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The Perfect Mother

Aimee Molloy

Start date: September 1, 2018

Finish date: October 1, 2018

Discussion: SEPTEMBER 2018

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SEPTEMBER 2018

Post-Discussion: The Perfect Mother
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last updated Sep 08, 2018 09:53AM

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May 09, 2018 Brooke (Brooke's Books and Brews) rated it it was amazing

The May Mothers are a group of new moms that all gave birth in the month of May. The meet up often to discuss their pregnancies and then eventually how they are coping with raising their newborns. While some of the women fall away from the group, there are few core members of the group (Winnie, Nell, Collette, and Francie) that continue to remain close, or close enough to email each other and come to meetings. They all have secrets in their pasts that they don’t wish to share with anyone. When o The May Mothers are a group of new moms that all gave birth in the month of May. The meet up often to discuss their pregnancies and then eventually how they are coping with raising their newborns. While some of the women fall away from the group, there are few core members of the group (Winnie, Nell, Collette, and Francie) that continue to remain close, or close enough to email each other and come to meetings. They all have secrets in their pasts that they don’t wish to share with anyone. When one of the mother’s suggests planning a night out to break to mommy routine, most of the women go along with it willingly, except Winnie. She would prefer to stay home with her son, Midas, but she is eventually convinced to join the group. That is the night that everything changes for the worse for this group. Midas goes missing. When the media learns of the missing baby, they take off with a vengeance against this group of mothers and eventually even the darkest secrets are pulled into the light. Lives are turned upside down, suspicions are raised, and some are pushed close to the brink of a mental breakdown. The mothers are put to the test to see how far they will go to help reunite the mother with her missing baby.

I knew when I first read the synopsis for this book that I had to read it immediately. It sounded like it was going to be a perfect read for me. Any book that is described as an “addictive psychological thriller” is going to shoot to the top of my TBR. What I didn’t expect is the way the book really lays bare the experience of motherhood. I’m not a mother myself, but it seems to me that this book really tries to stay true to the experience of raising a newborn. There no unrealistic, “perfect” mothers in this book that have it all together all of the time. They all seemed to struggle in their own ways, either with breastfeeding, working on their relationships with their spouses, postpartum depression, weight loss, going back to work as a new mom, etc. I think that in and of itself really added a grounding element to this novel. I can definitely appreciate this.

The story is told from multiple point of views, mainly Collette, Nell, and Francie. All three of these women have secrets in their pasts that are eventually exposed by the media circus that ensues once it is released that Winnie was out with the May Mothers group the night Midas was abducted from his crib. The reader gets to see how the investigation unfolds through Collette, Nell, and Francie’s eyes. I think it’s very apropos for our society given how tenacious the social media can be in situations like this. The book even mentions the arm chair detectives on Reddit that are very common today. It really shows how obsessive people can be with news stories and how quickly their suspicions can go from one person to the next.

I flew through this book. I was completely wrapped up in the lives of the main characters and their experiences. I am always impressed when an author can make you feel an almost personal connection with a character and Malloy definitely did this. I found myself cheering them on and sympathizing with them. They kept me on the edge of my seat the entire time I was reading this book. I was completely thrown when the story reaches it’s peak or big reveal. I never saw it coming. Never. And I am normally pretty good at predicting what is going to happen…..not with this book. I was completely blind-sided. There was one small plot twist that I figured out somewhat early on but not the major one.

Overall, I LOVED this book. The characters, the plot, the mystery, all of it was great. I recommend this book to anyone that loves a good mystery or psychological thriller. This is definitely going to be one of my favorites of 2018.

Thank you so much to Harper Books for giving me the opportunity to read this book in advance. ...more

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Jun 26, 2018 Allison rated it liked it

Shelves: chick-lit, suspense

I'll admit I didn't see the end coming, but it wasn't a great twist in my opinion because the book was confusing and hard to follow. Granted I have a 4-month old at home so my reading time isn't as focused as it once was, but I felt the characters were too similar and I sometimes forgot whose point of view I was reading. I think it should have kept it to 2-3 points of view, instead of the 4-5 that were included.
On the positive side, Nell was hilarious, and I would recommend it to other new moms ...more

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Sep 04, 2018 Shawnda M. rated it liked it

I know this book has gotten a lot of buzz lately and it is being made into a movie so I wanted to see what it was all about. I will say I didn't hate this book, but I didn't just absolutely love it either. It took me a few chapters to actually get into this book. At first it was just kind of all over the place to me - first chapter in first person, and then everything in third person, bouncing so rapidly between different people’s perspectives, and giving me a bunch of women’s names I had a hard ...more

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Apr 07, 2021 Janita rated it really liked it

A very good book with a shocking ending, but the reason for 4 stars instead of 5 is that it became kind of convoluted to me in parts, and I had a hard time keeping up with the various characters. But all in all a good book, and I would definitely read more by this author!

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