|
First dud of the year: The School for Good Mothers by Jessamine Chan, narrated by Catherine Ho.
This is about a divorced mother who leaves her toddler home alone and gets caught up in the legal system. Which could have made for a compelling story, except here the mom is offered the option to enter a special residential program to teach her to be a good mother. Which also could have made for a compelling story, except here that program features Big-Brother surveillance and lifelike robot "dolls" that are essentially learning tools for the "bad" moms. Which brought the story into a realm of unreality.
I think the author wanted to show how mothers are held to impossible standards, but the ones here really did act badly. This might have been an interesting short story, but a 12-hour novel? No.
|