#mothered by zoje stage | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

liber---monstrorum · 1 year

Text

2 ⭐ - sorry if the review sounds mean, I got infected with the nightmare vegan evil disease

SUMMARY

Grace isn’t exactly thrilled when her newly widowed mother, Jackie, asks to move in with her. They’ve never had a great relationship, and Grace likes her space—especially now that she’s stuck at home during a pandemic. Then again, she needs help with the mortgage after losing her job. And maybe it’ll be a chance for them to bond—or at least give each other a hand. But living with Mother isn’t for everyone. Good intentions turn bad soon after Jackie moves in. Old wounds fester; new ones open. Grace starts having nightmares about her disabled twin sister, who died when they were kids. And Jackie discovers that Grace secretly catfishes people online—a hobby Jackie thinks is unforgivable. When Jackie makes an earth-shattering accusation against her, Grace sees it as an act of revenge, and it sends her spiraling into a sleep-deprived madness. As the walls close in, the ghosts of Grace’s past collide with a new but familiar threat: Mom. (Source)

Review below the cut. Warning, this review will contain spoilers.

REVIEW

I'm going to be honest: there's not a lot in Mothered that I particularly enjoyed. The pacing, story, prose, and characters were not at all what I want from a horror book. There were exactly two characters I liked seeing on the page (which is stretching it, since one of them is a cat) and one horror moment that I found to be memorably creepy. While it was a fast read, if I hadn't gotten this book through Netgalley I almost certainly would have DNF'd it pretty quickly (and that is if I had picked it up at all, since it would have failed the page 99 test).

STRUCTURE AND PROSE

As it opens and ends the story, I may as well discuss the prologue and epilogue. These two follow a therapist named Silas, who claims he is excited to work with an unnamed patient due to the brutality of the murder she committed. It's obfuscated which of the two women, Jackie or Grace, committed homicide. (Keep a pin in this as we'll be returning to it.) As the prologue concludes, we are told that “[Silas’s] job, as it often was, would be to filter the drop of truth from a waterfall of magical thinking” (13). This setup, with Silas being directly indicated to be a character who would engage with the narrative about to be told, indicates that the main bulk of the narrative would be in a narrative frame. Grace would speak to Silas to confess her life story and convince him of her point of view (a la Frankenstein, the reason why I love a good frame narrative). This is not the case. Rather than being nested, the narrative is delivered by a close third person narrator, with Grace’s story bookended by Silas’s. The prologue and epilogue might as well have not been there; they add little to nothing to the narrative. All that was achieved was disappointment. The completely normal third person narration was. A Choice. Look, I’m a fan of close third person. It works fine, but it was a disappointing choice, espcecially after that prologue setup. Grace as a character does have interesting elements to her that I feel would have been far more interesting to me as a reader had we navigated the narrative directly through her eyes. Speaking of characters, wasted potential is the name of the game in Mothered. Characters have features and traits, but aren’t well-rounded. Part of that issue is with the dialogue; it is middling at best, and stilted, awkward, or shallow at worst. Additionally, there's not as much of it as one would think for a story about a toxic mother-daughter relationship stuck in close quarters.

The standout issue with the characters for me is that they are their role in the story before they are a character. Silas is not a character who is a therapist, he is the therapist character (and, upon a re-read of the prologue, is I think supposed to be some sort of reader stand-in? Which I also am not a fan of). Miguel isn’t a character who is the main character’s best friend; he is the best friend character (worse, he falls into the gay best friend trope). Jackie isn’t a character who is Grace’s mother; she is the mother character. Grace, by virtue of being the protagonist, somewhat escapes this issue, but still is not well-rounded or developed by any means. She’s supposed to be an unreliable narrator, something I normally love, but in her found to be unengaging.

Grace as a protagonist could have been interesting; she has a lot of childhood trauma, but does genuinely try to help those around her. She’s kind towards her friend Miguel and drops everything to help him when he gets sick. While has the bizarre hobby of catfishing women (which she calls damsels) online, she describes it as intentionally trying to help build these women’s self esteem and help them improve their lives. The interesting elements of her, however, aren't really fleshed out enough. The damsels plotline especially had a lot of very interesting potential that’s completely unfulfilled. It really only exists so that Grace has something to feel guilty about and hide from her mother. The pacing. God, the pacing. The pacing was strange, due to the fact that a bulk of the narrative is dream sequences. The narrative jumps forward in time rather suddenly in order to dump the reader into a dream without indication. Not only does this make the pacing feel jerky and inconcistant, it also means that the dream segments are also far less effective. While suddenly jumping from reality to a dream can be a valuable strategy because it puts both the reader and the character into a state of uncertain reality, most of the time it did not work in Mothered. The only time I did find it effective and memorable was the first; after that, since I knew what the author was trying to pull, the strategy was ineffective because I knew it was a dream, even if Grace did not.

The pacing during the non-dream segments was jerky as well. It often felt like the narrative was just trying to hurry to the next dream sequence. For example, chapter fourteen ends with Grace texting her best friend Miguel; chapter fifteen jumps to her having been hired by her old boss and visiting the new salon space. From that first paragraph, it's obvious that it's a dream. As a result, the non-horror section of the dream dragged on for far too long (since the conversation the characters was having was not only not real but also completely banal) while the horror section of it was not horrifying (as the physical danger, social rejection, and reality break Grace was experiencing was obviously just a dream). During most dream sections, especially during the second half of the book, I was bored. For a mystery/thriller novel, Mothered is not very mysterious or thrilling. While there is certainly a hidden past tragedy that is eventually revealed, the actual reveal is... kind of boring. The narrative takes, in my opinion, the most uninteresting route. In the prologue, Silas muses that the case is “a good puzzle… one that look[s] on the surface like the gory movies he still so loved” (13). But this isn’t a puzzle. All the answers are spoonfed to the reader, and if the narrative makes an attempt to hide it, it does a terrible job.

One example of a very unmysterious mystery is the intentional obfuscation of who killed who in the prologue. My thought process during the first half of the novel was this:

A) Because the narrative follows Grace in close third person and

B) never follows Jackie,

that would normally indicate to me that

C) Grace, as the POV character, will be the surviving party.

However, because the identity of the patient in the first chapter is intentionally and carefully obfuscated from the reader, then

A + B might not equal C, but instead equal either

D) an upset of expectations (for example, Jackie killing Grace)

E) a third act twist revealing a previously unknown actor or plot element that reveals that the killer, the victim, Grace, and Jackie are in a more complicated configuration than first presented.

As I continued reading, it became clear to me that the narrative was not going to pull anything that interested. Despite this, I held out hope that the final chapters would have some kind of twist. That hope was futile. That setup of not knowing who dies is never cashed out. It just follows the most basic, obvious route: Grace is the protagonist, and because she is a protagonist, she can’t die so she has to be the murderer. Why bother to intentionally hide who kills who and then just not do something interesting? Especially when that problem is directly presented as being a puzzle!

Speaking of basic, the prose in general was boring. It’s all very direct and blunt, which can sometimes be a fantastic way to write a horror/thriller, but it just didn’t work for me here. The prose relies so heavily on telling over showing I felt as though the narrative was spoonfeeding me. Look, I don’t always need purple-literary-Romantic-big-words-long-sentences prose to enjoy a novel, but I do need something to chew on. If I’m not finding that in the structure, characters, horror elements, or central mystery, then by god at least give me some chewy prose.

THE DREAMS

I love dreams in horror. Exploring unreality, watching the line between waking and dreaming blur, having one encroach into the other. I love it all. Therefore, believe me when I say that the premise of incorporating horrible nightmares into a horror story isn't the issue. The issue with Mothered’s dreams was the execution. First off: the horror elements were almost completely restricted to dreams. Although there were one or two moments of horror that I found genuinely intriguing, memorable, or creepy (for example, the "Mona needs a calfskin bag" dream), most of the rest of them were tropey, predictable, or overdone. While I bought that these dreams were upsetting for the character, they were not particularly upsetting to me. At some point it just got old. The use of dream horror is, to me, something that has to be done subtly, carefully, and sparingly, especially when we have a protagonist presented as unreliable. It's none of those things in Mothered. The few horrifying elements outside of dreams are hallucinations. Grace dismisses them as such pretty quickly, and the hallucinations themselves fail to be credible from the get-go because they aren’t believably slotted into Grace’s reality. Horror-wise they aren't even good ones; they're even more tropey than the dreams. Even the horror of Grace and Jackie’s toxic relationship and the childhood trauma was restricted to these dreams as well; while there were some good moments of toxicity, gaslighting, or emotional manipulation in the waking world (such as Jackie letting Coco outside), almost all the detail and nuance we get about their history is dreamed.

Even the dreamed details about their past that do carry over into the real world aren’t fully fleshed. For example, during a dream, we are introduced to the paper dolls that Hope and her sister Grace used to play with. Later, while rummaging through her mother’s things, Grace finds her sister’s doll but not her own. While the doll imagery comes back in later dreams, that doll as a symbol of her mother’s favoritism and her relationship with Grace never beomes a point of conflict between the two. There isn’t ever a conflict about it, even when those dolls get brought up in conversation. I wanted a blow-out fight about those dolls; I wanted those dolls as an element of gaslighting; I wanted those dolls to be something that lead to a direct conflict that further develops Grace and Jackie’s current day relationship. But they don’t, and neither does much else.

The book’s summary claims that moving in together makes “old wounds fester” and “new ones open.” Sure, old wounds get re-opened, but calling what happens “festering” is a bit of a stretch. Grace is reasonably stressed about her mother being a bad roommate at times and Jackie occasionally apologizes for being a bad mother to her (though those conversations are rather surface level and nowhere near as toxic as they could have been). The only “new wounds” that open are are the ones that kill Jackie, with nary a new psychological wound in sight. As a result, the level of intensity between the two never quite reaches the fever pitch needed to make that final snap believable, narratively satisfying, and sharp.

One final complaint about the dreams I couldn’t shoehorn in elsewhere, so I’m shoehorning it in here. Sometimes (typically during dreams where Grace is reliving a childhood memory), Grace calls Jackie “Mommy.” I get why—as a child, she certainly did not call her mother by her first name—but it really did not work for me. Grace was a child forced to grow up too soon; I could buy her calling Jackie mom, maybe, but mommy? I certainly can’t see an overworked, exhausted Jackie referring to herself as “mommy” to her children. It was just weird and off-putting and out of place because it was so infantile, and, to be honest, came off as funny and unserious.

All that said, the dream scenes were far better written than the scenes that took place in reality. If they'd had better connective tissue and were more subtly handled, they could have been very effective. As it is, they're disappointing.

REALITY

From the premise, title, and setup of Mothered, I expected a book about a toxic mother-daughter relationship. I expected the narrative to explore that relationship in-depth and push the tension of it to its very limits. I wanted to watch them try to navigate an enclosed space. I wanted overtures of forgiveness turning nasty. I wanted conversations about Grace's childhood! I wanted them to have small disagreements that balloon out of control! I wanted a slow build of tension and complex hatred! I wanted gaslighting, damn it! There were a few times—for example, the dinner party with Miguel—where there was subtle friction between actions and intention between Grace and her mother. Grace questions who her mother is now and how she relates to the woman who raised her. Jackie is the traditional boomer parent and brings up grandchildren. Miguel and Grace share the occasional bemused glance. It was a good early scene, which I thought would lead into later, complex, more dramatic scenes. For the most part, though, Grace and Jackie’s interactions were not all that complex, did not have subtextual implications, and were so direct and unnuanced it just was never all that interesting. While Grace certainly had reasons to doubt the reality around her, as a reader, I did not have any reason to believe what she was being told by her mother was untrue.

As mentioned earlier, most elements of the novel’s central mystery—what happened to Grace’s twin sister—were introduced in dreams, then (maybe) introdced into the waking world. The only piece evidence that emerged from a direct confrontation between Jackie and Grace was the box. While what it revealed wasn’t particularly funny, I couldn’t take the contents seriously because it just gave me Assassin’s Creed 2 flashbacks.

Anyway. On all accounts, even down to the title, Mothered is supposed to be about a toxic mother-daughter relationship. It's also about:

The pandemic (which didn't really work for me. If it had been a book set during the pandemic, it might have worked. The difference between the two is a bit difficult to explain, but it's something that made a huge difference)

Her career as a hairdresser

Growing up being the primary caretaker to a disabled sibling

A weird disease that causes nightmares and turns you vegan

An ace woman’s relationship with her sexuality and desire to be a mother herself (complete with guilt over telling a teenager to have an abortion so her life wasn’t ruined!)

The close friendship between two queer people

That same woman’s hobby catfishing other women, pretending to be a man so that she can help them improve their self-confidence

The book just tries to juggle too much in the 300-ish pages it has. While a novel of that length certainly can incorporate that many or even more plot points, Mothered just doesn’t pull off weaving them together as cleanly as it could have. As a result, the narrative becomes muddled and shallow, with the titular mother-daughter crowded out by the rest. Before I close out, I just want to complain about the whole mystery illness plot point. It's another unnecessary, underdeveloped plot element that muddies the narrative waters even further. The final hook it provides in the epilogue (the therapist is like "oh no I'm having nightmares... just like Grace did!!!") was so cheesy I actually laughed out loud. It became doubly funny when I realized one of the symptoms of the disease is becoming a vegan. I'm sorry, but I genuinely cannot take the narrative seriously enough to be thrilled or frightened.

FINAL THOUGHTS

In writing this review, I had the opportunity to sit with the novel’s themes and really consider: what are they saying? What do they mean? It’s interesting to me that initially I read this book as (at least attempting to be) feminist. Yet after ruminating on how the book handles themes such as abortion and birth, motherhood, disability, and childhood trauma, it surprised me how shallow and at times contradictory it all ended up being.

While I can see why other folks enjoyed this novel, it's absolutely not to my taste when it comes to horror, thriller, or adult fiction. Further, in my opinion, I think it's ineffective in its exploration of mother-daughter toxcicity and childhood trauma. I requested Mothered because I always heard such great things about Baby Teeth; unfortunately, I think this has indicated she's not an author for me. Thank you again to Thomas & Mercer for providing a digital advance review copy through Netgalley. If you're interested in reading Mothered, it releases March 1, 2023. Find more information about the book here.

#liber monstrorum reviews #mothered #mothered by zoje stage #horror book review #horror book #thriller book #thriller book review #book review #bookblr #netgalley #netgalley review

0 notes

oracleofmadness · 1 year

Text

Thank you, Netgalley and Publisher, for this Arc!

Okay... prepare yourself! This is the post-pandemic book I've been waiting for. Thrilling. Covering many topics that I shared worry over, but making my trip through 2020 look like an all year spa vacation in comparison. But, importantly, highlighting where that year took many Americans and others mentally but with a horror/supernatural twist.

Grace has just bought a house when the pandemic begins. She is frustrated with work and even more so when her mom kind of forces her way into her home. Her mom seems to go between a manic overwhelming kindness, helping vibe, to being more sullen and hateful. Grace experiences some horrifying dreams during this time, all while once again facing her childhood past with her dead twin.

So, yeah, it's a hard read but it also kept my eyes glued to the pages with this need to figure out the puzzle of what is happening. Grace seems to be an unreliable narrator leaving me confused at times but riveted to the story.

Definitely recommend this as a dark thriller/horror!

Out March 1, 2023!

#book #bookish #books #bookworm #book review #currently reading #read #bookblogger #reading #thriller books #thrillers #horror stories #horror novels #pandemic horror #pandemic #mothered #zoje stage #netgalley review #netgalley

2 notes · View notes

ghostbustermelanieking · 7 months

Text

favorite horror writers (in honor of spooky season)

Rachel Harrison (novels featuring strong female friendships/characters, werewolves, witches, demons, and humor)

Zoje Stage (creepy kids, haunted houses, psychological thrillers, mothers and daughters)

Katrina Monroe (ghosts, changelings, family curses, mothers and daughters, lesbian main characters)

Mike Flanagan (go watch his netflix stuff -- nuff said)

T. Kingfisher (cryptids, ghosts, spooky alternate dimensions, folklore-based, north carolina-set)

Jonathan Sims (The Magnus Archives, plus two novels featuring ghosts, monsters, death, friendship, general spooky vibes!!)

Stephen King (a cliche, i know, but i would die for the shining, pet sematary, and misery)

Grady Hendrix (very fun premises -- has written about demonic possession, ghosts, vampires, final girls, and selling souls to the devil)

T. Marie Vandelly (she has one haunted house novel and it is soooo good)

Jennifer McMahon (not all of her novels are horror, but all are fun... featuring ghosts, a haunted swimming pool, fairies, playing on frankenstein, the dead returning, family, and generally spooky vermont vibes!)

horror authors whose bibliography i haven't completed, but i've enjoyed their stuff and readily recommend

Stephen Graham Jones

Simone St. James

Paul Tremblay

Clay McLeod Chapman

Nat Cassidy

Joe Hill

Alma Katsu

#i know mike flanagan isnt an author but i love love love his work #also im probably cheating w stephen king bc i have NOT read all his stuff but lmao #books #horror #please read rachel.harrison i want to talk about her stuff w someone

18 notes · View notes

noneedtoamputate · 4 months

Note

Congrats on 100 followers Jess🖤 For the book recommendations, if you don’t mind, I recently read Motherthing by Ainslie Hogarth and enjoyed the generational horror/hauntings and existential dread aspects of it. I’m not really a fan of fantasy, sci-fi, or YA, but other than that, I’m open to any suggestions! Thank you, and congrats again! - @lostloveletters

Hi Battie! Thanks for the ask. I am adding "Mothering" to my to-read list after reading the description. I have four possible titles for you, going in several different directions based on what you liked about "Mothering." The suggestions might seem all over the place, but I hope at least one catches your eye. Disclaimer: I haven't read any of these books, but I used professional tools to find readalikes for you.

The first suggestion is "Sometimes I Lie" by Alice Feeney. It's about a woman in a coma who can't move but can hear everything going on around her as she tries to piece together what happeend to her. It's a psychological thriller with some toxic family dynamics.

The next one might seem off the wall, but since you're in the HBO War fandom, it might work. "Displacement" is a graphic novel memoir by Lucy Knisley. A 20-something artist, she goes on a cruise with her grandparents. She is unused to being a caretaker to elderly people with major health problems. However, her grandfather, a WWII veteran, shares stories with her. I included the title for the generation gap and family difficulties.

The third title is the similarly-named "Mother" by Zoje Stage. Grace's mother is newly widowed and moves in with her during the pandemic. Grace's twin, Hope, died when they were children, and accusations start to arise. It's an intense thriller with lots of family trauma included.

Finally, I added "Postcards from the Edge" by Carrie Fisher. It's fiction, but based closely on her life with her mother, Debbie Reynolds. A recovering drug addict comes to terms with her actress mother. Lots of mother-daughter conflict in a Hollywood setting.

Let me know if you end up reading any of the titles and what you think. (And it won't hurt my feelings at all if the books weren't for you. It helps to learn why readers like or don't like books.)

I Have 100 Followers! Ask Me for Book Suggestions!

#asked and answered #i have the nicest mutuals

4 notes · View notes

salomeslashes · 8 months

Note

hi! i’m yet another person who saw that you’re a horror fan and librarian, i was wondering (unless you’ve been asked the same already) if you have any recommendations for horror novels with morally grey female protagonists? thank you so much

Oh, for sure! Love those! I was going to leave this for tomorrow since it's so late here (lolsob) but I am chilling with Alice while they Baldur all the Gates so I might as well at least put down the ones that immediately popped into my head!

Lone Women (by Victor LaValle) - A horror western! These are getting very popular at the moment, and this one is marvelous. Fabulous voice and a very rich world. You'll see what I mean about the ah...dubiously well-intentioned protagonist straightaway, but I don't want to give too much detail. I've already told you more than I knew going in, and I adored the surprises this one offered. (Also has a great audiobook, if you're into that sort of thing!)

Mothered (by Zoje Stage) - I mentioned this one in another list already today, but it's really appropriate for this request too! As mentioned over there, DO NOT read the New York Times review of this book prior to reading the book. It will legitimately ruin it. I am not joking.

The Salt Grows Heavy (by Cassandra Khaw) - Some spots call this book fantasy, which it is, but it's definitely also horror. So if the fantastical doesn't turn you off, pick this one up. The protagonist is not human, but she is queer and she is terrifying. This book is gruesome and gorgeous and I cannot recommend it highly enough. Also, it's very short.

I also have two that are thrillers (both a bit older) that might suit:

Confessions (by Kanae Minato) - A chilling and gorgeously written revenge story with a woman at the center who would go to great lengths to see justice for her daughter. I loved this book (but also, yikes).

Heartsick (by Chelsea Cain) - Often described as a gender-bent Hannibal Lecter situation and honestly? Sure. Technically Gretchen Lowell is the antagonist but she's so fun and cool and I love her, so I am putting it here anyway. It's also the first in a series about this horrible lady and her pet detective, so there's that!

#salome speaks #salome answers #salome recommends #books #horror books #horror fiction #librarian powers activate!#cannibaldotcom #this is so fun

5 notes · View notes

annadelveys · 1 year

Text

ok final verdict re baby teeth by zoje stage (mild spoilers I guess):

please hire a better editor next time. there were scenes that had literally nothing to do with the plot OR the characters, featuring motifs that never appeared before or again. for no reason whatsoever. some of them were dumb, some were just uncomfortable. again. for no reason.

i kind of loved how weak alex was. truly a useless weak little man. deliciously portrayed, i mostly just wanted to slap him

i don't think that the chekhov's gun principle is a MUST HAVE for every single story but at some point it becomes ridiculous if you don't fire the gun you've been teasing for the entire book. why did nothing happen with the scissors.

idk man. my definition of disturbing is clearly warped. like there were some really cool scenes but i just have no idea what was the intention of the book.it could have really delved into the mother-daughter shitshow. hanna could've been fucked up in a more profound way. idk. like i kept waiting for something horrible to happen and in the end it was just a "huh so that's it?"kind of ending. that being said, suzette and alex being butt naked & post-coital while answering That phone call and then immediately going back to fucking? i hope someone makes a tv show out of this book just because of this one scene. more disturbing than any of the "violent" stuff that was happening, in the best way possible. generally i think that sex should've been more prominent in this story specifically & especially since it clearly had an impact on Hanna

in general there were many themes and motifs that should have been explored more / had more of an impact. idk. it was a quick and fun read but also a pile of wasted potential

#reading log #now onto lapvona!

2 notes · View notes

tolerateit · 2 years

Text

thank you for tagging me @told-you-im-not-bulletproof @newromanticstv <3

favorite color: pink

currently reading: mothered by zoje stage

last song: you belong with me tv

last series: aaa idkkk

last movie: scream 2022 i think?

sweet/spicy/savoury

currently working on: a report for uni

tagging: @ohh-goddamn @slowmotiondoublevision @lipslikethegardensofbabylon @daenerys-targaryen <3

#meg talks

6 notes · View notes

tttoluca · 2 years

Note

Writing questions

5, 10, 18

HI HI THANK YOU FOR THE ASK!!!!

5. writing superstitions: i personally don't have any? in fact i wasn't all that familiar with specific writing superstitions and had to google them lol. though to be fair i'm not that avid of a writer.

10. has a piece of writing/your own writing ever haunted you?: i'm also not all that avid of a reader either lmao, but when i do it's usually on the more sort of adverse psychological side. the last book i read might have been "baby teeth" by zoje stage which... bits of that book were pretty disturbing, as it's about a mother trying to understand her violent, manipulative 7-year-old daughter (i 1000000% recommend, the married couple in this book is precious and adorable and i love them).

oh but i also love middle grade books on occasion! and one that i adore is the "shadow weaver" duology by marcykate connolly, and here's a passage that gave me chills:

I stiffen, hoping the shadows and Dar combined will be enough to keep me concealed. It almost seemed like she could see through them earlier, but no one ever has before. She meanders aimlessly around the room, even after the younger man—Alden—tries to greet her. “Simone,” Tate says sharply. Her head snaps up, and her blank stare rests on him. “What did you find out?” A slow grin creeps over her face. “They’re here,” she says. My body freezes. She can’t mean me. She hasn’t even looked in my direction since she entered the room. Don’t worry; she’s crazy, Dar says. I relax slightly, but my stomach is still a mess of knots. The man frowns. “Where?” Simone sticks out her hand and points directly at me. Tate and his friend follow with their eyes. I can’t move. I can’t even blink. My insides clench. The little girl fixes her unsettling gaze on my corner, looking me straight in the eye like my shadows make no difference. “I know you,” she says.

in terms of my own writing - i also like to go dark, so i guess the most "haunting" thing i've written is. uhhh. you're the real gift, kid. some parts in that make me feel gross and grimy despite me being the one who wrote it. specifically like. the paragraphs that compare mirabel's spirit to sand.

i guess i'm not here, this isn't happening could be considered haunting but as opposed to just getting sad and angsty in a doc, it feels more gritty to get into the headspace of this evil, sick, disgusting person and try to make it super poetic.

18. a passage from your writing: i'm half-tempted to share a passage from something not encanto-related........ yeah fuck it. my favorite bit from a vent-y nitw one-shot about dissociation.

Fear and anger shot not only through her veins and her chest. They seeped down into her arms and her legs - they carried her over to snide Andy Cullen, they raised the bat, and they swung it hard, sending Andy down to the grass with a shout. Whack! He screeched, "What the fuck?!" while attempting to crawl backward away from her. Her legs followed him, her arms raising the bat a second time. Whack! He lie on his side and curled into a ball, arms covering his head, while onlookers gasped and screamed. Whack! She could promise a million times over that she wasn't in control of her own body. Now that she'd started, she couldn't stop. Whack! This had nothing to do with him, or with that stupid strike-out. She didn't know a thing about Andy Cullen and she cared very little about softball. Whack! She wasn't trying to shatter his skull. Whack! She was trying to shatter the screens. Whack!

because i got all ramble-y with the whole. softball thing. and then i accidentally stumbled upon the shattering his skull vs shattering "the screens" (a comparison i use throughout to describe derealization, like you're stuck in a box made of screens and are just watching the world. living between these screens) metaphor. and i just liked it a lot. so throughout my edits, i was very sure to keep that little idea.

as for encanto - julieta's rant from the scissors one-shot is probably one of my favorite things i have ever written that compiled a bunch of little ideas, like julieta unknowlingly trying to hand mirabel off to her abuser. and i just love letting her get stressed and vent-y.

“All I asked was for them to make sure they put the scissors back before they left the table. That’s all I asked. They… they know better. They know what she’ll do. They know she’s not… not… she’s not well right now. And they… And I know it’s not their responsibility to… to handle that but- all I asked was for them to put the scissors away. Is that… really so much to- [...] Why is she doing this to me? I can’t keep- I- I can’t keep doing this with her. What did I do? What am I doing wrong? Why is she doing this to herself? That’s- that’s all I need to know, is why. I would do anything to make it stop. I would do everything in my power and more to stop her from- from feeling whatever she’s feeling that makes her do the things she does. But I can’t- how am I supposed to help her if she won’t even tell me why she’s doing all of this? Is it me? Am I doing this to her?"

i had little bits and pieces of that rant in my head since like. the beginning of ttm. and so it was nice to finally compile it together into a coherent work.

fin.

again, thank you so much for your ask, and thank you so much for reading if you got this far!!!

4 notes · View notes

stoneantler · 4 months

Note

3+20 for the book ask!

3. What were your top five books of the year?

In no particular order:

Shubeik Lubeik by Denna Mohamed. This is a graphic novel which imagines a world where wishes are resources that can be bought, sold, regulated and exploited. It's set in Egypt and the worldbuilding is brilliant in the way it takes into account the colonialism, imperialism, and the circumstances of contemporary Egyptian life for people across classes. The characters are written and drawn with so much love that they really shine through the story.

Everything Is Illuminated by Jonathan Safran Foer. A young novelist goes to Ukraine to try and discover more about his family's history during the Holocaust. The novel is told in two parts, letters from the Ukrainian guide and sections of the novel the main character is writing. I just loved this novel. The sections set in the present are funny, ridiculous, and heartbreaking. The sections set in the past are so lovely and bursting with metaphor and poetic language. The plot is in some ways expected, and well foreshadowed, but even so the end comes like a kick in the gut. It's one of these novels that is so bright and lush that it can only be written by a young inexperienced writer, but in this case that enthusiasm only adds to the experience.

Baby Teeth by Zoje Stage. I feel like there's a glut of novels right now about mothers and their young children, especially about miserable mothers and their difficult young children, but this one captivated me. It's unsettling; it kept me off kilter all the way through. The plot almost functions as a mystery plot, in that we are uncovering the mother daughter relationship throughout, trying to come to grips with what's happening between them and why. I found it riveting and consumed it in two days. It's in the same vein of Sharp Object by Gillian Flynn, which I also read this year, but the plot is smaller and tigher. You spend most of the novel locked in a room with mother and daughter and it's riveting.

Lapvona by Ottessa Moshfegh. I know Moshfegh has kind of cult following around her novel My Year of Rest and Relaxation but this one worked better for me. The novel presents you with gross grimy settings housing grimy and corrupt people. The plot just wallows in filth. Is it a edgy novel? Yes. But sometimes I just want to read something that's so repulsive and unpleasant and Lapvona delivered in spades.

Obit by Victoria Chang. The conceit of this collection of poetry is that (nearly) every poem is an obituary. In this way, the collection is a ode to slow grief and exploration of what it's like to lose people many times over. The poems are always fresh and vital and the conceit never becomes gimmicky. The whole collection is deeply moving and I'm planning to reread it in the new year.

20. What was your most anticipated release? Did it meet your expectations?

So, I really don't follow book releases. I just go to the library and see what's on the shelf. However, I do keep up with the bigger names in poetry and I have to say, there were quite a few popular poets who released novels recently that I just didn't like! These include: Your Emergency Contact has Experienced an Emergency by Chen Chen and So to Speak by Terrance Hayes.

#ask tag #lit tag #thank you! this was fun to do!

1 note · View note

beingfictional · 5 months

Text

Mothered

Title: Mothered Author: Zoje Stage Genre: thriller Thank you, NetGalley, for this book. I read Baby Teeth when it came out and was blown away. It was in my top 10 reads of the year. When Wonderland came out, I was excited to revisit Stage’s writing but found that one a bit flat. Now that Mothered is here, I’m sad to say this one also didn’t work for me at all. The story follows Grace, who is…

View On WordPress

0 notes

prettyboykatsuki · 8 months

Note

for some horror recs tho (im sure youve read it already but) gone girl!!

i read a book recently called Baby Teeth by zoje stage, its told in alternating pov's between a mother and a daughter, its a touch more thriller id say? with the suspense of whats happening next keeping me reading it

i havent read a lot of body horror/gruesome stories but GOD i have so many on my list

GONE GIRL BELOVED.. though i think its a thriller ?? idk but i do love that book so dearly.

baby teeth.... mother daughter ? i am very intrigued i will be checking it out of course. it appeals to me

i havent read many gruesome novels and wont either bc im a big old wuss but i do have a lot im interested in at least

#return to sender

1 note · View note

mysteryloversbookshelf · 8 months

Text

Mothered by Zoje Stage

A hair stylist named Grace has just purchased her first home but due to the pandemic has been struggling a bit financially. When her recently widowed mother Jackie calls out of the blue asking to move in and help with the bills, Grace reluctantly agrees. The problem is that Grace and Jackie do not get along due to Jackie being forced to be the sole breadwinner for Grace and her disabled twin sister Hope. The longer Jackie stays, the more Grace’s mind unravels leading to a horrifying ending. I give this book a 3/10 because it dragged in a lot of parts and the mystery around Hope’s death was really confusing to me. I also feel like Grace didn’t need to be asexual because she’s a terrible representation for aces. Below the cut are my takeaways from the book.

It’s giving:

Dark Places by Gillian Flynn

The Wives by Tarryn Fischer

Plot Twist?

Yes and no; We already know at the beginning of the book what is about to go down. One of the big mysteries of the book is kind of predictable but still left open to your interpretation.

Relationships:

Asexual main character

Mother and Daughter at Odds

Trigger Warning:

Blood/Gore

Death of a small animal

Implied Child Neglect

Tropes:

Childhood Trauma

Gradual Descent into Madness

Unreliable Narrator

#mystery books #mystery/thriller books #thriller books #zoje stage #asexual

0 notes

ghostbustermelanieking · 1 year

Note

In reference to the book post- have you read any adult horrors you've enjoyed recently? I haven't been having great luck finding some standout ones.

Also not really a domestic thriller but if you're interested in recs, What Lies in the Woods by Kate Alice Marshall was a pretty interesting thriller/mystery that I'd say fits into the gaslighting genre

in regards to your second point: i just looked it up and that sounds really interesting! exactly my type. i'm gonna put it on my list. thank you!! 😊

to address the recs:

initially i'm gonna link you to this ghost story rec post. if you like ghost stories at all, check all of those out!!

and the rest of this list is just gonna be NON ghost stories! and i will say, i get what you mean about having trouble finding standouts. i'm extremely picky about horror novels. but i'm working hard to find some favorites!

(secondly, i'm gonna take a second to single out rachel harrison, because she deserves a separate mention simply bc her stuff mostly isn't ghost stories: the most notable are cackle, a witchy novel, and such sharp teeth, a werewolf story. all other details can be found in linked post. the rest of the recs will be in more detail!)

the hunger, by alma katsu. i mentioned it briefly on the last post, but i'm gonna talk about it more here. it's a historical fiction horror take on the donner party, and it's very spooky and interesting. as things continue to go wrong for the people of the donner party, and as they continue to encounter strange things on the trail, it starts to become clear that something is following them... something monstrous. a+, would recommend.

bird box by josh malerman is one i remember enjoying. (book is better than movie!) in an apocalyptic world where walking outside with your eyes open can kill you, mallorie must take her two small children on a dangerous journey. the book operates on two timelines, this one, and the beginning of the apocalypse and how malorie got here.

if you're interested in stephen king... i highly recommend misery as a personal favorite. also remember enjoying carrie and cujo. IT is a good horror novel, although i plan never to read it again and personally prefer the movies -- give it a try if you don't mind the length.

i don't personally consider this to be horror, but a lot of others do, and it definitely can be spooky and tense --- a personal favorite... baby teeth, by zoje stage. dual perspectives of mother suzette and daughter hanna... locked in a mutual battle of resentments (and a battle for the affections of the father), suzette struggles to understand her oft-defiant daughter who does not speak -- while hanna deals with her resentments by plotting violent revenge.

if you like evil parasites then you can't go wrong with nick cutter's the troop -- an intriguing yet disgusting story

you can't go wrong with some good old edgar allen poe. my personal favorites: the raven, telltale heart, the masque of the red death, the black cat, the cask of amontillado

i guess this one would depend if you consider being in the head of serial killers to fall under the horror genre.... but my lovely wife by samantha downing is a favorite of mine. narrated by a man who is literally nameless, it tells the story of his wife and him trying to add spice to their marriage... by killing people. (samantha downing has two other lovely murdery books if that's your thing as well!)

night of the mannequins is a novella by stephen graham jones that i love. it tells the story of a teenage who is convinced he saw a mannequin walk off during a prank he was playing with friends. when one of these friends dies violently, he assumes the mannequin must be picking them off one by one... right?

survive the night is a slashery thrilley story of charlie, a college student riding home with a stranger in the aftermath of the death of her roommate... the latest victim of a local serial killer.

i admittedly don't remember this one well but i remember enjoying it. meddling kids is sort of a scooby doo send up/tribute and also a tribute to something else... it tells the story of the grown up former members of a teen detective club returning to revisit their old mystery and finding a little more than a man in a mask...

whisper down the lane deals with the satanic panic of the 80s. a man who has distanced himself from his past is forced to reconcile with it when strange things start happening around him. he must revisit his childhood, where some small lies exploded and caught onto the satanic panic.

we sold our souls is the story of kris, the former member of a popular band, who is infuriated to learn that her ex-bandmate catapulted himself to stardom by selling her soul (and the other bandmates') to the devil

i'm sorry this list is kinda short lol, i covered a lot of my favorites in the ghost list, and i need to read more horror. (i saw a bunch of stuff i'd like to try actually!)

#books #grace talks about books #horror

5 notes · View notes