Leanne Olson

by Zoje Stage

Published March 1, 2023 by Thomas & Mercer

Mothered is a deeply weird and heartbreaking horror story about a mother and daughter forced to self-isolate together during a pandemic, and the family secrets and lies that come to the surface as they lose touch with reality.

I’ve read a few pandemic books lately and Zoje Stage’s Mothered is the one that represents it best for me  Stage completely captures that feeling of unreality and isolation in that first year of Covid-19 (though the pandemic itself is not identified in the book).  

Grace is used to living alone, and having her mother Jackie move in with her is both smothering and even more isolating.  The book is filled with unreliable memories and dream sequences as Grace tries to reconcile her childhood memories of her mother with the woman before her now.  

Zoje Stage is one of my favourite horror authors, and I love how each of her books is completely different in story, theme, and tone.  I never know what I’m getting into when I pick them up, except that her characters are always wonderfully complex, and no matter how messed up they are, I find myself rooting for them.  

I love when a horror writer can make me forget I’m reading horror, and for just a moment, I get caught up in the character relationships and think “Oh, they’ll figure it out, maybe everything will be fine.”  Her novels feel like Greek tragedies on a smaller scale.

🌟🌟🌟🌟1/2

Thank you to Netgalley and Thomas & Mercer for my review copy of this book.