the father, is a recovering alcoholic who turns a blind eye to the chaos going on inside the house.

It would be easy for this book to slip into melodrama, but Zailckas keeps the story tight and realistic. That’s the scariest part about this book – not how manipulative Josephine is, but how REALISTICALLY manipulative she is.

I was staggered by the time I closed this book, and my immediate impulse was to flip it over and read it all over again. This is one hell of a shocking and powerful read.

Recommended for: fans of psychological thrillers, fans of Gillian Flynn.

Readalikes:

All of Gillian Flynn’s novels would work, but her first, Sharp Objects, makes a great readalike for Mother, Mother. Sharp Objects follows the story of Camille Preaker, a troubled journalist who ventures back to her hometown to cover the story of two bizarre murders. Her mother has the same manipulative and controlling nature as Josephine, and as the book progresses, the reader begins to realize just how poisonous Camille’s mother can be.

Sickened: The Memoir of a Munchausen by Proxy Childhood by Julie Gregory. As a child, the author’s mother would intentionally make her daughter believe that she was sick in order to gain the approval of the hospital staff and other parents. This shocking and gut-churning memoir emphasizes the realism of Mother, Mother and exposes a form of abuse not commonly recognized.

Smashed: Story of a Drunken Girlhood – Koren Zailckas. Before Mother, Mother, the author was a teenager suffering from blackout alcoholism. With her poetic and candid writing, Zailckas shows the reader everything from her first sip of alcohol at fourteen to her total disorientation at twenty-two, after waking up in an unfamiliar New York City apartment. ( )

Pretty good. A t lest everyone is not saved.