Motherthing

Books | Fiction / Ghost

3.8

(70)

Ainslie Hogarth

A darkly funny domestic horror novel about a woman who must take drastic measures to save her husband and herself from the vengeful ghost of her mother-in-law.Abby Lamb has done it. She's found the Great Good in her husband Ralph, and together they will start a family and put all the darkness in her childhood to rest. But then the Lambs move in with Ralph’s mother Laura, whose depression has made it impossible for her to live on her own. She’s venomous and cruel, especially to Abby, who has a complicated understanding of motherhood given the way her own (now estranged) mother raised her.When Laura takes her own life, her ghost starts to haunt Abby and Ralph in very different ways. Ralph is plunged into depression, and Abby is being terrorized by a force intent on taking everything she loves away from her. With everything on the line, Abby must make the ultimate sacrifice in order to prove her adoration to Ralph and break Laura's hold on the family for good.

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More Details:

Author

Ainslie Hogarth

Pages

288

Publisher

McClelland & Stewart

Published Date

2022-09-27

ISBN

0771000634 9780771000638

Community ReviewsSee all

"Well...that was disturbing and sick...if you enjoy that in a book, this one for you..."

LeeLoo Dallas

"Motherthing by Ainslie Hogarth 4/5 ✨ The epitome of a woman letting her intrusive thoughts get the better of her. Living inside your head can be dangerous and this proves it. A real rollercoaster of emotion and misjudgements. I almost wish there was an afterwards but maybe it's for the best that there isn't one. And who actively eats jellied salmon..."

Sarah

"This was slow for me. I nearly dnf'd it around 100 pages but it started to pick up. I'm glad cuz I really liked the ending. I didn't care for the MC"

Megan Jungers

"It wasn’t great. It tried too hard to be “funny” or edgy. But ended up just being icky or cringy at times. And I didn’t love the writing style. There were a lot of one-sentence or one-phrase metaphors that were bizarre and would really throw me out of the story for a moment. But the book got slightly better in the last 20% or so. "

Ruth S.

"A gruesome, hilarious, and razor sharp novel about being literally haunted by toxic relationships. Told with the quirky and impulsive voice of Abby, we see the aching need for validation from parents, a need to be loved in return for loving; we see the earth shattering reality that often times we will never be loved in the way that we want, unconditionally, or at least equal to our own efforts. So funny, but incredibly sad at its core, this is a smash hit of a domestic horror story. "

Emily

"My favorite book I’ve read so far this year. So brutally honest about womanhood "

Delaney Wendland

"I swung wildly between loving & despising this one. Parts of this were so fun, & you get to watch a slow spiral into just a complete break with reality. Parts of it I really could've done without, though. There's more ways to show your character getting overstimulated with anger than having them repeat "c*m, sh*t, kill" throughout multiple chapters, but that's just me. Hey! It did a good job at illustrating her mental state. so it's effective, I guess? While the book does have a few elements of a haunted house story, that's definitely not what the author is trying to deliver. Honestly, I'm not super satisfied by the ending, but not too mad about it either. I saw one review on another platform that just said, "Ma'am this is a Wendy's" &... yeah, that about sums it up. [3.5☆]"

Lars

"Weird not sure in what way"

Vex

"OK I loved this — spooky and unsettling and beautifully written. I thought a lot of the hype was coming from Bookstagram because of the cover, but it's worth it. This is a book about moms that touches on so much of the creepiness of motherhood and the spookiness of having a relationship with your offspring. I don't know how else to explain it. There were so many beautiful sentences. Well done."