Book Review: Mother

Author: Tamara Thorne and Alistair Cross

Published: April 9^th 2016 by Glass Apple Press

Blurb:

A Girl’s Worst Nightmare is Her Mother …
Priscilla Martin. She’s the diva of Morning Glory Circle and a driving force in the quaint California town of Snapdragon. Overseer of garage sales and neighborhood Christmas decorations, she is widely admired. But few people know the real woman behind the perfectly coiffed hair and Opium perfume.

Family is Forever. And Ever and Ever … 
No one escapes Prissy’s watchful eye. No one that is, except her son, who committed suicide many years ago, and her daughter, Claire, who left home more than a decade past and hasn’t spoken to her since. But now, Priscilla’s daughter and son-in-law have fallen on hard times. Expecting their first child, the couple is forced to move back … And Prissy is there to welcome them home with open arms … and to reclaim her broken family.

The Past Isn’t Always as Bad as You Remember.
Sometimes it’s Worse …
Claire has terrible memories of her mother, but now it seems Priscilla has mended her ways. When a cache of vile family secrets is uncovered, Claire struggles to determine fact from fiction, and her husband, Jason, begins to wonder who the monster really is. Lives are in danger – and Claire and Jason must face a horrifying truth … a truth that may destroy them … and will forever change their definition of “Mother.”

Review:

If I could choose a word to describe Mother, it would be twisted. At least that’s what the story is meant to be. Twisted, dark, and disturbing. Those aren’t even enough to describe the story. Reading Mother actually made me question my own sanity. Repulsed as I was when I read about Mother’s (Priscilla Martin, Prissy) I was also intrigued to read on and see the extent of her actions. Truth to be told, I was a little glad that I was able to stomach certain parts of the story, especially about Claire’s older brother, Timothy. Does that make me sick? I certainly hope not.

It might be weird to say that I enjoyed the book, but I really found Mother immensely interesting. The neighborhood of Morning Glory Circle was made up of individualistic residents so real you see a little of yourself and your neighbors in them. Who would have thought each of them hid secrets so deep and dark inside of them? It was equally surprising and horrifying at the same time? Well, it seems that it’s time to reevaluate your neighbors and think about how well you really know them.

It was a wonder how Prissy managed to hide her true self so well from the prying eyes of the neighborhood. At the beginning, I had a similar mindset to that of Jason, Claire’s husband. Claire must be over-reacting. Prissy couldn’t be that bad, right? Wrong. She was insane. I can easily sympathize and understand Claire’s reluctance on returning to her childhood home. No one should have gone through what she and her brother, Tim, went through. It was simply a nightmare. Throughout the story, I learnt that Claire was a strong and sure about herself despite what the people around her may say.

The plot and the setting of the story were perfect as well. When I first got a picture of Morning Glory Circle, it reminded me a little of the neighborhood in the movie “Edward Scissorhands”. Just another cheery and innocent row of houses which store exciting and bewitching mysteries in them. Mysteries that are bound to unravel sooner or later. There were a plethora of personalities in the neighborhood, from the motherly Barbara to the weird Deans. The collection of characters really made my imagination perk up.

Mother was written in such a way that I was pulled into the story without realizing it. I’d put my tablet away and go to sleep just to wake up and go to work the next day wondering what is the continuation of the story where I stopped. I was eager to get to the bottom of all the mysteries and I wanted to pull all the skeletons out of the closet as fast as I can, but at the same time, I was a little scared of what awaited me at the end. I wanted a ‘Good End”, but at the same time, a “Bad End” sounded delectable too. See what I meant when I wondered if I was going crazy? Don’t worry, I won’t spoil the ending for anyone who’s planning to pick this book up.

I would like to extend a Thank You to Berlin Malcom for introducing and providing a copy of Mother for me to read. It was a psychedelic adventure.