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Summary
Summary
From Koren Zailckas, author of the iconic memoir SMASHED: an electrifying debut novel about a family being torn apart by the woman who claims to love them most
Josephine Hurst has her family under control. With two beautiful daughters, a brilliantly intelligent son, a tech-guru of a husband and a historical landmark home, her life is picture perfect. She has everything she wants; all she has to do is keep it that way. But living in this matriarch's determinedly cheerful, yet subtly controlling domain hasn't been easy for her family, and when her oldest daughter, Rose, runs off with a mysterious boyfriend, Josephine tightens her grip, gradually turning her flawless home into a darker sort of prison.
Resentful of her sister's newfound freedom, Violet turns to eastern philosophy, hallucinogenic drugs, and extreme fasting, eventually landing herself in the psych ward. Meanwhile, her brother Will shrinks further into a world of self-doubt. Recently diagnosed with Aspergers and epilepsy, he's separated from the other kids around town and is homeschooled to ensure his safety. Their father, Douglas, finds resolve in the bottom of the bottle--an addict craving his own chance to escape. Josephine struggles to maintain the family's impeccable façade, but when a violent incident leads to a visit from child protective services, the truth about the Hursts might finally be revealed.
Written with the style, dark wit and shrewd psychological insight that made SMASHED a bestseller, Zailckas's first novel is unforgettable. In the spirit of classic suspense novels by Shirley Jackson and Daphne DuMaurier, MOTHER, MOTHER is the terrifying and page-turning story of a mother's love gone too far, and the introduction of a commanding new voice in fiction.
Author Notes
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.
Reviews (5)
Publisher's Weekly Review
This is a riveting fiction debut from Zailckas, whose bestselling memoirs Smashed and Fury portrayed the author as a young woman ravaged by alcohol addiction and anger. Never mind that Zailckas explores some of the same disturbing territory here. It's the kind of book that keeps you up at night, featuring a mother to rival Medea or Mrs. Bates. Violet, the dysfunctional Hurst family's stoner middle child, cannot remember which family member slashed her 12-year-old brother Will the night she overdosed on some strange seeds. But her mother, Josephine, blames her, and has her committed to a psychiatric hospital. Violet has no idea who to turn to for help: her spineless, alcoholic father, Douglas; her runaway older sister, Rose; or Will, the home-schooled mama's boy. Violet searches for clues relating to Rose's disappearance, but nothing adds up, and every day Will becomes more desperately dependent on Josephine. The shocking and violent denouement shows Zailckas to be a consummate storyteller. Let's hope that when she's used up all her own demons as subject matter, she'll come looking for ours. (Sept.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.
Kirkus Review
In Zailckas' (Fury: A Memoir, 2010, etc.) debut novel, an unhinged matriarch drives a family into destruction. The family is the Hursts; the setting, the Hudson Valley north of New York City. Father Douglas is an IT guru. Mother Josephine is a former academic. Preteen Will is home-schooled. Daughter Violet attends high school, and daughter Rose is in college. Perfect, on the surface. But Will has been diagnosed with Asperger's syndrome and epilepsy--that is, if narcissist Josephine isn't a victim/victimizer of Munchausen syndrome. Douglas, dream marriage turned nightmare, isolates himself with alcohol. Rose has fled, apparently dropping out of college to run away to New York City with a boyfriend the family's never met. And Violet, passing through myriad valleys of teen angst, including sallekhana, ritual fasting to death, has been committed to Fallkill, a mental facility. After ingesting morning glory seeds, Violet supposedly injured Will with a knife while attempting to attack her mother. The narrative unfolds in chapters following Will and Violet, ironic since hospitalized Violet is more emotionally grounded than mother-smothered Will, brainwashed into seeing Josephine as perfect. Violet's perception of the Hurst family's breakdown grows as she interacts with fellow Fallkill patients Corinna and especially Edie, "ever the damage[d] scholar of psychology," a manic depressive college student with more insight into Josephine's twisted psychology than the resident therapist, "Sara-pist." Violet, wounded survivor, recognizes that Josephine, all lies, manipulation and control, is "cat-woman crazy, fueled by sadism and bottomless need." When Violet, free from Fallkill and intent on slipping away to live with Rose, is confronted by Josephine, violence flashes, only to be followed by a melancholy conclusion that sifts through the debris. No beach-read escapism in this novel, but rather a hall of mirrors reflecting chaotic maternal psychological mayhem reminiscent of Mommie Dearest or Push or Ordinary People.]] Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Booklist Review
Zailckas, known for her biting memoirs Smashed: Story of a Drunken Girlhood (2005) and Fury: True Tales of a Girl Gone Ballistic (2010), turns to the (hopefully) fictional tale of a woman hell-bent on manipulating the world around her. Matriarch Josephine doesn't quite have things under control the way she would prefer. Her husband is an alcoholic; her son is on the autism spectrum; her younger daughter, Violet, has just been committed to a mental hospital; and her older daughter is a runaway. But to the outside world, this extremely dysfunctional family looks practically flawless, thanks to Josephine's well-plotted machinations. When she concocts a story meant to keep Violet locked away, it means a visit from Child Protective Services that puts the family in a spotlight, and Josephine's carefully constructed world begins to crumble (much like the Martha Stewart scones she has ready for them upon their arrival). Josephine is a truly frightening character realistically flawed with just the right touch of over-the-top madness and Zailckas crafts an intriguing mystery surrounding this family that will keep readers on edge as she slowly peels back layer after layer of deception.--Vnuk, Rebecca Copyright 2010 Booklist
New York Review of Books Review
The central figure of Zailckas's psychological thriller is Josephine Hurst, mother to three children and a malignant narcissist. Josephine demands outward perfection and victimizes her children behind closed doors. Her daughters have it bad: the eldest, Rose, runs away under suspicious circumstances, while Violet lands in a psychiatric hospital after being accused of attacking her younger brother, Will. But most threatening of all is the total control Josephine wields over her son, whom she keeps medicated for autism even though it's not clear he really has the condition. With Child Protective Services investigating Violet's supposed attack on Will, the authorities reopen the case of Rose's disappearance, threatening to reveal Josephine's secrets and causing her illness to escalate. Though her psychological profile fits that of a narcissist, Josephine's power to manipulate is undermined, along with the novel's suspense, by the fact that most of the characters realize she is dangerously ill. Nobody knows this better than Violet, who at 16 displays an overly sophisticated clinical understanding of her own and her family's psychology, and comes across as fully capable of escaping her troubled past - especially since she has the support of an intelligent therapist, case workers and the police officer on Rose's case. Narcissists are most dangerous when they seem like anyone else, but Josephine doesn't have enough people fooled to make this thriller frightening.
Library Journal Review
Zailckas's first novel after the extremely well-received memoir Smashed: Story of a Drunken Girlhood tells a similarly compelling story that at times is difficult to read owing to the disturbing details of abuse. The dysfunctional family at the center of the novel is run like a corporation by a two-faced CEO: Josephine Hurst, former artist and mother of three. The story of Josephine's subtle manipulation unfolds from the perspectives of 12-year-old William, who has recently been diagnosed as autistic and taken out of public school, and 16-year-old Violet, who has just been committed to a mental hospital. The atmosphere of the hospital and its routines and characters are richly imagined and bring to mind Susanna Kaysen's Girl, Interrupted. While the novel takes place over a brief period in a small town in New York, the language and emotions render an epic quality of classic family sagas such as Thomas Mann's Buddenbrooks or Dostoyevsky's The Brothers Karamazov. VERDICT An excellent page-turner recommended for those who enjoy psychological thrillers and aren't afraid of narratives that look evil in the face. [See Prepub Alert, 3/18/13.]-Kate Gray, Shrewsbury P.L., MA (c) Copyright 2013. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.