Motherthing by Ainslie Hogarth

Yall, before reading this know that in here we have probable CSA, child abuse, mental health issues, murder, forced cannibalism, suicide, and so many other messed up things. And I inhaled this in one day. The formatting on this one has errors, I hope they are fixed before release.

Spoilers abound, not all of them will be hidden.

This entire story was told by Abby, the most unreliable narrator to ever narrate. She has undiagnosed mental issues and she is married to Ralph who, since a child, has diagnosed mental issues brought on by his mother. His mother was diagnosed with BPD and ended up killing herself. The entire story is what happened after she died.

We never get details on what exactly happened in childhood for either Abby or Ralph. This story really could have used those details, because while this was entertaining, it could have been so much better.

Some of this book was written like a play or tv script, which was not good. I disliked that immensely. The one that Abby kills and feeds to Ralph, Janet, is one of the rare times my actual name is used and it was in here 144 times. It really did not need to be used that many times.

Overall though, this was not a horror book, there is nothing really scary about mental illness. I personally don't think, in the year of 2022, that we need to keep making people with mental issues the bad guys in horror books.

GR Link