The School for Good Mothers

Read a review that said this would be better in first person and I cannot help but agree. Frida did this, Frida did that. It all felt so detached. The emotion I felt throughout this was anger. I was actually livid the entire time. Part of this is the structure of this world, specifically the shaming, that was purposely built to make me angry. But I think part of that anger comes from a complacency on Frida's part. We don't actually see her resist much at all until the very end and this resistance is undeveloped. It affects everyone around her, specifically Will, who has broken so many rules at her expense. She even confesses her love before doing what she does. Despite this, I think the end is very, very emotionally impactful. It has the most emotion of the entire book. Still, it's emotionality is undercut by details that are unnecessary. I think the most unrealistic aspect of this book is how the “bad mothers” ranged from objectively physically abusive mothers to people who ‘babied' their child? The commentary, that mothers are supposed to be perfect, doesn't work when we're forced to believe that an abusive mother's only flaw is that they aren't perfect. There is a separation, and it has nothing to do with perfection.