THE PLOT: ‘The School for Good Mothers’ by Jessamine Chan is a dystopian novel about children being removed from their parents. Frida had a bad day. Her cheating ex-husband moved out, she had a work deadline and her toddler, Harriet, wouldn’t stop crying. Frida only meant to leave the house for a few minutes. But minutes turned to hours and the neighbours heard Harriet crying. Now Frida’s lost custody and the only way to see her child again is to attend a new Government training programme. But the residential programme is more intense than anyone realised and as Frida, along with other ‘bad mothers’, are re-educated, they must jump impossible hurdles to get their children back.

SUMMARY:  Throughout September and October, I keep starting books and not finishing them. Nothing could keep my attention and stress at work was mounting up. Then, I stumbled across this book for £1 in a charity shop and it was exactly what I needed. More-ish and absorbing, I was able to completely immerse myself in the dystopian world. The high-stakes of whether Frida will get custody of her child back gave me a reason to keep reading and the tension escalated perfectly as the residential training programme became more and more sinister. The predominant theme is about society’s expectations of mothers, but the book sensitively explores intersectionality within this as race is a key component in the book. So, if you’re in a reading slump and enjoy dystopian fiction with intersectional feminist themes, this is exactly the book you need.

GOOD BITS:  I enjoyed that the dystopia was subtle. We never learn about the macro-level political shenanigans that have taken place, but there’s an eerie atmosphere which indicates these new state rules around motherhood and custody are due to a sinister government. This world-building felt realistic and it allowed me to be firmly rooted in the main character’s POV without any clunky, long political passages (which are common to the genre). I also liked how Frida was such a flawed, complicated character so that our ‘judgements’ of her womanhood and motherhood are not black and white.

NOT SO GOOD BITS: As someone who works in child abuse policy, the demonisation of social workers didn’t sit right with me. Sadly, every day I read about incidents where parents have killed or seriously harmed their children. This novel could’ve included a character who represented a real threat to their child to balance out the story. In general, I’m just not sure whether this is a great book or if it’s a case of ‘right book at the right time’. Although I really enjoyed reading it, I stumbled over the writing style at points. Honestly, it doesn’t feel particularly memorable or special to me.

OVERALL: I’d recommend this book to fans of ‘All Our Missing Hearts’ by Celeste Ng, ‘The Power’ by Naomi Alderman, and ‘The Handmaids Tale’ by Margaret Atwood. I reckon this would be great on audiobook, so I’d encourage fans of dystopian fiction to give it a try.

You can purchase this book and support @aminasbookshelf on my bookshop.org page