I have to be honest; I think this book is cynical garbage. Let me explain. The novel is about a mommy group in Brooklyn who go out for their first night away from their babies a few months after giving birth and become embroiled in both scandal and a horrific crime when one of the babies goes missing from home with the babysitter. The book then jumps back and forth from a few different tome periods in the various member’s lives to place them in New York, joining the May Mothers, in the mid stages of their pregnancies in order to meet up and find this involvement.
The book then becomes an analysis of middle class (and middle brow) (white) womanhood in today’s America. We are treated to one nonsensical Trump reference to really cement when and where we are.
A book about a group of mothers who are shaky in their status and self-reflection and trying to figure out how to live in the world and be comfortable with their choices would be interesting, and of course, plenty of books have been written about what missing children can do to communities and families.
But this book goes hogwild in a few ways, absolutely souring whatever good it dreams up. First of all, it’s a basic-ass thriller. It downright steals elements from other well-known thrillers ie Gone Girl and The Girl on the Train, so much so that I was like oh, here’s the Gone Girl part….and here’s the Girl on the Train part. It makes cheap topical analysis on women’s issues (and I KNOW I am not one to really call this out) but if your point is to underscore how pervasive and pernicious stereotypes of women are….don’t employ them. If you want to talk about how unfair it is for “interns” who are predated on by powerful politicians, and why naming scandals named for the 22 year interns….don’t use one as a D plot in your book. I won’t go into the other ways this happens because of spoilers. But this is a book that plays in the stereotypes, without irony, while telling how dangerous it all is. It steals from other women’s writers….and at least Gone Girl was smart enough to know what it was doing.
(Photo: https://www.amazon.com/Perfect-Mother-Novel-Aimee-Molloy/dp/0062696793/ref=sr_1_1?keywords=the+perfect+mother&qid=1564690771&s=gateway&sr=8-1)