Mother, Mother: Free Sampler

By Koren Zailckas

FREE SAMPLER. An electrifying debut novel about what happens when the one who should love you the most becomes your worst enemy. Sure to appeal to fans of GONE GIRL, WE NEED TO TALK ABOUT KEVIN and ROOM

Meet the Hurst Family.

Meet Violet Hurst -16 years old, beautiful and brilliant. So why is she being accused of being a danger to herself and others?

Meet her brother Will Hurst – the smartest and sweetest twelve-year old boy around. But does he really need all that medication he is being told to take?

Meet oldest sister Rose – the one who got away. She disappeared one night in her final year of school, never to be heard from again.

And then meet their mother – Josephine. Perhaps it will then all start to make sense.

An electrifying debut novel about a mother's love gone too far

• Language: English
• Publisher: HarperCollins UK
• Release date: Jan 13, 2014
• ISBN: 9780007578221

Koren Zailckas

Koren Zailckas is an internationally bestselling writer, and has contributed to the Guardian, U.S. News & World Report, Glamour, Jane and Seventeen magazine. She currently lives with her family in the Catskills mountains of New York.

Book preview

WILLIAM HURST

HER FACE WAS the first thing William Hurst saw when he opened his eyes from his not-so-sweet dreams. His mother, Josephine, was smiling down at him, her blue eyes misty-soft, sunlight streaming through her hair, the same way it did to the happy Jesus in Will’s Storybook Bible.

On this particular Saturday, mother was both a noun and a verb.

Behind her, at the end of Will’s bed, was the frog habitat he’d begged for all summer. It had a paddling pond for tadpoles and a rocky ledge where frogs could doze beneath a canopy of green plastic clover.

Will knew he should be jabbering with excitement. There she was, waiting for him to pump his fist and thrash with glee (not that he would ever dare jump on the bed). But something was off. The timing didn’t add up.

Is today my birthday? Will asked. Did I do something to deserve an extra-special reward?

No, Josephine said. "Today isn’t your birthday. And you, little man, are my extra-special reward."

She reached for the boy’s face, as if to give his bandaged chin a playful pinch or tuck his too-long hair behind his earlobe. But then the phone rang and her freshly moisturized hand froze, suspended in the space. She pulled away and padded off in her slippers to answer it, a Velcro roller tumbling out of her hair and sticking, burr-like, in the carpet.

The house should have been quiet now that Will’s sixteen-year-old sister Violet had been banished. Oddly, the Hurst family home was louder. Even after his mother hung up her cell phone, her voice remained nervous, her actions rackety. Will followed her downstairs to the kitchen, where the radio was already on, cranked to WRHV. Cupboard doors slammed. Silverware barrel-rolled as she jostled the drawers.

The rotten-egg smell of his father’s morning shower wafted down the staircase. The well water was sulfuric. Violet liked to say that hell smells like sulfur. So do places infested with demons. If Will believed his mother—and he had no reason not to—demons were rebels like Violet. They fell from grace when they looked into God’s gentle eyes and announced they didn’t need him anymore.

At the kitchen table, Josephine asked, Is a noun a doing word, a describing word, or a naming word?

A describing word, Will told her between swallows of oatmeal.

Josephine’s smile—a bright sideways sliver of moon—made it impossible for him to know whether he’d answered right or wrong.

Let me put it this way, she said. Which word is the noun in this sentence: ‘I always know what I am doing.’

What.

I said, which word is the noun in this sentence—

"No, Mom. I wasn’t asking, What? I was trying to tell you ‘what’ is the answer."

Oh, Josephine said. Oh, I was expecting you to say ‘I.’ But I suppose ‘what’ is right in this instance too.

The portable phone screamed in its cradle. Josephine picked it up and wandered out of the kitchen saying, No, I told you. I have a twelve-year-old special-needs son. She’s a danger to him. I can’t have her here.

Will had autistic spectrum disorder with comorbid epilepsy. To him, that always sounded like a good thing—the word spectrum being halfway to spectacular. But Will knew his differences secretly shamed his family, his father, Douglas, in particular. At Cherries Deli, Will was always aware of his dad’s gaze lingering on the youth soccer leagues eating postgame sundaes. Probably, Douglas longed for a sturdier and more social son—a buzz-cut bruiser who could shower and climb stairs unsupervised, without the nagging threat of seizures.

Will’s mother tried to put a positive spin on his health conditions. Once when Will was in a wallowing mood, he’d blubbered, I’m not like normal people! And Josephine had consoled him by saying, No, you’re not. And thank God for that. Normal people are dim-witted and boring.

Will had received his dual diagnosis nine months ago, and his mother had been homeschooling him ever since. A onetime academic, Josephine was every bit as good as Will’s former teachers. Plus, she custom-made his curriculum. She was patient with Will in math, where it took him ages to grasp square roots, and rode him relentlessly in language arts, where she prided herself on the quality of his writing and his ability to read above grade level.

Violet used to tell Will that he was blessed to have autism. She was studying Buddhism, and she said that Will must have been an exceptionally good person in a past life. A patient, selfless, saintly sort of person. So in this life, he’d been rewarded for his past goodness with heightened sensitivities. According to Violet, Will felt things more deeply and understood things most people overlooked, and this made his everyday more like Nirvana.

Josephine didn’t appreciate his sister’s interest in Eastern religion. She didn’t like the humming sound of Violet’s Tibetan singing bowl, her woodsy incense, the picture of Geshla in a glitzy gold frame on her bedside table.

The Hursts were Catholic. Whenever Violet sat cross-legged with a strand of mala beads, Josephine told her to put away her faux rosary. Back in August, Violet had shaved off all her hair with their father’s electric beard trimmer. Will remembered Douglas storming into the family room, a long brown wisp threaded through his fingers, shouting, "Violet! What is the meaning of this?! Without so much as turning her bald head away from her guided-meditation DVD, Violet had said: Meanings are the illusion of a deluded mind, Dad. Stop trying to squeeze reality into a verbal shape."

Violet would not allow herself to be squeezed into anyone’s reality.

Violet is unpredictable, Josephine liked to say. Just when a person thinks she’s got Violet pegged, she transforms like ice into water.

That was when the trouble started, with one of Violet’s transformations. His sister’s extreme personality changes were one of the reasons Josephine had spent the last forty minutes on the phone, whispering about crisis wards, involuntary commitment, and other words Will couldn’t find in his Scholastic Dictionary.

Violet is sick, his mom had explained weeks earlier, after Violet had once again made her dissolve into tears. You know how parts of our bodies get sick sometimes? she’d added, dabbing at her eyes. Like, we get stomachaches or sore throats? Well, Violet is sick in the part of her brain that controls her feelings.

Will assumed Violet’s brain was sick because she had stopped eating food. Well, not all food. Violet had recently stopped drinking everything except pomegranate juice or milk, and stopped eating everything besides Uncle Ben’s instant rice or a stenchy combination of mung beans and sugar.

As her body got smaller, all of Violet’s clothes started to look like disguises. She wore long-underwear tops, Douglas’s dress shirts, and low-crotched pants that made her look like one of Ali Baba’s forty thieves. Their mother said Violet wore a gauzy kerchief because people at school made fun of her bald-headedness. But when Will asked Violet, she told him she was covering her head because she was doing sallekhana.

Reviews for Mother, Mother

[angelalam-300700 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

I really didn't want to like this book, but it kept building in suspense and terror until I was hooked.

A psychological drama that will leave you mesmerized, although I felt deflated by the last chapter (hence, the four not five stars).

[bookwormteri · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

When I first picked this book up, I wasn't sure I was going to finish it. In one explosive night, a family ends up with one kids in a nuthouse and another in the hospital to repair the damage the sister did. Or is that what happened? I thought I wouldn't finish it, because I really didn't like Josephine, the mother of the family. She was just vile. And then I realized that was the point. I think this portrayed narcissism expertly. While they aren't all this dangerous, they are so hard to deal with. Good read.

[bookmarque · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Usually I’m pretty well tuned to the thriller market, especially the psychological thriller, but this book passed me by a few years ago when it came out. Recently it must have landed on some list or other because the premise instantly attracted me and so I picked up a copy for short money. It was harder for me to get into than many books of its ilk, and there were parts I wasn’t quite sure of, but in the end it was good. Things are and aren’t what they seem and I think part of what kept me from settling in was that I kept looking for the twist. There really isn’t one as such. No happy ending either, but the end was oddly satisfying and haunting; especially Will.The writing is snappy, pithy and full of shorthand, some of which will stand the test of time (memory being swiss-cheesed, going Planter’s Peanuts) and some won’t (someone going all Rick Santorum on someone else). At first it gave me pause, but it worked with one of the narrators and seemed to be limited there so I went with it. There are only two narrators and that, too, gave me pause. How could a complex family scenario be told by only two people, both of which not so much unreliable as flat-out untrustworthy and possibly mental. After a while, and a few conveniences, this too didn’t matter anymore. However, I do think that both Will and Violet had insights and analysis that was too advanced for their years.It’s a slow burn though. Quite slow. Josephine doesn’t do anything that I’d characterize as devastating until almost 150 pages in. If you’re expecting something closer to Mommy Dearest, this isn’t the book. It is chilling and so without getting into spoiler territory, I’ll just leave you with this -“...it is more or less common wisdom that having a narcissistic mother is one of the worst things that can happen to a kid. Her inability to empathize, her persistent misreading of her child’s inarticulate but urgent social cues, her tendency to feel criticized by her child’s discomfort, her desperate need to come off like a good mother, at the risk of actually being one...all these things severely disrupt a child’s development. Children of narcissists tend to feel guilty and dangerous even if they’ve never stood up for themselves, never committed a crime.” p 212

[thcforpain · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Mother, Mother is a fascinating book. Once you start reading it will be close to impossible to put it down. The characters are so well developed. It is a nonstop physiological thriller. Here is a taste of a small bit of a huge hit.

The book is about a dysfunctional family the Hursts. The mother Josephine is a ball of crazy while the father Douglas is an alcoholic. The three children Rose, Violet and Will all have their own set of problems. Josephine wants her and her family to appear impeccable to the rest of the world at any cost. Rose is the eldest daughter who is Josephines ballerina doll that will be a star one day no matter what. Is that what Rose wants to do with her life? Violet is the middle daughter who has taken to a religion called "Jainist", shaved her head and is starving herself. Violet is a huge embarrassment to the family. Why would Violet act that way? Is she crazed too? The youngest child Will who has been diagnosed with Asperger's and has seizures. Will will do anything for his mother to make her see how smart and perfect he is to obtain her love. Will made my skin crawl.

Mother, Mother, is full of twist, turns and surprises. You might think you know what is going to happen next but you will be dead wrong. Is the whole family crazy? That would be for you to read and see.

"I received this book from Blogging for Books for this review."

[carmenmilligan · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

A perfect family is very rarely as it seems, and the Hursts are no exception. Told in alternating voices of 16-year-old Violet and 11-year-old Will, the story slowly unfolds much like peeling layers off a rose. Big pieces with a sweet fragrance, until you get to the ugly core.

Violet and Will's voices are very different. Will is eager to please his mother, and sees the best in her. One of my favorite paragraphs describes Violet's perspective:

"Violet developed an almost pathological need to point out whatever the rest of the Hursts wanted to sweep under the rug and parade it around like a skull on a stick." p 26

She knows something is wrong, but because of her youth and immaturity, has trouble not only expressing it, but being taken seriously by others; especially when her mother's voice is the other one in the equation.

Masterful at manipulation, backhanded compliments and insinuations, Josephine is the perpetual victim. Zailckas writes this character to perfection. Unfortunately, she has first-hand experience from her own childhood, as told in the notes at the back of the book. Jo is cunning, understated in public and over-the-top in private. She is truly a character that you will love to hate.

I was cheering for Violet the entire time I wondered what became of Rose. An absent character in her own right, the revelation at the end of the book of how Rose finally did escape her mother's clutches was somewhat predictable, but that didn't take away from the impact. The highlight of the story for me was the end, where the light at the end of the tunnel turns out to be a freight train, headed right for me.

A very satisfying read and highly recommended.

[adriana.gusmao.58 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Kind of disturbing to imagine that such a "mother" could exist.

[weelinda · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

This book was a stunning story of how you never upset your mother but all in all loved this book not even half way throw the story and I wanted to really slap the mother repeatedly the end on the other hand could have been better but this didn't hamper the story in any way so saying that I would recommend to all my friends and I would like to thank the author for bring this book to fruition and I will be looking out for more of her works with that all said keep smiling and happy reading with love from wee me.xxxxxxxxxx

[yougotamber · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

"Mother, Mother" is a mystery novel, a very unique one. It tells this elaborate family mystery through the eyes of two very different but equally tortured teens. The daughter is the typical rebellious girl who feels unloved and misunderstood. The character that really got me hooked was the son, the beloved slightly autistic child who can't cope without his mother’s love?!? (The word love is debatable).

Part of what made this a unique mystery is a big mish mash; young teen characters, broken family and psychological disorders all thrown into a giant blender with a huge dash of mystery and puzzle solving, this concoction makes for a fantastic story. I’m not an avid reader of either the YA or mystery genre, mostly because I feel like you have to sift through so much to get something unique. However, this is something unique and I believe it’s mostly due to the Author, a girl who herself has personal experience with teenage struggles. I haven’t read her other books but I plan to, especially now.

Sorry Koren, but I never had an interest to read another tortured teen telling her life story…. BUT one who writes, and does it with passion… yes, I will. Thankfully you had a booth at BEA this year and with a successful book already behind you… I was more inclined to check out this fictional one. I’m ever so glad I did! If you’re like me (sifting through dozens of upcoming YA or mystery Authors just feels exhausting and not worth the time) you’ll want to give THIS one a chance, it’ll be worth the time.

[jphamilton-1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Oh say, can you see, a more dysfunctional family? I doubt it. This was a slow-building trip on a madly twisting road of anger, violence, and some bizarre family dynamics. It was very entertaining, a little unsettling, and I loved it.

[renee.brandon · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Talk about a psychological thriller! Koren Zailckas does not disappoint with this book. I have never heard of this author before receiving this book from Blogging for Books. The idea of a very controlling mother, to the point of craziness is a topic that has always intrigued me. As a mother, I truly understand the desire of wanting your family to appear "perfect" to others. Of course, I am not like Josephine, as I have learned that being imperfect is the fun of being a parent.

This story is told through two different points of view - Violet's and Will's. Violet is a typical teen who is trying to find her way, but realizing that she can never be what her mother wants her to be. To counteract this, Violet seems to go to extremes in avoiding the mess her life actually is. She lands in a psych ward and through friendships that she forms there, Violet begins to understand herself, her family, and even why her mother is the way that she is. The unfortunate part is that, Josephine can never truly be understood.
Will is Josephine's last child - her baby. He still lives at home and is only twelve. His story is told through his eyes, and they do not always understand what he is seeing or hearing. Will does not seem to understand how the world works, how people function, and how to be "normal". He does what his mother tells him to do, wears what she picks out for him, and he even lets her brush and floss his teeth. Needless to say, Will and his mother seem to have a very bizarre relationship. This is a major playing point throughout the story.

After a strange, crazy, horrible event that lands Violet in the psych ward and Will trying to understand things, the story does not slow down. Both characters draw you in to their side of the story and I found myself wanting to keep reading to find out what happens next. This is a book that I could not put down. The craziness, emotional, psychological ride that Zailckas takes the read through is unbelievable. Out of 5 stars, I give it 4.5, and that is only because the ending seemed quickly done and when I was done with the book, I found myself still wanting more. An excellent read for ages 14 and up.

I received this book for free from Blogging for Books for this review.

[thewanderingjew_1 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Before you begin this book, make sure you have lots of free time because you will not be able to put it down! Did you like Gone Girl? I thought this was even more of a cliffhanger. When it ended, I kind of hoped that there would be a sequel to follow.In order of age, there are three children: Rose, Viola and William. Rose has disappeared, run away from home, Viola (Violet) is rebelling, she is on a weird starvation diet, and William is being home-schooled as a result of bullying. He has recently been diagnosed as both epileptic and autistic. Douglas, the father, is an alcoholic. Josephine is the mother, and you will soon get a picture of a family with dysfunction, a family in which Josephine appears to be the only one who is put together with all the right parts in the right place. But you will keep wondering, is she?Violet, Will and Doug, all have some kind of blackout episodes: Will from stress, Doug from drink and Violet from drugs. Whenever a traumatic incident occurs, Josephine takes charge, assumes the position of authority, makes the decisions, and relates the details to everyone. She creates the narrative everyone believes. She seems to be the only one who has a clear-head and a complete awareness of events.Nothing, however, is what it appears to be. Trompe l’oeil, sleight of hand and misdirection appear in every chapter. Each chapter is labeled either William Hurst or Violet Hurst, and the tale evolves through their eyes, through their interpretation of events with sudden insights and/or mistakes of judgment. It is their conclusions that ultimately define the events that occur.Violet has a really good friend named Imogen. Her mother, Beryl, is suffering from Cancer. Beryl and Josephine represent two sides of a coin, two types of sickness, the head and the tail, the good and the evil; in a way, both are extreme representations of the dominant quality of their own personalities. One is perhaps, a little overly empathetic, kind and interested in others, while the other is, perhaps, a narcissist, only interested in herself and the attention she can attract. The author’s writing style relates these events in such an easy-going manner that everything that happens seems plausible, albeit from different and opposing vantage points. There is no evidence to disprove anything any character believes, so conclusions, right and wrong, are drawn with whatever evidence is provided.Who is the favorite child? Is it William, Rose or Violet, is it a double entendre? Is it the child that once was Josephine or Doug? Who can tell? Read on and try and find out. It is a story about relationships, emotional and mental illness, learning disabilities, overreactions, parenting styles, healthy and unhealthy environments and the growing pains of children as they mature. All of these subjects and more, are a bit hidden in the pages, but they are subtly explored within the diabolical, Alfred Hitchcock type plot; you can almost hear the theme song. The story is addictive, written in an almost matter-of-fact, conversational tone, so that once you begin, you will be drawn into the conversation, and you won’t want to stop reading until you find out who is the villain, who is the cruel and sadistic, cold and calculating liar, the puppeteer orchestrating all episodes. Enough said, or I will give something away. You must read this book for yourself to discover the truth or, perhaps, what appears to be the truth! The minds of the characters are explored so thoroughly that you may want to jump into the book and throttle one of them, shake some sense into them, change the course of action, but you can’t! The tale will march on to its own conclusion with you as its captive.

[bookbets50 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

A book that keeps you reading in the way that you can't help but look at a fatal accident...this is the story of what the underbelly of a dysfunctional family looks like. It is hard to say that I enjoyed it exactly, but it definitely is a book I will not forget.

[autumngirl70 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

I loved the way the chapters alternated between the narration of Violet and Will. Each reveals a little more information about family life in the Hurst household, but you’re not sure how much of it is the truth.My favourite character was Violet as I felt sorry for her and how her life was panning out.Overall I really liked the book. There were a couple of twists I didn’t see coming and the ending tied up a few loose ends for me, which I like. You’ve invested time in getting to know the characters and it’s good to know what happens to them and where they are going after you have turned the last page.I received a copy of this book from lovereading.co.uk in exchange for an unbiased review.

[sparemethecensor · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

This had me glued to my chair until I finished. Zailckas has written a thriller with all the elements of suspense you look for but also a lot of depth within the family dynamics. Pieces of the plot are somewhat predictable, but that didn't stop me from enjoying the ride. Told in alternating chapters by two of the Hurst children, Zailckas slowly unfolds a frightening tale of a mentally ill mother who will go to extreme lengths to keep up appearances.

[jen6e6moore · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

I really wanted to like this, but I feel like it was a little too on-the-nose for me. I had figured out almost everything that had happened by a quarter of the way in. Worse (because a mystery is one thing but poor characters are something else), I just couldn't believe in Violet. She was too self-possessed all the way through; I didn't feel like she had a chance to grow. Or rather, all her growth happened in the first ten pages, and from there on out she was just proving to everyone else that she was a real person. Will, on the other hand, was very well done - although he did read a little older than twelve to me.

[hfineisen · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Different and uncomfortable. You will read this knowing there is something not quite right, but you can't turn away. Oh, and that perfect mother next door? About her......

[coloradogirl14 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

I picked up this book expecting an interesting psychological thriller. What I got was a psychological thriller that knocked my figurative socks off. A book to rival Sharp Objects or Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn, which is near blasphemy coming from me. But holy cow - Koren Zailckas really delivers with this book.The story centers around Josephine Hurst, mother to three children and wife to a brilliant tech guru. On the outside, they look perfect. But within a short amount of time, Josephine's older daughter runs away, her younger daughter turns to drugs and is eventually committed to a psychiatric hospital, and her only son has recently been diagnosed with autism and epilepsy. Josephine does everything in her power to keep her family's image intact, but a visit from Child Protective Services threatens Josephine and her family's secrets.Since we are very much aware that Josephine is a manipulative, narcissistic sociopath from the first chapter, the shocks and surprises come as we start to realize just how manipulative Josephine can be. When her oldest daughter, Rose becomes pregnant, Josephine is horrified and tells her daughter that she will ruin her image as well as the family's image if she goes through with the pregnancy, essentially driving Rose towards an abortion that she doesn't really want. But weeks afterwards, Josephine plants a graphic photo of an aborted fetus in the house, waiting for Rose to stumble across it. As Rose says, no matter what course of action she takes, she will always be punished for not being her mother's perfect child anymore.The entire story alternates between two points of view: Violet, the middle child who is forcefully committed to a psychiatric ward, and Will, the son who has been recently diagnosed as autistic and epileptic. The reader's entire perception of Josephine comes from these two characters: one who is desperately fighting against her mother's manipulation, and one who is unknowingly pulled into it. As a result, Josephine becomes a more frightening and unpredictable adversary. We can't know her thoughts, but we can see how she changes her personality and reasoning depending on who she's interacting with. We start to see the discrepancies that she has kept hidden from her family. It’s the kind of book where you want to pull your hair and scream at the characters. “Don’t you see what’s going on?! Don’t you see she’s lying to you?!”Someone described characters like these as characters you love to hate. Like Nick & Amy from Flynn’s Gone Girl, the Hursts are not a particularly likeable family. Besides Josephine, Will is a naïve, yet manipulative boy and Douglas, the father, is a recovering alcoholic who turns a blind eye to the chaos going on inside the house. It would be easy for this book to slip into melodrama, but Zailckas keeps the story tight and realistic. That’s the scariest part about this book – not how manipulative Josephine is, but how REALISTICALLY manipulative she is. I was staggered by the time I closed this book, and my immediate impulse was to flip it over and read it all over again. This is one hell of a shocking and powerful read.Recommended for: fans of psychological thrillers, fans of Gillian Flynn. Readalikes:All of Gillian Flynn’s novels would work, but her first, Sharp Objects, makes a great readalike for Mother, Mother. Sharp Objects follows the story of Camille Preaker, a troubled journalist who ventures back to her hometown to cover the story of two bizarre murders. Her mother has the same manipulative and controlling nature as Josephine, and as the book progresses, the reader begins to realize just how poisonous Camille’s mother can be.Sickened: The Memoir of a Munchausen by Proxy Childhood by Julie Gregory. As a child, the author’s mother would intentionally make her daughter believe that she was sick in order to gain the approval of the hospital staff and other parents. This shocking and gut-churning memoir emphasizes the realism of Mother, Mother and exposes a form of abuse not commonly recognized. Smashed: Story of a Drunken Girlhood – Koren Zailckas. Before Mother, Mother, the author was a teenager suffering from blackout alcoholism. With her poetic and candid writing, Zailckas shows the reader everything from her first sip of alcohol at fourteen to her total disorientation at twenty-two, after waking up in an unfamiliar New York City apartment.

[pattylouise_1 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Mother, MotherByKoren ZailckasMy "in a nutshell" summary...Josephine loves her three children...Rose, Violet, and Will...or does she?My thoughts after reading this book...Most of this story takes place in a small town...a suburb...not far from NYC. The Hursts are seemingly a normal family. However, their oldest daughter Rose has run away, middle daughter Violet is in a psych ward after an attack on her younger brother, and that brother, Will, is a pet of his mother. He has diagnoses of Asburger's, epilepsy, and more.It seemed as though most of the story was told from Violet's and Will's views. Douglas, their father, is a recovering alcoholic who doesn't seem to have a grip on what is happening to his family but as he gains sobriety he becomes more involved. Violet is desperate to reach Rose so that she can live with her. Will is just eager to keep his mother's attention on him. Violet...just 16...has shaved her head, practiced weird religions and become a vegetarian...all attempts to act out against her mother. Rose...purported to be Josephine's favorite...also ran afoul of Josephine's good will by getting pregnant, having an abortion and changing her major. Will...does anything his mother says for fear of her punishments. His illnesses are not actually real ones. Either way...he is homeschooled and dressed and educated by Josephine. She sets out his clothes every day and even flosses his teeth...creepy stuff. Any time he disappoints her she withholds her approval.It seems as though there are conflicting accounts about the night Violet supposedly stabs Will. As Violet gets stronger and talks to more people...Josephine's hold on her family starts to falter. CPS gets involved and Josephine needs more and more lies from Will to keep her world in control. What I loved about this book...Violet was my favorite character. She worked her way out of all of the lies and into the awful truth. It almost led to a horrible outcome for her.What I did not love about this book...Josephine! What a sick weird creepy mother! What a grand movie this would make! I would cast Miley Cyrus as Violet, Cameron Diaz as Josephine, not sure about Will but the doctor from Twilight for Douglas...and there are other great characters, too. The social worker...Nick from Child Services...Violet's friends...Imogene and Finch...and Rose.Final thoughts... I didn't appreciate this book when I first started it but it just hooked me after a while. I love the way this author writes. I hung onto every word. Josephine scared me constantly...I never knew what terrible thing she would do next...she was the master of psychological abuse.I still think Cameron Diaz would be perfect as Josephine...remember her in Bad Teacher?Lol...

[twink_2 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Koren Zailckas? Yes, you may recognize the name - Zailckas penned the New York Times best selling memoir Smashed: Story of a Drunken Girlhood. Zailckas turns her hand to fiction with her debut novel Mother, Mother. Oh man, where to start..... Josephine Hurst likes things her way - perfect. Her perfect. And she lovingly imposes her will on her family - husband Douglas, daughter Violet and son Will. Her other daughter Rose has run away from home. Zailckas lets us know right from the first pages that Josephine isn't like other mothers, as much as she tries to portrays that image. "Thou shalt feign perfection and thou shalt not air the family laundry. "The whole family lives in a state of permanent watchfulness....just waiting....Douglas chooses to self medicate with alcohol and leaves his children to fend for themselves. Violet has chosen drugs. Rose escaped. And William has been diagnosed as epileptic and autistic. (But it took Josie a bit to find a doctor who agreed with her diagnosis) Mother, Mother is told from two viewpoints - that of Violet and William. Both narratives are wildly different - Violet know her life isn't normal and wants to escape like Rose, while William is determined to defend his mother. The same events are seen through different sets of eyes. But as a reader, both accounts only serve to underscore how twisted, manipulative and insidious Josephine is. And I mean really, really terrifying.... There is no gray territory, no sitting on the fence, no reserving judgement in Zailckas's novel. You'll be rooting for Violet, hoping she can find the strength she needs, wanting to reach into the pages and shake Douglas and wake him up to wake him up to what is happening around him. William needs to be deprogrammed as quickly as possible. Where is Rose? And Josephine...what's frightening is that there are people like this in the world. "Her mother's eyes had held Violet with a looks-could-kill glare. It was a face that carried a vindictive warning. A face that told Violet, Just you wait..." Mother, Mother is a thriller in the highest sense - we know there's a monster in the closet, even if others don't see it. The question is - what happens when the lights go off? You won't be turning the lights off until you're done this book - I raced through most of it one late night and got up early to see it through to the end. Many books have been touted as appealing to fans of Gillian Flynn's Gone Girl. Few, if any, have lived up to that recommendation. Mother, Mother does. Think Mommie Dearest meets Psycho meets Girl Interrupted. . Whatever Zailckas writes next - I'm reading.

[readers_respite · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Zailckas has penned a psychologically tense, riveting novel in Mother, Mother. The Hurst family is what has become a typically dysfunctional American family. An unhappy marriage, possibly adulterous father, controlling mother, and three siblings of varying dysfunction. Mental institutions, drug abuse, domestic violence all contributes to what I eventually came to call a mystery of sorts - a mystery because not all is what it seems. Told in alternating points of view between two of the siblings, we are left with tantalizing clues as we try to see past the obvious and discover what is really going on here. Not without flaws, but good enough to keep me enthralled while reading! Recommended.

[stephanieloves · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

I haven't read too many psychologically thrillers, but I really should more often. Mother, Mother is a book that's impossible not to enjoy; with an unconventional perspective on what it means to be a doting mother, it at once left me greatly disturbed and deeply satisfied, which is an emotive pairing I never expected myself to feel.First off, I should warn you all: this book is not for the faint-hearted. There isn't so much blood and guts here as there is a grotesquely screwed-up family... yes, it's that kind of scary. The false cheeriness—the cutting sarcasm—that floats in the atmosphere of the novel makes it all the more frightening; you can think of Josephine as a cross between the ultimate Stepford wife and Psycho's Norman Bates, which is a genius, but lethal combination.The story begins in Woodstock, New York, in the wake of the oldest Hurst daughter, Rose's sudden departure, which Josephine swears is all part of Rose's grand plan to turn her perfect family into a perfect wreck... or at least expose its so-called "perfection" to the world. Violet, the younger Hurst flower, suffers from what at first appears to be middle child syndrome: not good enough to replace her sister yet not respected enough to trump her coddled, autistic brother, William. As detached as she is from everyone in her family, including, fortunately, her mother, she and her brother share a convoluted connection in that they're both trying to find Rose, or at least find out what really happened to her. Both children try to figure out the blurry night when everything changed—when William was attacked, Violet institutionalized, and Rose, after a whole year of missing, reappeared—but the task proves more difficult than expected because only one person seems to have been in the right mind when everything happened: Josephine. The "real" events of that night slowly unravel to reveal Josephine's projectionist tendencies, her most horrifying defects, and the way she so obviously plagues each of her family members, but then again, when it comes to the Hursts, even real can't be trusted.The two points-of-view of Violet and Will are fascinating to read together, especially because of how sharply they contrast; it's like reading two different books interlaced, which mimics the polarity in Josephine's menacing personality. Will's logical and uncomfortably candid narrative is highly influenced and tainted, while Violet's is fresh and intuitive, although very, very cloudy. Both narrators are so easy to sympathize with, and yet neither are completely reliable; knowing which frame of mind to favor, is all up to the reader.With stunning characterization and a climax that confirms the worst of suspicions and shocks you to the core, Zailckas shows us the good, the bad, and the hideous of a family that's about to come crashing down under the weight of a calculated secret and a web of lies. Mother, Mother had my head spinning throughout; this is definitely the kind of intelligent read that will keep you in a constant frenzy.Pros: Sharp, astute voice // Fascinating subject matter and interesting take on a suburbian nightmare // Fast-paced // Will and Violet are brilliantly developed // The climax—it's got to be one of the best I've seen in contemporary fictionCons: Multiple perspectives and flashbacks are confusing in the beginningVerdict: The multiple faces of a desperate mother are painfully exposed as her misunderstood and determined daughter and misguided and idolatrous young son attempt to crack the case on the disappearance of their doll of an older sister, Rose. Mother, Mother is delectable in the sickest, most disorienting, and most unorthodox way; completely disturbing and completely original, this psychological thriller is an impressive debut. Zailckas's abrasive first novel, chronicled with a building sense of dread—a lingering discomfort—is a reluctant masterpiece; a darkly comical tale about the manipulative means a mother will go to in order to get her way.Rating: 9 out of 10 hearts (5 stars): Loved it! This book has a spot on my favorites shelf.Source: Complimentary copy provided by publisher, via publicist, in exchange for an honest and unbiased review (thank you, Random House and TLC Book Tours!).

[erikschreppel · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

I never read Koren Zailckas' first book "Smashed", but after reading "Mother, Mother" I will. "Mother, Mother" is a wonderfully written novel, that does a great job keeping the underlying tension ratcheted up throughout. Most times I read a blurb that tells me how this writer is carrying on the mantle of another great writer, I am skeptical. When the comparison is to a writer I am a huge fan of, in this case Shirley Jackson, I am incensed. But in this case the comparison is actually valid. Jackson's great gift was finding the darkness in the ordinary. She could describe eating breakfast in such a way that you got chills. Zailckas, while not in Jackson's class yet, does just that quite admirably. The chronicling of this families downward spiral shows that Zailckas has a great future in fiction. Now I need to go back and read her non fiction as well.

[clstern-1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

I received this book from the Library Things Early Reviewer program. I wasn't expecting much, but was pleasantly surprised by this family drama that starts off seemingly benign, and descends into a dark, creepy place full of dysfunction and betrayal.

[beecharmer_1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

I gave Mother, Mother by Koren Zailckas 4 stars. It kept my interest and turned out differently than I had thought. Josephine, the mother was downright creepy. I intensely disliked the son Will, but that was probably the authors intent. Unfortunately there are really mothers out there like that, and like the book, some kids survive it and others don't. I will be looking for more by this author.

[jrquilter · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

This book is about a family that puts the "dys" in dysfunctional. It is told from the alternating points of view between Violet, the drug using teenage daughter and her younger autistic brother, William. Their older sister, Rose, is presumed to be a run-away. Time has passed and they are getting on with their flawed lives. Pivotal in this drama is their mother who appears to be a master manipulator. I enjoyed this novel very much.

[amekole · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

This book starts out like a "normal" dysfunctional family, but every chapter leads you deeper and deeper into disturbing pathology. I really liked how the book switched who's voice and mind you got to experience. It really brought home the divergent paths of repeating cycles of behavior vs breaking out of cycles of behavior generationally. It was psychologically fascinating - provided interesting insight. Recommend!

[boobalack · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

The Hurst Family Members: 1. Josephine – the Beast Mother from Hell – definitely a narcissist 2. Douglas – the mostly ineffective, trying to recover alcoholic Father 3. Rose – the twenty-year-old aspiring actress daughter 4. Violet – the sixteen-year-old experimenting with drugs daughter 5. William – the twelve-year-old Mama’s BoyAs the story begins, Rose has just run away from home, as Josephine says. Violet informs her that when a person as old as Rose leaves home, it’s not called running away, it’s called moving out. Josephine reports her as missing, there is a small investigation, and evidence is found to indicate that she left of her own free will. Josephine is more upset that Rose abandoned her and disowned her family and that Rose’s boyfriend talked ugly to her on the telephone than she is concerned about Rose’s well being. In fact, anything that reflects on her perfect family is swept under the rug, and Josephine keeps worrying about her self and manipulating everyone in sight. Douglas is mostly in the background, paying little real attention to his children and seems to be afraid of his wife. Who can blame him? He is apparently cheating on Josephine with a woman named Carrie.Josephine doesn’t approve of Violet’s best friend and her brother, and when she finds out that the teens have been using different types of drugs, she manages to have Violet committed to a mental facility for evaluation. She’s hoping they will keep Violet, if not forever, at least for many years. Violet makes a good friend, Edie, while in the hospital. When Violet gets a letter from Rose, Edie is as happy as Violet. Edie turns out to have a good grasp on reality and helps Violet figure out a few things.William is home-schooled and appears to be a very intelligent young man. He is socially awkward, probably having an Oedipus complex. His mother likes it that way, as she has him under her thumb, and he always takes her side of any situation. By the end of the book, he wonders if it is normal for a mother to still be bathing her twelve-year-old son. She also lays out his clothes for him each day, as well as calling him “stud” and pinching his rear on occasion.This book was one of those you hate to put down because you just have to see what happens next. What happens next will usually surprise you, but I think you’ll begin to realize about halfway to the end of the novel that things are not always what they seem to be.I highly recommend this book to anyone who thinks he or she had a horrible mother.

[kdabra4 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

After reading another book about secrets last week, I was just talking about how most of us put on a public persona so we are more likable to others, keeping our true thoughts to ourselves. In Mother, Mother, that’s putting it mildly. In fact, Mother, aka Josephine Hurst, is so despicable, she makes Joan Crawford look like Mother of the Year. She insists that the outside world think her family is picture perfect, that they’re living storybook lives, and no family member must ever besmirch that image, even though entirely false. Douglas, the father, is beaten down by Josie and is an alcoholic. Rose, the eldest child, lived her years at home being the faithful obedient-servant daughter – until she felt like an employee and rebelled with a surprise pregnancy, and an even bigger surprise exit from the family unit. Violet the 16 year old has turned to hallucinogens and suicide-by-starvation, but somehow manages to seem like the only levelheaded one in the bunch. And 12 year old Will has epilepsy along with what Josephine has “internet-diagnosed” as Asperger’s and so has started to home school him, making him stuck with the monster day in and day out, with the damage only starting to surface.Clearly, some people should never have children. Others should be locked up for life, and I don’t mean for crimes committed, I mean simply “committed.” For Josephine Hurst, both statements would apply. I highly recommend this, for its very contemporary feel and for the bits of witticism that still manage to come out of the evil and darkness so well portrayed here. Would have been 5 stars but the grip it had on me started to fall short a little toward the end. Thanks to librarything.com for the advanced copy!

[twistingthelens_1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

This was a fascinating read. It is about losing control and finding out who those around you really are- one secret at a time. It is a difficult read because it strikes a cord as being so real, but that is also what makes it tough to put down. It is a thrill-ride into the depths of deception and family secrets, as well as weaknesses and finding a way out of the darkness. I highly recommend this as a different kind of read this summer.

[loveatfirstbook · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

I was sooooo excited to win this book from LibraryThing! Mother, Mother is Koren Zailckas’s fiction debut, and it did not disappoint. Do you think her name sounds familiar? If so, it is because you might know her from her nonfiction titles. While I was not in love with her memoir Smashed, I was totally obsessed with Mother, Mother. Mother, Mother is told from the perspectives of Violet Hurst and William Hurst, two of the three Hurst siblings. Their mother, Josephine Hurst, is someone you can tell is manipulative. Where’s Dad in all this? Wasted.Turns out, Rose is another Hurst sibling who ran away a little while before. But after Violet has a bad drug trip, she quickly realizes that something is up. For the full review, visit Love at First Book